I have a 2002 manual Xterra with 114K. We drove it yesterday--even used the 4WD some and had no problems.

This morning when I started it up, it made a strange whirring or grinding sound from under the hood. This only happened as I had the clutch pedal fully pushed in. When I let the pedal out about 1/4 the way, the noise stopped. Then it started again each time I pushed the clutch pedal all the way in.

I've had a clutch go bad before on other cars, but I've never heard it make a sound like this before.

Any ideas?

Thanks

I am not familiar at all with the manual xterra, but what about a throw out bearing ? Had a subaru that acted like that once when the bearing was going out on it. Just a though.

I have the same thing happening to mine. I'm pretty sure it's the throw out bearing. I asked my mechanic for a quote and almost had a hard attack sooooo, I'm currently trying to source a cheap fly wheel clutch and bearing to cut down some of the cost. Let me know if you here anything different about the sound.