I have taken my car into the dealership and they have looked into this problem twice now. Its completely random but during acceleration usually up around 3000-4000 rpm my car under load will chatter.

They have pulled the transmission, changed fluids, checks the flywheel and clutch and all seem to be in great condition. Usually after they look at it and change the fluids, the chatter goes away for a while. I kept thinking something might be in the fluid causing the chatter, but they filter the fluid and found nothing...

Anyone experience this, or anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

Does it do it when the clutch is fully engaged or while slipping the clutch?

Do you lose a lot of power while it's chattering, as if to signify clutch slippage? Do any of your dashboard lights flicker on when this is happening, such as the VDC light?

 

There's no slippage in the clutch. the chatter frequency increases as the rpm's climb. When they dismantled the transmission it showed no signs of slippage.

No power loss, the car runs normal, just sounds bad and the sound isn't consistent. No lights come on.

 

Do you have any idea of the exact location of where the sound might be coming from? I'm trying to get a feel for how sure you are that it's coming from the tranny/clutch area.

You might want to check your driveshaft to make sure there's nothing tangled up in it which could be spinning against the body of the car whenever it happens to slip into a certain location under there.

I actually have one of these that I bought for isolating the source of the noise in situations exactly like this:


I have never had a need to use this on any of my own vehicles (knock on wood), but I've used it about 5 times on my buddies Jeep Wranler POS, and it really helps you find the source of weird noises that are only reproducible while actually driving.

 

faced the same problem, chattering during acceleration.. turned out my cats were knocking against the heat shield.

 

Drive shaft is clear. I mentioned before that the frequency of chatter increases with rpms... this morning I noticed that when i shifted while accelerating when i pressed the clutch in and the rpms rose slightly, the chattered continued with it. So now I'm thinking maybe in the motor. But when I put the car in neutral and rev it, the chatter doesn't appear. This is driving me crazy. Tomorrow I am going to take it to the dealer I guess and leave it there until they figure it out.

 

Have you switched your catalytic converters or are they stock?

 

Ahhh...makes sense. I have this problem on my 5AT. It chatters while accelerating and is more noticeable in second. I'll have to check this out. Good lookin' out!

 

update?

 

I think I have the same issue. It's def not the clutch chatter noise, and ONLY happens when the engine is under a load. It kind of sounds like a loose washer under a bolt head jiggling. But then why wouldn't the noise happen when just reving the motor?

Keep us updated on what the dealer finds...

 

The motor/tranny will move/jerk a lot more on the mounts when it's under load and you gas it in comparison to when you just rev it in neutral. Maybe that extra movement is what's causing the parts to rub.

Have you checked out your mounts and any bushings to make sure they aren't too worn out and allowing your motor/tranny too much ability to shift around in the chassis when under heavy load?

 

Check your heat shields.

 

Does it sound like this?
AUDIO LINK
I had a zoomH2N mic taped under the drivers side control arm brace. Pointed towards the exhaust.
It sounds like rattling where the exhaust or the transmisson is.
I have to press the gas pedal at the right angle to hear it for a lenght of time.
I beleive it only makes the sound when the car is warmed up.
Any ideas?
I hope its just crakling of an exhaust?

 

Mine does the same thing..its more noticeable when the car has been sitting long enough to cool down. Once it heats up( after about 2 miles) it tends to go away.... I thought it might be clutch related but I also just installed a hks rep. Exhaust and it didn't do this prior to install. Or atleast I didn't notice it before.

 

I'm hearing the same thing, it only happens in the upper RPM's and on 3/4-full throttle. Hopefully it's something as simple as a heat shield