717.400 Getrag 5-speed idle noise...

[Paul Robinson]

I've lived with it for a few years now...you know, that loud noisy rattle at engine idle that goes away when the clutch pedal is depressed? Attributable to a bad input shaft bearing, or perhaps a inadequate shimming of the reverse idler shaft, it's definitely noticeable (especially compared to my other 300D euro with the same tranny that's quiet as a mouse).


Well I might have found an easy fix for this noise. I had the transmission out on the driveway pavement in the course of changing out a bad throw-out bearing. With the tranny out, I figured that it would be a good time to drain and refill the transmission fluid. As you know the fill hole is on the side of the transmission, so its kind of hard to overfill the transmission case since surplus fluid would run out the fill hole. Well I got the bright idea to overfill the case slightly by rolling the tranny on its side so that the fill hole was at the 10 o'clock position instead of at 9 o'clock. The goal was to get lubrication to the area of the tranny that was making the noise, even if it meant overfilling slightly. I'm thinking the fluid level is about a quarter of an inch above normal. This tranny has 474,910 kilometers on it, so what the heck? (When the tranny/engine on this beast finally dies this car will revert to parts-car status for the other one).
Long story short, that loud aggravating noise at idle emanating from this 5-speeed Getrag is gone.
I don't know if the slight overfill did the trick, or it was the fluid type (cheap Walmart "high mileage" ATF).
So far so good.
I will update if the noise comes back...