Our 2001 Neon (5-speed MT) has starting making a bad crunching noise. It is only when it is cold, and only when backing up. It sort of tracks the speed of the wheel, but not exactly. It sounds a bit like something is banging around inside the tranny.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Any thoughts on how to track it down? Do Neons have weak trannys?

It started last week, and this morning it was much worse. I can't afford this car to go offline just yet because I have a few more days before I'm done with the engine swap on our Mazda.

 

definatly does not sound normal. Are you talking about a grinding noise, like gears not fully engaging?

 

Mine acts up when I shift into reverse and its cold but I just take it out of gear shift back to first and then back to reverse because like casper said the gears arent fully engaged.