Clutch Noise & Manual Gearbox Oil Change

Hey guys,
I’m new to this forum so please be nice and If this is in the wrong place please feel free to move.

So, I have used the forum search engine, multiple google search’s as well as picked a few mates brains, I’ve come up with abit but nothing specific to my situation. Apologies for the long post but any help is appreciated.

So I bought a 2003 CE lancer about 3 months ago for 2k. It’s a 1.8l 4g93 5sp manual and it had 157,000kms on the clock and does wear a few body dings and imperfections but mechanically, it was straight as a die, smooth drivetrain and looked neat and tidy with no leaks.

So fast forward 3 months to today and it’s just ticked over 170,000kms and obviously I do a fair amount of driving. But, when the engine is idling I’ve noticed a rattle/chatter coming from the gearbox/area, furthermore this rattle dissappears when I put my foot on the clutch and disengage it, but immediately returns upon removing my foot from the pedal and re-engaging the clutch. It has been apparent since I owned it, however seems to be slightly louder. It is also noticeable in some gears while driving at different speeds only it just sounds like the same rattle is occurring at a higher rpm... which it obviously would be whilst driving.

The clutch pedal also feels very slightly inconsistent between drives in terms of pressure required too push the pedal in. The clutch is also grabbing very far back almost right back at its resting spot. It feels like 3/4 of the clutch are useless. It also has developed what I can only describe as a vague oscillation when driving, particularly at 70+ kph the oscillation also remained present after a new set of tyres and an alignment and balance.

Last but not least, how do you check the transmission fluid in these gearboxes (5sp manual) I understand there a *mum* to fill and have a dump on the bottom and a refill/breather on the side but any specific capacity numbers aswell as any tips on how to check the level without just dropping and refilling?

At 170,000ks if the clutch is going, it wouldn’t surprise me but if there’s something I missed I want to try everything before having to remove the tranny and replace the clutch.

Thank you heaps

Hayden

You'd be correct in that its not really mentioned anywhere, but these are somewhat common problems.

That rattly chatting noise you hear is the throwout bearing. When it starts to dry out, it will start rattling. Not a big issue, it'll just get noisier and noiser. Bearing itself is about $15-20, but the gearbox needs to come off to change it.

Clutch movement is meant to be nearish to the top, but its bite point shouldnt move. A worn throwout bearing can change this, but so can any other part of a worn system (clutch, flywheel, etc). You can try to bleed the clutch system, which may help, but it might not even be enough to act like a bandaid fix.

The easiest way to check the fluid is to undo the fill bolt on the box with the car horizontal to the road. The fluid inside should just barely dribble out. If you change fluid, make sure you can undo the fill bolt, as its kinda bad to drain a box of oil and not refill it lol.

Check the gearbox oil level first. If the noise disappears with your foot on the clutch the gearbox bearings are likely to be worn. (Gearbox internals stop spinning when the clutch is depressed). The inconsistent clutch pedal can be caused by a few things, a throw out bearing worn out (generally noisy when you put your foot on the clutch), a clutch hydraulic fault in the master or slave cylinders or a clutch fork thats cracking. But first check the level and the quality of the gear oil and replace if it looks dodgy.

Thanks so bloody much fellas, just a development upon further inspection, there is a semi serious leak right between the clutch/bell housing and the tranny?
I hope like *fudge* I haven’t just smashed out 10,000+ Kilometres (Roughly when all the above problems started) with merely a dribble of tranny oil!
I’m going to investigate this leak further and also check the tranny oil levels.
Will let yous know how I get on!
Once again, thanks for taking the time out of your day to help gentlemen!

G’day gents,
Please bare with me, I have decent mechanical aptitude but I apologise in advance if my questions are stupid ones... although they do say “the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask”.

So I have a few questions after I spent my arvo looking into the cause of my problems. I also took a few photos for you to reference.

1. I’m assuming the tranny drop plug is the big massive bolt in Pic A directly under the tranny and the bolt marked “Oil” in Pic B is the one to test the level and refill?
Pic A: bolt?
Pic B:

2. Can someone step by step talk me through the process of how to check the transmission fluid level using this “Oil” bolt?

3. As for this leak, I have an obvious rocker box gasket leak developing (Pic C)
Pic C

4. Last but not least could a simple rocker box gasket leak be the single cause of what seems like a rather large leak from somewhere although all fluids checked excluding the tranny and all were perfect so there doesn’t even seem to be much oil loss...
I have taken some photos of the leak location... and placed the pics below, any hints to the culprit would be awesome!!

Sump connecting to Bottom End

Tranny to Bell housing or Engine to Bell housing Sorry can’t remember lol

Bell Housing meets engine

Up under the bar that runs underneath the tranny and is held in place by 4 bolts

My apologies for the somewhat vague descriptions but it’s the best I can come up with.
Once again. Thank you gents!

From the photos it looks like a pretty small leak from the rocker cover. The fill plug for the gearbox is the 17 mm headed plug with oil stamped on it and the drain plug is the 24 mm plug in the centre of your photo. As the wonky donki suggested undo the fill plug before draining the oil so that you know you will be able to put oil back in.