Rep Power: 193

So after driving around the other day with no radio I noticed that my ISB is starting to get louder, it's been making noise for about 12k now. 1st gear is by far the loudest, the other gears sound like it has since the noise started, shifting is still good for the time being. If the radio is on or windows down you still cannot hear it, nor can you hear it at idle when the motor is warmed up.

It's about to get cold here and I'm sure that will destroy the ISB leaving me to fix it in the dead of winter. I'm thinking about doing it this week since it'll be a little warm at least.

In order to get the tranny out I know you have to either drop the sub frame or remove the thermostat housing and pull it from the top. Is the top method the easiest way? Can it be done alone with the help of a jack?

I still haven't decided if I'm going to crack open the tranny and fix the ISB+needle bearing myself or take the tranny to a shop. The DIY's don't seem too difficult but I've never cracked one open before. I'm not looking for a total rebuild, shifting is still perfect and I'm not looking to get 200k out of it. I figure the ISB will fail again in 100k, at that time I will get it rebuilt or buy a junkyard unit with low miles.

Another thing is the flywheel. When the motor is cold I get some chatter until things warm up. I recall this always being a problem although not 100% sure about the first winter with the car. Is this pretty common when everything is cold or should I look into buying a new flywheel instead of getting the old one resurfaced?

Thanks in advance.

 
Rep Power: 0

I am obviously your junior in these matters (since I was inquiring about ISB earlier) but would it make more sense to just get a rebuilt now? Synchrotech has them for $795 for remanufactured. I went first with a used junkyard one and even at 63,000 miles it sucked and I had to get a second used one. They are about $1,000+ all day long for low miles, heck even the high mileage 150K+ ones were showing up around that!

Around me it costs $500 including fluids, seals so the whole thing could be done for $1300. $800 if you could do itself is pretty awesome.

And I haven't had flywheel chatter on my EX when cold.

 
Rep Power: 193

Yeah I looked on car-parts and these transmissions are expensive now. I remember checking about 4 years ago and found a trans off a '05 with 30k on it for $350. Supply and demand at work. I figure the people with older 7th gen's have already had the ISB problem and bought up all the good transmissions.

I'm going to do it myself so it's a bit different for me, it will run me about $250 for a new clutch, resurfaced flywheel, and new ISB+needle bearings. If I had the cash I'd prob buy a rebuilt Synchrotech off ebay, they only rebuild Honda/Acura trannies so I assume they know what they're doing and will do things right.

I'd buy a junkyard tranny but it's hard to find them with less than 70k these days, I'd want one with around 30-40k. The ISB's seem to go out at around 100k so it'll prob last longer to replace the bearings in my trans.