2SS/M6 Drivers Questions

[RDesign]

Originally Posted by Blacamaro

My tranny clunks and rattles all the time.

It's a big brute of a transmission made to handle much more horse power and torque than your Camaro is going to give it. Torque and abuse handling capacity were at the top of the list and quietness smoothness were at the bottom of the list when your transmission was designed. Same goes for the rear end assembly, and all the mounts and rubbers that effect drive-line noises and smoothness or effect the transmitting of these noises or vibrations into the car. All built for strength and reliability first and if it rattles a bit, too bad.

So,,,,

When you are going slow and punch the cluch in suddenly the tranny shutters from the shock and it rattles.

When you miss sync your shift, especially at low speeds the engine and tranny will jerk from coast to cruise a few times and you'll hear a rattle because of driveline slack.

Most of the rattle is coming from the input shaft and input bearing assembly which is huge and strong, not small and precise like in most cars. It gets whipplashed and backlashed around and you can hear it. Slack backlashes occurring elsewhere, like in your rear end will send a shock all the way through the drive train and rattle the input shaft and other parts of the transmission. And don't forget the clutch is like a spinning top on your input shaft. When you are under load at low speeds and you suddenly punch in the clutch the elasticity of the drive train sends a huge backlash all the way up to the input shaft into the clutch with it's momentum slamming back into the input shaft.

The input shaft in mounted on the front of the transmission via a very large round steel bearing assembly. There is nothing else on the front face of the transmission. The transmission is made of of cast aluminum. It is hollow. It acts like a speaker amplifying all the noises and vibrations either coming from or getting sent to the input shaft from other places. You can even take a loose transmission on the floor, put a clutch on the input shaft for momentum, then use a big screw driver on a drive shaft yoke on the output shaft to back lash the transmission and you'll hear that same noise your Camaro makes emanating from the input shaft, front face of the transmission area.

When you are sitting at the lights if you are in neutral with the clutch out you will hear a continuous rolling rattle coming from the input shaft bearings, especially if you open your door a tad to hear the undercarriage noises.

The only noise your throw out bearing will make if it is getting bad is when you push in the clutch you'll hear a steady noisy bearing roll which very noticeable as opposed to you really have to listen close to hear a normal throw out bearing. It won't make any other noises as you engage or disengage, only the same bearing noise anytime you put enough pressure on the clutch to push the throw out bearing into the pressure plate. The noise will change with RPM of course.

If you have sort of a very fast tick sort of noise seeming to come from the throw out this is from your pressure plate fingers not being totally even or level with each other, causing it to "tick" against the throw out bearing. This is common. It can come and go. It usually is nothing to worry about unless it gets increasingly worse.

The noisy bearing noise a bad throwout makes does not go away and it gets steadly worse and will have to be dealt with. The presure plate tick phenomenon should almost never mandate service, unless it's bad enough to cause a premature throwout failure. Otherwise you can keep on driving. And bear in mind, this is the sort of noise you have to listen for. Any loud ticking or other noises coming from the clutch/throw out/transmission area should be investigated.

Almost all problems with the clutch disc will be heard or felt upon engagement or maybe during disengagement. And these kinds of problems are usualy real obvious. Like there's no question you have a clutch problem, drastic not subtle, and in some cases the car is not drivable or at least unpleasant to drive.

If you listen close enough you'll hear all three of these noises in any manual transmission performance car. It's when a normal, barely noticeable noise suddenly comes to the forefront that you should worry.

If you are concerned about these noises in your new Camaro you should go for a ride in someone Else's Camaro and get them to do what ever you do that makes the noises in your car and see if they're car makes the same noises.

And a new car on the dealer's lot won't do. It has to be a broken in car with a couple thousand miles on it or the bearings are still factory tight and all the mounts are new and tight also.

AND if you think your Camaro has a clunky drive train go take a Cobra Mustang with a T45 or T56 for a ride. In my Cobra if I'm at the lights down town in neutral with the windows down I can hear the input shaft rattle coming back at me from the buildings!

Hi !
I get the chance to own a 2SS Camaro 45th Anniv. with manual gearbox. I get it since 3 weeks and I'm very happy to get this so much beautiful car equiped by my favorite engine, a V8. I'm living in France (as Lebabduv, another member who wrote some messages on this forum) in Paris, so, by advance, sorry for my English language level.
In France, nobody gets a lot of experience with americans cars and mainly, on V8 cars; even French Chevrolet dealers. This is why I have searched in your big forum some explanation or comments about a noise I hear in my Camaro. This noise is coming when I drive the car since 20/25 minutes (engine and transmission gets good temperature), in case of 1st and 2nd gear, when I accelerate from low rpm, a noise comes apparently from the rear of the car. I don't get this noise on "neutral". So, I have spent a lot of time to find a thread speaking about this "issue" (if it's an issue), and the best and closest description I founded is this thread. I have understood that's this noise is not a real "problem", many of car get it and don't have any trouble later. But to be sure that the noise explained in this thread is the same as the noise I noticed in my Camaro, With my cellular phone, I made a record you can find in attached file (sorry about low quality of sound). The noise is easier to hear between seconds 6 to 8 and, 12 to 14. Could you tell me if it's the same noise ?

Thank you by advance.

Best regards,

[90503]

Just my $.02: I believe if gm gets a ton of complaints about the manual, we will soon see the end of it. I have driven manuals all my life, and if you want the feel of actually shifting and operating the vehicle yourself, a slight amount of noise is a small price to pay. My guess is the majority who complain, do not have much experience with manuals. The less smoothly you operate it, the noisier it will be.
When I drive it, its pretty smooth and noise free...when my kid drives it, thats all it does is clunK, bang, rattle, stall, etc.

"A man has got to know his limitations"...if you are unhappy about the manual, next time get an automatic!..

[RDesign]

Originally Posted by 90503

Just my $.02: I believe if gm gets a ton of complaints about the manual, we will soon see the end of it. I have driven manuals all my life, and if you want the feel of actually shifting and operating the vehicle yourself, a slight amount of noise is a small price to pay. My guess is the majority who complain, do not have much experience with manuals. The less smoothly you operate it, the noisier it will be.
When I drive it, its pretty smooth and noise free...when my kid drives it, thats all it does is clunK, bang, rattle, stall, etc.

"A man has got to know his limitations"...if you are unhappy about the manual, next time get an automatic!..

No, I'm happy with manual gearbox, I'm used to get this type of gearbox (5 cars with before the Camaro), in France 95% of cars are sold with manual gearbox. Only I was asking confirmation about the noise, if the noise is normal, it's ok to me. I tried automatic gearbox on Camaro, I didnt' like it.

[SSGUNNER]

Sucks op.

Ive seen others post the LS3's have problems here in there. Is that the case.

[Camaro2SSLS3]

no noise on mine, has 2,400 on it born 4/29/10

[midnighter]

No rattle noise here.

[LS3CAM]

Have noticed a slight rattling from the trans, but no brake squeal. Sounds like its just normal gear noise (backlash). You might try a different brand of lube, like Mobil 1 synthetic ATF. My brother uses this in his ZO6 Corvette. Camaro has over 14,000 miles on it with no problems. Bought new 07-11-2010. Manual transmissions can be quite noisy. Thats why the Muncie M22 got its nickname. (The Rock Crusher!)

[hightower]

Originally Posted by doublefatty

Awesome information!!! Another reason why members on this forum are second to none. The information you provided should ease the minds of 85% of us. Of course the other 15% will dispute you to the end...

Thanks for the detailed information,

Mike

Totally agreed!! Thanks Blacamaro! That post was excellent!

I have the same noise as well when putting the clutch in and as mentioned downshifting and not rev matching will result in jerky movement when it gets back into the selected gear.
I was a little worried at first and then told myself it was fine, and that post reassured me.

[LT4Lover]

I noticed the same 'clutch chatter'(also created a thread on this about 5 months ago). My service manager (ex-racer) came out with me for a test ride to listen. We determined it only occurs when the driveshaft is under load/torque up (more torque than speed) at low speeds. Seems like a natural function of trying to keep all that power in check.
As for the brake noise - GM added some counter-balance weights after the 2010 model year to correct that. You may be able to retro-fit yours to solve the problem.