Clunking (not diff)

I just bought a mazdaspeed 6 with a ‘11 speed 3 engine in it. The car runs great, has the required reliability mods like rear engine mount, tune, etc.

the only more serious issue I have with it it that on 1st and very ocasionally 2nd, if I pull off less smoothly and the weight transfers to the back, I hear a clunk and feel it in the pedals too. It’s not super loud but definitely there. I tried to recreate it with the handbrake up one notch and was successful, so i dont think it’s the rear diff.

also when im downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, sometimes 2nd will slip out, as it feels like it didnt go in all the way. Maybe it can be a transmission mount? The car has a new clutch as of 4 years ago and wasnt driven over 35k miles.

yesterday i was driving it and doing a pull 2nd felt like the clutch might’ve been slipping too but it never happened again nor could I smell any burning after the fact.

any ideas?

 

I'd check engine mounts first.

 

Piss poor weather here in NYC the last two days so wasn’t able to check too much of it.

does this help at all though? Drivers side mount looks a little tired, I don’t know if it’s that bad though. When revving the car in neutral there aren’t any clunks

 

It's not clear but the second picture looks torn

 

Lift the trans lightly with a jack and a piece of wood, just enough to see the play in that transmission mount. Its bad. If that mount is bad also check the dogbone shaped mount at the back of the engine from underneath.

 

Yeah didnt look too hot. I intended on swapping it out for sure anyways since only the rear one is new.

Will do! Would blown trans mounts maybe account for the slippage as well? It’s not like the gear is unusable so I feel like maybe its a matter of 2nd not being fully engaged rather than the gears themselves being bad.

sometimes 1st and 2nd feel like I have to kind of “angle” the shifter throw ever so slightly, again especially when shifting more quickly both up and down.

Replacing them shouldnt be too hard of a hard job to do myself though, right?

 

I dont think your 1-2 issues will be rectified by replacing the mount, these cars are cable shifted.

 

i wonder if it’s just a bad trans, or if there is something I could do to fix it.

when the car’s in 2nd and in high revs completely off throttle (for instance after a pull or a downshift) is when the gear might slip out. It feels like the torque from the engine on the gear as the revs descend is what “pulls” it out. Aside from that there are other issues though.

i wonder if that clunk is also a trans mount, diff mount, or engine mount

 

What shift knob are you using? Popping out of gear under deceleration from having too heavy of a shift knob is a thing.

You may also just need to adjust the shift linkage yu may not be getting full engagement on second

 

I’m using a stock gear knob actually, it doesn’t look aftermarket or feel weighted at all. I do think adjusting the linkage might do me good though, because at times 1st is also a little tricky to engage fully. I find sometimes when the gears aren’t sliding in completely slightly revving up will do the trick.

either when the rpms go up or on the way back down a sweet spot presents itself