Panic clunking.. SMT

[Anonymous]

Guys, am I paranoid?

When I engage 1st from neutral, or go to second at low speeds I hear what can only be described as a clunk. Not loud, just enough so you can hear at low speed.
Is it the clutch not clearing the gears, or is it what everyone gets. I suspect its the gears not being cleared and the only reason I don't hear it at other times is the engine noise. It is obvious at slow stop starts in traffic. again it could be apparent at other times but with the engine.... well who can say.

Its a 2000 J spec with about 23000 on the clock.

If it is the clutch any idea of the cost involved (don't have to go to Mr T)
I suppose that if its a suspect clutch I could uprate at the same time.

Thanks

[filcee]

I used to get this noise on up- and down-shifts between 1st and 2nd on my '01 quite regularly.  I didn't worry about it, just assuming that it was 'normal', as it had done that from new.

There's still a noise with the '03 SMT 1st/2nd gear changes too - but again, it's been there from new so I don't worry about it (despite confusing the gearbox sufficiently well to get a fault light in the running in period).  I will say that with the '03 the noise happens less frequently, and is not as loud.  Having  said that, I think there is more soundproofing on the '03 engine cover than there was on the '01 (I *think* - I'll check at the meet this weekend if anyone cares to do a compare.)

If you're really worried, I suppose you could get Mr. T to look at it, but make sure you find somewhere that has actually seen and worked on SMTs before.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Filcee

I had a look at SC after just to see. It seems that it is quite usual to get it, and many have with no long term issues.
I had a friend who's ... well rally bred shall we say and he seemed to think that it was very similar to his manual clutch on the steering wheel which struggles to clear for reverse. He said its dropping the transmission quite hard into gear, but that when you get some momentum going this becomes almost negligible just like when you change gear in a car when the clutch cable goes.
I found it quite alarming to begin with, but am gradually getting used to the idea now.
thanks again for your response, really appreciate feedback from someone with the SMT 2.  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[filcee]

Adair69,

I think that's probably right - I kind of guessed that this was just the mechanism 'insisting' that the selected gear was engaged.  I suppose in an olde worlde manual I would have found the gear more difficult to get than normal, lifted the clutch in neutral which would turn all the cogs a bit so the synchro has another chance to line things up properly, and then had another go.  I suspect the SMT isn't programmed with 'feeling', so it just keeps on going for the gear.

If it helps, I did 32k miles in my '01 before swapping it for a new one.  No problems with the SMT at all during that time (or anything else for that matter).

[Anonymous]

 s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  Filcee