Ford MTX-75

Ford's larger five-speed manual transaxle — behind the bigger engines in the Focus, Mondeo and Mercury Cougar, and in the Jaguar X-Type.

It is the iB5's big brother and the pair are routinely confused, including by parts suppliers, because they appear in the same models and years. The engine decides which is fitted, not the model — and the two share nothing.

Its characteristic failure is the differential bearing, and it announces itself as a whine that rises with road speed rather than with engine speed, and is there in every gear including with the clutch pressed while rolling. That combination separates it from gear noise and from a wheel bearing, which changes with cornering load.

The other recurring item is the input shaft bearing, whose noise is present in neutral with the clutch out and stops when the pedal is pressed — the same tell as on every manual on this site, because pressing the pedal unloads that exact bearing.

A vague change is the linkage. Cables, bushings and the shift tower wear long before anything inside does, and they are a fraction of the cost.