Hi there! I have a problem with a screeching sound with my 2002 civic manual transmission.?

first, check your drive belts to make sure that the noise is not coming from a worn or glazed belt. Those belts do react differently to engine loads and putting the clutch in relieves the load where letting it out puts a load on the engine so a belt could be slipping under load causing the noise. a belt noise will usually go away as the belt heats up and gets more pliable.

If you're sure that the noise is not a belt noise, then I would say that it is probably a noise from the pilot bearing for the transmission input shaft. The pilot bearing is the small bearing at the end of the input shaft for the transmission that allows the shaft to turn freely at the flywheel end.

replacing the pilot bearing requires that the transmission be removed to replace the bearing. There's really no way to lubricate it from the outside because you don't want to spray lubricant on the clutch disc that surrounds that shaft or else you'll ruin the clutch.

I would recommend that you check the adjustment on your drive belts and then spray the belts with a belt dressing. If the noise goes away, great. If not, then pilot bearing is probably the cause. The noise probably goes away when warm as there is some lubricatant on the bearing and it takes a bit of heat to get it flowing. I imagine it will fail at some time but its been a long time since I've seen one just disintegrate. You would have to make a decision as to how bad you want the noise to go away at that point. You will need to replace the clutch at some point and you could wait change the pilot bearing when you get to that time if you don't mind a bit of noise. If the noise bothers you that much, I'd change the clutch while i'm in there so that you save some money as long as you've got the transmission out.

hope that helps

I work in an auto repair shop and I get asked this type of question all the time. I just go through the following check list with them to help them decide. Is all the maintenance caught up on your Honda? Timing belt, water pump, all your flushes, etc. If not, how much will that be to get it all caught up? What other problems does your car have besides the transmission? Are they little problems you can live with? i.e, do you have any little rattles or simple things like a window crank is broken or something. Can you afford car payments for something different? See what you can afford and look around for vehicles in that price range. They may or may not be much better than what you already have. A lot of our customers just go ahead and fix what they have. They would rather put $2000 into something that they know rather than spend 3-5000 (or more) buying someone else's headaches.