02 Renegade with a mv3550 5 speed. 153000 problem free miles until now.
Yesterday I replaced my CV joints. The first side it took me an hour to get everything apart and reassembled but the second side took 8 minutes to get disassembled and an equal amount of time to reassemble. The lower ball joint on the first side took quite a bit of time.(recall replacement type). I figured out that I needed a bigger hammer.
However the loud sweeling noise I was hearing was not from the axles.
After some extensive searching I found my apparent problem. It appears the throw out bearing exploded and pieces are getting between pressure plate and clutch. Growling with the clutch engaged and sharp sweeling when the pedal is depressed. It was becoming hard to shift between gears. And when I tried to Stop the jeep wanted to keep going for a couple of rolls. I had hunch it was it was clutch related from the beginning but I was going for the less expensive and labor intensive option first. I had heard of similar symptoms causing the issues in rare occasions but not in my case.
Next will be clutch kit. Gonna have a mechanic do it because I don't have access to a lift.
