# Growling Noise When Coasting In Gear With Clutch Depressed



## Hazman (Jun 28, 2005)

Just went through this and thought others may appreciate the knowlege gained.

I have a 200 Xterra V6 4x4, with a manual 5 speed trans. A couple weeks ago, it started making this strange growling noise when I was coasting up to a light and had downshifted to second gear, but hadn't let the clutch out yet.

I have about 90,000 mi. on the truck, with the original clutch so I thought maybe it was time to replace it. The first two years I owned the truck I lived up in the mountains (and man, that sumbitch can claw it's way STRAIGHT UP in snow!), so I knew there were some hard miles on it.

Anyway, my wife took it by our local dealership here in FL, and they drove it around the block and came back and told her it needed a whole new transmission. My wife's no dummy and she asked to see the diagnosis print-out. They told her they hadn't run one, that the guy who test drove it had been dooing this for twenty years. Maybe they meant "ripping people off" for twenty years, I don't know.

Well, she did get them to give her the written quote for $4,500, which she brought home. I looked it over and found that it was a quote for an automatic transmission for a 2002 Maxima. A maxima!

I took it to our regular mechanic, who referred me to a trustworthy transmission guy (not a dealership), and he tore it down and found that all that was wrong was a worn pilot bearing (couple bucks for the part). However, since I had so many miles on the clutch anyway, and most of the actual cost to me (less than $700,00 for everything) was in the labor, I had him replace the clutch with a brand new one.

Truck drives great again! Lesson learned? There are still trustworthy mechanics and tranny men out there who can be found locally, just not at your Nissan dealership. :hal:


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## zeeker78 (Jan 18, 2009)

*I have the same problem*

I have a quick question.
Is the pilot bearing part of the transmission or the clutch?
Thanks a lot.
I took the xterra to the mechanic this morning, he said i need a new clutch and it will cost me 1200.

On my xterra, i can hear the noise the exact same way, when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd and not releasing the clutch.

Zeek


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