The transmission in my car has always been loud and I suspected the input shaft bearings. No noise when on the clutch and louder when I release. After 40,000 miles of ownership the bearings are failing and the grinding sound has gotten quite loud. The car is currently parked but I have been working to get everything together for to fix the problem. Some research showed me quickly that I didn't have the time or desire to rebuild the transmission. I'm lucky since I have access to a fully stocked "hobby shop" with lifts and presses but its more of a time/effort issue to me which I don't want to do. I looked around, first for a rebuilt transmission. $2600 at Autozone so that's a hard no. Rebuild kit was $330 so also discouraging.
Enter Craigslist. Searching for Civic transmission turned up 3 compatible results. I got one response from a guy with a trans out of a 96 EX coupe with allegedly 58,000 miles on it. Was able to pick it up for $220 within 24 hours of knowing that my input bearing was shot.
Unfortunately this has the highest final drive of any of the Civic models at 4.250 vs my 4.058 but with the condition that it is in and the price I couldn't say no. I needed a transmission now and couldn't wait much more than a week. Also, used transmissions with roughly 150-250k miles were going for north of $350 on used parts sites so I definitely had a deal. The transmission is extremely clean on the outside however it doesn't look like it has been cleaned, just like a very low mileage example.
I also ordered a new clutch and flywheel from rockauto. I figured I would have the transmission out of the car and my flywheel was already bent pretty severely that it would be a good time to replace it. The flywheel was bent so bad that the car would shake violently at launch until it got warm if I wasn't careful. Those parts should be in tomorrow so Thursday will likely be the day for the whole swap. Hopefully I can do it in 8 hours or less.
Looking forward to a quieter, smoother car.
