Ford Escort ZX2 5-speed clutch/transmission noise?

[Nick Bruns]

Hey all.

I have a 1999 Escort ZX2, 5-speed. 131,000 miles. So far it’s been running really great, been well taken care of, regular oil changes, but that’s about it. It did have a CEL come on and off and the codes showed misfire on cylinder 2, 3. Replaced plugs and plug wires. CEL came back on, but went off again so I’m not too concerned about it as it runs fine. The only other issues were an idler pulley bearing went bad (fixed by Ford for $400 🙁 ), and I did put in an alternator a couple years ago and a pass. front wheel bearing a month ago as well.

The real issue I’m having now is that for probably the last few thousand miles, the transmission/clutch has been making some funny noises. It sounds a lot like a supercharger, like one of those big 8-71 blowers sitting on a big V8. That’s about as close as I can describe the noise. May even be almost like a zipper being moved up and down really fast but higher pitched.

It’s not intermittent. You can hear it parked in neutral at idle, during acceleration, and when shifting. However, it does sort of go away when the clutch is in when changing gears. Anyway, it just doesn’t sound right. I don’t know if it’s the clutch (factory clutch, never been changed), throw out bearing, or something in the transmission. I had my dad look at it (mechanic 31 years) and he can’t put his finger on it.

Any ideas? I don’t really want to replace anything at this point. Like I said, it runs fine, but could probably use a clutch pretty soon as I can feel some very slight slipping under hard acceleration from 2-3 gear.

Thanks!

Topic

[college man]

either throw out bearing or input shaft. You won’t
know until you remove the trans to replace the clutch.
If its slipping then your not far off from clutch replacement.

[Nick Bruns]

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking it might be the throwout bearing. That’s what I’m hoping as I won’t put a transmission in it unless I can get one for super cheap, so I hope it’s not the output shaft. I know the clutch is due, but since it’s running fine I won’t mess with it yet. I don’t want to pay a shop $500 to do the job. From experience, the transmission gets removed to replace the clutch. Not a fun or easy job. I had seen Eric’s vids on the clutch and the clutch replacement for the Focus (Escort’s successor). The clutch isn’t slipping nearly as bad as the Focus’s was.

Thanks again!

[Author]

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