i know this has been talked about before, but my 5 speed sounds freaking terrible. it whines really lound and clunks lound when i shift and under hard accerlation it feels like its slipping a bit. any one else got a 5 speed that with these symtoms? i know i should just take it in but i want to make it not just the nature of the beast before i head up there.

 

I just recently bought my 2008 HHR SS 5-speed and noticed that I had a loud transmission as well but my symptoms seem different then most.
I don't have any transmission whine or strange clutch engagements. What I seem to be experiencing is a trans that makes noise after I have it in gear. In all gears, after I release the clutch and start accelerating it sounds like a bunch of parts are smaching together inside. Noise is noticable loud when driving next to a center median on a highway as it reflects the noise back at me. The noise is only there during acceleration. Again sounds like marbles/rocks inside.

Has anyone ever experienced this? If so, what have they done if anything? Just to be clear, there is no vibration in the drivetrain or any impact on smoothness of the vehicle. Only noise, and a lot of it.

 

If it sounds like that I would think in the next few 1000 miles or so you will get the big "THUD" and bye bye tranny. but thats why God invented warranties

 

i really hope they can not fix my tranny and have to buy it back so i can get a 09 SS

 

Yeah, plenty of noise from my drivetrain as well. Both when I push the clutch in, and let it out, I get clunking, and sometimes just getting on/off the throttle quickly makes a clunking noise too. The tranny whines at low speeds, and probably at high speeds but the other noises drown it out. When I'm decelerating, there's a chattering noise from the tranny that sounds like radio static or a bunch of little ball bearings.

It shifts OK (a bit notchy, but I can live with it), the clutch feels pretty good, and it's held up fine for 8000 miles so far. The dealership checked it out once and thought it sounded normal.

 

man you just described mine excatly. i still havent had a chance to take mine it yet. i have a feeling they will tell me it normal too, but this has got to be the worst manual tranny i ever drove. it annoys the hell out of me, i have a feeling it will probaly last just long enough to pass the warranty milage. i read somewhere that the trannys on these car were "suppose" to be pretty good. i wonder is the vette trannys are this loud too? im to the point now im embarrased to drive by my friends standing outside because i know they are probaly like what the hell is wrong with that car cuz they can hear the loud tranny...

 

This is definitely the loudest tranny/clutch/differential combination I've ever heard on a new car. I've had an Impreza 2.5RS, WRX, Sentra SE-R, and Focus ZX5, all with manual transmission, and they were nearly silent while shifting in comparison to my HHR. Maybe it's totally normal and I'll get 100,000 miles out of it but it just doesn't sound like it!

 

It would just be nice if someone from GM would monitor these forums and have someone (a drivetrain engineer would be nice) to respond to these issues to give us some guidiance on what we should do? Is all this tranny noise normal or should we take it in. I think if each of us took it to their local dealer we would all get different responses. Some dealers are more familair with GM's performance machines then others. I used to own a mustang and it was nice that Ford had some dealers that were SVT specialists. This way you knew which dealer to go to when you had performance issues.