Originally Posted by zilent_jay

The noise you are hearing is the transmission... mainly gear lash.... and it's perfectly normal... all modern manual transmissions do it to some degree.... you will find this same complaint on every car forum known to man. Pretty much the only time you can hear a bad throwout bearing is when you depress the clutch pedal (disengaging the clutch and putting the throwout bearing in to use).

When your transmission is in neutral, and the clutch pedal is released (clutch engaged) the input shaft on the transmission is forced to spin with the engine. Since all of the gears in the transmission are constantly meshed, they are all turning and produce gear lash noise... along with bearings inside the transmission. When you depress the clutch and disengage the transmission from the engine, you will hear the gears inside the transmission gradually slow to a halt.... as it is no longer forced to turn with the engine.

Now... if you want to hear what a bad throwout bearing sounds like... keep the clutch pedal depressed for long periods of time every chance you get. Eventually you will wear it out.