I have a manual 06 tC. Had been driving my car for 20 mins and came to friends house. Put car in neutral with ebrake up and was messing with stuff in backseat. Then i hear this whirring noise which sounded almost like a grinding noise (maybe kind of like when you grind when shifting) except it was continuous. At first i thought someone had turned on a grass edge trimmer. I checked my RPM's and it was steady at baseline. So then I turned off my car and it stopped. So turned car on again after 30 seconds and the noise started immediately after i turned it on... So i tried putitng it in gear and then letting the clutch out (i was on slight downhill) but noise persisted so i turned it off. Checked engine oil level and it was fine. Couldn't find transmission fluid. Flipped around in book couldn't find it labelled but decided probably 20 mins later to turn it on again and it came on normally with no noise.

What could the noise be? If it doesn't come back is it okay to drive it back 20 miles to my place if tomorrow i will take it to dealer tomorrow (if i can't figure out what it is)?

 

could be your clutch's throwout bearing.. just a thought

 

haha well with manual transmissions there arent dip sticks... but its ok alot of people do that

 

what exactly is my clutch throwout bearing and how would i check it?

and just now drove fine but then put in idle again and noise came back. Tried it again one last time but this time it seemed to come on even with car in 'on' position in addition to when i cranked it (altho maybe i was wrong?) it's a continuous whirring sound but i am not sure what it is!

 

oh yeah and i also tried pressing in clutch and then putting it in gear and then letting off clutch but im pretty sure sound was constant whole time. Didn't really start driving/applying a whole lot of gas tho as sound scares me!

 

AC compressor?

 

im 99% sure my A/C hasn't been on although not sure if that would effect it even if it was off... can't check now as I left car at friend's...

 

Whenever I'm in neutral, I can hear my compressor; it makes a whirring noise. Turn the car on with the AC off, then turn the AC on and see if the sound you hear is the same one you are describing.

 

when the noise came when my engine was running the whirring noise was louder than the engine's... could it be some belt? if i take it to dealer will this be covered by warranty?

 

It couldn't hurt to take it to the dealer.

 

Hmm...possibly it is just the fan? The car is meant to have air flowing through radiator when you are driving to keep it cool. When you are stopped and idling there is no air passing through the radiator. To compensate for the air loss cars have fans that kick in to keep the air moving. This mostly likely why you hear a whirring sound at idle because the fan kicked in.

After a decent drive, let the car idle, pop the hood and watch the two fans. See if the noise occurs when they start spinning.

 

Another tC owner had a metal clanging noise. You can search and find the thread, I think it's titled "metal clanging". they had a clanging noise as well and the throwout bearing was discovered to be defective. Sounds like the same thing, since you too have a manual transmission. And yes it's covered under warranty! don't let them tell you otherwise.

 

could it be part of your exhaust system rubbing on something and creating the "grinding" noise??? my friends civic does this when he puts it in neutral.....???