mkdxxx

My 02 sedan has a lot of gear noise in reverse. Does anyone elses have this noise? Seems loud to me!

carguycw

The Protege has straight-cut gears in reverse to reduce cost. Welcome to the world of economy cars It is not harmful, just annoying.

Sir Nuke

What you are hearing is NORMAL for our cars...as stated above the gears are straight cut and this causes the noise.....have no fear....its harmless.....of course if you tend to travel long distances BACKWARDS...it might get annoying after a while...in which case....start listening to LOUD music!

njaremka

it not really an economy thing, but rather a gearbox thing. just about every manual gear box i have seen has straight cut gears for reverse, because when you shift into reverse you are sliding an idler gear between two other gear to make the output shaft turn backwards. because this idler gear needs to slide in and out of contact with two other gears, they make them straight cut to assist in the interface. and because they are straight cut, they whine like a banshee!

Sir Nuke

Its funny...my WIFE actually told me she LIKEs the way it makes that noise when she backs up....omg...women....go figure! lol