Hi - my 05 pontiac vibe gt makes a moderate to mild clack clack noise when idling with the clutch out. It goes away completely when I put the clutch in and sometimes doesn’t come back if I pull the clutch back out. It has 34k miles (I bought it at 30k from carmax). I haven’t checked the gearbox fluid yet. No abuse was evident - original tires (cracked from texas heat - I changed immediately) but with even wear only a grandma could have accomplished. The rest of the car is very tight and completely cherry. Any thoughts?
When you say clutch out, do you mean when you have your foot down on the clutch?
No, I mean foot off the clutch, in neutral.
If there is not enough freeplay between the throw out bearing and the clutch pressure plate, this could be causing your noise, though you usually hear a rattle or a rubbing noise with this rather than a “clack”.
With the transmission in neutral and the clutch out (foot off of it) the transmission mainshaft is always turning so this could indicate internal trans problems.
It’s so hard to diagnose noise problems long distance, it might be a good idea to have a GM tech listen to it. I would think they would “listen to it for free” in the hopes that you would have them repair it if they can tell you what it is.
Thanks, I’ll bring it to a tech. Since my original post the noise has improved a bit. I think the carfax had indicated that the year before I bought it, it must have been parked for the better part of a year.