Hey guys... Recently I have noticed that I am getting a high pitched whine on my 04 AT when I'm in 1st gear and have it pull all the way to redline. It probably happens between 6-7.5k rpm and sounds almost like a supercharger wine. I've recently been noticing this when I have the radio off and just floor it in 1st, or downshift from 2nd to 1st and go to redline if I want a quick boost of speed when I'm going under 25mph, when it allows me to downshift into 1st.

Does anyone think this might be serious? I'm hoping my transmission isn't going since I'm out of warranty.

 

I have over 100K miles on my 4spd AT and haven't heard any sounds from it. How many miles on the transmission? Maybe it needs a fluid change??

 

49k miles as of yesterday. I do a lot of backroading though so IDK if that's a contributing factor or not. I know it can't be normal though because I've never heard it like this that I can recall. Could it be the LSD? I had the fluid changed like 10k miles ago, but do redline it a lot, but that's only when I'm with friends since they love the noise. When I'm alone, I don't nearly as much.

 

This only happens in First gear and not others? What about at a stop and putting it in Neutral and revving to that range, do you have the whine still? I wouldn't think it would be the LSD but I'm no expert, maybe the LSD if you were going through a turn while revving in this range? Possibly a vacuum leak somewhere in the engine bay maybe with the intake?

 

Ok. It's been fine for a while, but came back tonight after my friend and did a back road in the mountains drove it pretty hard. I let my friend drive it tonight, he drives a manual E36 M3 btw, we did a little pull on the freeway against my other friend's SI, not a race because we all know that would be a waste of everyones time. Lol. Anyways, he noticed the gearbox slushed pretty hard when shifting from either 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th. I can't remember? But to answer your question it isn't only in 1st that this happens, and it's not the LSD either because the whine occurred on the freeway after a pull to redline in a higher gear, and that also occurred on a straighaway, where the LSD wouldn't even be used, so that can safely be ruled out.

I find this really weird because it's totally intermittent like I said last time, because after the drive we stopped in a parking lot to talk and hangout for like 30 min, with the cars off, and by the time I left to head home I decided to redline 1st to test it again, and there was no wine at all. I'm think heat is having a large effect on the occurrence of the wine?

 

I suggest a transmission and differential flush/service then see if you can replicate the whine.

 

Yeah I was thinking that too, and my friend agreed. Is it possible to flush the tranny fluid yourself on an AT?

 

Not sure about flush yourself unless you got the machine but you can always drop the pan and get about 4 quarts outta it

 

It's lots of work but you could do it by disconnecting a cooler line, running the engine (transmission in nuetral) while adding ATF through the dipstick tube.

It really is worth it to have it flushed with the machine. Take it to an transmission shop or independent garage.

 

Yeah I've decided I'm going to do that. Thanks.