5MT humming noise while in motion

Just recently (~1 week ago), I’ve been hearing a humming noise toward the front/center of the car as the car is in motion. There’s no noise at stoplights and is definitely velocity dependent, not RPM dependent.

I’ve been asking around, and I’m hearing that it might not be the transmission, and could be the center differential. I heard that it could be a wheel bearing, but it doesn’t sound bearing related…sounds like a rough meshing of gears. Also, the noise is constant whether the car is cold or warmed up, doesn’t sound any more or less loud if I drive it 1 minutes or 30 minutes.

Has anyone had this problem, if so, what was done parts, cost, and labor-wise to fix it?

Thanks!

Atwood

I just had all my tranny bearings replaced for $1600 for the total job.

 

Welcome to the club.

Two possibilities:

1. Bad center diff / bearings in the rear part of the transmission.

2. Bad whell bearings.

 

1.http://www.indianaimpreza.com/showthread.php?t=10412

2.http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/tranny-whinning-51969.html

Yuk...how many miles did you have on your wgn when you had the bearings replaced?

Not a fun club to be in right now...However the 6MT club seems cool, but entry fee is steep!

Thanks for the links

129,000 miles.

 

Car has 131,500 now.

I just had all my tranny bearings replaced for $1600 for the total job.

 

Welcome to the club.

 

Just had mine done and I've got a little over 70K on the car.

Put the car on a lift, and then have someone "drive" it while it's in the air. That way you can easily identify where the noise is coming from.

 

My guess would be a wheel bearing.

Just got back from the shop and they said it's the tranny's main bearing going out $3500 to fix...Seems a bit steep right? I was considering a rebuild for $1600 like what Max did, and the car only has 36K on it...F'n pissed! Subaru won't help since it's out of warranty (over the 5 years)... so today I took the car back and am contemplating my options, leaning toward a 6sp conversion and trying to source the parts. Any suggestions with what I'm dealing with?

Thanks!

Take it to a independent shop, I'm sure the price will be much lower.

 

IMO you don't drive the car enough for the swap.

Where do you live, may be someone knows a good shop.

I've taken the car to 2 shops and the stealership and both quotes were above $3k to rebuild the tranny...the dealership wanted $1.5K just to drop the tranny to see what was wrong. I'm out here in California where labor is quite expensive...I'll do more research for shops in the area, or if anyone knows of shops in the area, that'd be awesome...thanks

That's a big state. You can tell us the town you live in...don't worry, we come over.

 

May be ask on NASIOC

 

Or in the local forum down below

 

Here in New England there's a member in RI there will do repairs for local members.

OOps, I'm in the NorCal Bay Area. I'll put the feelers out.

Thanks!

was this noise evident even in neutral or coasting? or just in gear?

The noise was evident while coasting, and in gear while the car was in motion. When in neutral at a stop sign/light, the sign wasn't there.

I think my LGT is running into this same issue. I just ticked past the 60k mark 2 months ago... how convenient.

 

My noise is also evident while the car is in gear and coasting. Once the car is out of gear and coasting or stopped there is no noise. Mine sounds more like a pinging noise than a hum tho.

 

I'm going to have someone look at it this week, I'll post my quote for comparison. I hope to god it's not as high as 3,500 bones.

you can source a used sti for near that price. Definitely get a decent used GT tranny for that price and maybe with a typical 90day to 1 year warranty. Lots of places will source you one.

Mine just developed a "similar" issue.

 

Seems to be load dependent ( only feel it in 1st and 2nd under hard acceleration ) and gets progressively worse in 3rd - 5th. Not a "whine", more of a hard vibration felt in the car body.

 

Feels like a drivetrain vibration ( carrier bearings or u-joint ) however it goes away when letting off the throttle but oddly comes back if I engage the clutch ( lighter vib tho ).

 

Started outta the blue, running great when I left for a business trip on 11/19 and horrible upon return on 12/18. Wife drove the car during my absence, she noticed it after filling the tank with 86 octane ( or so she thinks ). Swears she did not hit a curb or the like.

 

Will hit up a few local gurus however wanted to put it out here for now. Thanks for any input!

I think my LGT is running into this same issue. I just ticked past the 60k mark 2 months ago... how convenient.

 

My noise is also evident while the car is in gear and coasting. Once the car is out of gear and coasting or stopped there is no noise. Mine sounds more like a pinging noise than a hum tho.

 

I'm going to have someone look at it this week, I'll post my quote for comparison. I hope to god it's not as high as 3,500 bones.

 

 

just an update to my own issues... I took it to a local mechanic to get checked out. It turned out it's just a loose heat shield on the exhaust. He wanted to charge me an arm and a leg to tighten it up, I said go screw, I'm getting a up pipe, down pipe and CBE installed in a couple weeks anyways...

Mine just developed a "similar" issue.

 

Seems to be load dependent ( only feel it in 1st and 2nd under hard acceleration ) and gets progressively worse in 3rd - 5th. Not a "whine", more of a hard vibration felt in the car body.

 

Feels like a drivetrain vibration ( carrier bearings or u-joint ) however it goes away when letting off the throttle but oddly comes back if I engage the clutch ( lighter vib tho ).

 

Started outta the blue, running great when I left for a business trip on 11/19 and horrible upon return on 12/18. Wife drove the car during my absence, she noticed it after filling the tank with 86 octane ( or so she thinks ). Swears she did not hit a curb or the like.

 

Will hit up a few local gurus however wanted to put it out here for now. Thanks for any input!

Update to mine, the rear u-joint on the driveshaft was toast.

 

Got a used one installed yesterday, all is good. See my thread in Turbo Drivetrains for more info, short version is that Subaru driveshafts are NOT rebuildable....

i also had a tranny bearing issue around 40k miles though. The humming sound increased with speed. It was much more noticable above 40mph. Wound up being 2 scorn bearings in the tranny, covered under warrenty but it would've been a $2000 job

I had a similar issue. Was the bearing that supported the center diff in the rear section of the tranny case.