Grinding while driving

Hi all!

I'm new to the forum, but I wanted to see if anyone could help me!

I have a 2007 Jimny VVT and I love it! However... I've noticed a grinding noise when I'm driving along... it's a sort of metal running noise when accelerating. I have noticed it's mainly in 2nd and 3rd gear and I don't hear it in any other gears.

I've read a few other threads about, but none seem to be the same as what I'm experiencing... it's becoming late and more regular now and seems to happen nearly every time I accelerate in 2nd and 3rd gear. It's a kind of metal grinding noise, like when your brake are wearing out or when a brake shield is bent out of shape and rubbing somewhere.. I've had a look under the car, but no where near as thoroughly as I'd like to.. but the weather is awful at the moment!

In the pack of paperwork I got with the car I did see that the car had had a gearbox rebuild two years ago... i always thought that if a gearbox was going it would whine, not grind? Obvious Jimny's may be different!

My 4WD works fine and the car drives fine, it's just this noise that's annoying the hell out of me! I'm just praying it's nothing too serious!

Can anyone help?

Regards,
Rhys

When mine made a grinding noise accelerating in 1st & 2nd, ( where I tend to use more revs), for all the world like a gearbox bearing on the way out, it turned out to be the crankshaft pulley. After a few weeks the outside of the pulley came off and left me stranded with no waterpump drive.

Since fitting the new pulley (big long saga) I haven't heard that noise again.

I'd imagine that if the pulley is failing that you should be able to get the outer ring to move backwards and forwards.

Thanks for your reply!

I never even thought of it being anything pulley related... maybe that's a good place to start looking?

Rhys

Well you can check the front pulley reasonably easily, to check the gearbox properly involves removing it.

I'd make sure the gearbox oil level is fine too.

The VVTs do have troublesome gearboxes, but you reckon yours hasn't long been rebuilt.

We had quite a spate of front pulley failures last year, sometimes they start by wearing fanbelts out (mine didn't though)

Where abouts is the gearbox oil dipstick? (If that's how you check it on Jimny's!) I've got paperwork to say the gearbox was rebuilt, but who knows if it was done by a back alley garage or a reputable one haha!

Hopefully checking the pulley will give me some indication of wear...

Rhys

On a VVT, the gearbox filler/level plug is on the left side of the gearbox output housing (2 in the picture the drain plug is 1), The plug has a 10mm square hole in it, You may be able to undo it with a 3/8 ratchet, but if it is very tight you will need to buy a tool.

Just put in oil 75w90 GL4 until it starts coming out of the filler/level plug.
As a quick check, either oil will start running out, or if you poke your little finger inside and slightly down, it should get covered in oil if the level is near enough. If you can't find the oil with 1 finger joint it is much too low.

Then don't tighten it up too much- it is only 23NM/17lbft.
Unless there are signs of oil leakage it shouldn't need much, the VVTs had a problem with a seal in the propshaft that caused an oil leak, this will be obvious though as the oil goes in a line across the bottom of the car.

If you feel like changing the oil, always undo the filler plug first, and it will need 2 bottles at least.