THUG

Bought my 2004 MN6 Coupe new in October 2003 new and I am one and only owner. When new it's "marbles in can noise" was much louder than all other Manual C5 I have heard and driven. Noise is still same now after all these years as it was when new. Now trying to sell car to buy a C7 and although car is flawless in all aspects, potential buyers rule it out to buy due to excessive "marbles in can" noise. Is there anything I can do to solve this problem so I can sell my car?

Added Info: It is the noise made when starting from a stop in 1st gear only up to around 1500 RPM. It is significantly louder than similar cars and that is what is the issue. When it was new, the dealer told me this was "normal"

Velocity_Vette

????? A little confused. Are you speaking about the sound made on car shut-off? When it sounds like it rattles itself? That's on pretty much every manual trans C5 and can be eliminated by depressing the clutch pedal all the way down when turning off the car (sound is from throw-out bearing).

grantv

Or... the exhaust jingle? If so; X pipe.
Or... exhaust hangers under car? Fixem.

acuevo

its not the noise when you start from a stop is it? thats also the throw out bearing... any one researching to buy your car oughta know that already.

sirdano

My wife honda had that sound and it was the tensioner pulley. Replaced and sound went away

hron61

interesting. ill keep an eye on this post for future ref.

Vetteman Jack

The "marbles in a can" noise" is something that pretty much all C5 manual tanny cars exhibit. I know my '99 and '00, both manual cars, had the noise. And it occurred when taking off from a stop at a reduced throttle input. It is normal and I'm not sure but adding something like synthetic tranny fluid might help.

Here are a couple of documents that discuss the problem, one specifically for the tranny and the other for another item that may be causing extra noise. Worth looking into.

moncal90

Vetteman Jack is the man! Always has good info. All manuals have this noise unless you give more throttle input at starting to take off. It doesn't have to be a lot . I rarely hear it anymore but I've also had the tranny fluid switched to synthetic back in 2003 and have kept it synthetic ever since.

Patches

Went totally away on my '02 MN6 when I swapped in 4.10 diff. The quick spool-up eliminated that annoying rattle.

Bill Curlee

We have a LOT of splined joints in out drivetrain. If you lug the engine, it can drop low enough in RPM to have the spline joints oscillate and make noises.

Shutting the car OFF in Neutral with the clutch out is a PRIME EXAMPLE of that phenomena.. Does it sound like that??

Bill

biggrizzly

My 2003 does the same thing. Actually, it got slightly worse after having a new clutch and all the ancillary clutch parts replaced. It bugged me, so I brought it up to my mechanic. Frank has worked on Corvettes almost every day for 30 years and says that it's normal sound for C5s. Some are louder than others. If people are walking away from a good clean car due to this, I'm not sure what you could do to comfort them except have them listen to all of our cars! I know, I'm no help.

THUG

When I shut off the engine neutral with the clutch out it also makes noise.

I am going to climb under my car tomorrow and look at the springs on my exhaust system.

Other than that, it does not sound like there is anything I can do....

Corvette#2

The solution is to keep the clutch in when you shut it off. Mine does the same thing. Mine does the rattle noise too when I accelerate from a stop in first gear. But like someone said, if you give it some throttle and let out the clutch just right, it mostly goes away. They all make these noises. Nothing unusual or broken.

Bill Curlee

100% normal