Second Gear Tranny Whine

Decided to start my own thread since whining in second gear only doesnt come up.

 

Here is my post from the tranny whine thread:

 

Took mine into the dealer and they stated it does in fact have a whine in second gear. They said everything looked OK but want some special technician to look at it in a couple of weeks. They say they never have seen one make noise in JUST second gear.

Of course they then proceed to tell me that my 60,000 mile warranty is up in 150 miles. My response "that doesnt matter I have the extended 100,000 mile Subaru warranty"

Oh we didnt know you had that.

 

Next question was "what kind of short throw shifter is that? Is it an SPT short throw shifter"

 

"No it is a Cobb short throw" (they have Cobb stickers all over their dealership)

 

"Oh cobb makes good stuff I have some on my WRX" says the service manager

 

I get the feeling these questions were asked for a reason and both are irrelevant to the fact that I have second gear whine that needs fixed.

 

Wait two weeks for the "special service tech" to take a look and wholla your out of warranty.

 

But OH wait I have the 100,000 mile trump card.

 

Just fix it you turds, you said yourself there is a problem...

 

Ill let you know what happens.........

so what are you asking? is this just a bitching thread or a question thread?

What you are hearing may be normal gear noise. The 5-speed transmission used by Subaru is basically a very old design, but it was strengthened to cope better with increased power. One of the changes made was to substitute a straight-cut second gear for a helical-cut. Straight-cut gears make a lot more noise than helical-cut gears do. They are stronger, though.

I have a medium whine in second gear as well, it also slightly whines in first - but not like it does in second. 3rd 4th and 5th are quiet though, no whine. Is this likely caused by the straightcut gears? I don't recall it whining much when I just got the car, but I could have not noticed it to be honest, its much like a loud turbo would sound, just not coming from the turbo.

I have a medium whine in second gear as well, it also slightly whines in first - but not like it does in second. 3rd 4th and 5th are quiet though, no whine. Is this likely caused by the straightcut gears? I don't recall it whining much when I just got the car, but I could have not noticed it to be honest, its much like a loud turbo would sound, just not coming from the turbo.

 

Me too, I just turn up the stereo.

Well I have to admit I totally misjudged the dealership.

 

This is the best dealer is KC Missouri/Kansas area.

 

These guys when I got there were very mod friendly, Brett one of the service techs knew me and my car from a previous conversation and asked to work on my car when it came in which is what I wanted.

 

Patrick the service manager has an STI with cobb stuff on it and they spent over a half an hour talking to me when I went to pick the car up. They really thought the modded, lowered outback was great.

 

Anyway they listened to the car and drove it and felt it did have excessive noise in second gear.

 

They wanted a district service engineer to listen to it in a couple of weeks.

 

The reason for this is they said SOA has been denying warranty claims from the dealerships if they try to fix something when they think they know what is wrong with it, replace the part and it doesnt fix the problem.

 

Because of this they wanted the district service engineer to drive it and get his approval so that way if they replaced something in the tranny it would be covered by his approval.

 

 

Ill keep you posted to the final outcome.

 

If it is in fact due to the gear cut, that is fine. I just wanted to make sure there wasnt anything wrong.

 

Ive had a manual transmission do this before and when they tore it apart it had major problems.

 

I didnt remember it being as loud as it is now when I first put the STS in it over a year ago. When you add a STS you do hear more of the gear noise but I just thought second was a bit excessive.

I have a medium whine in second gear as well, it also slightly whines in first - but not like it does in second. 3rd 4th and 5th are quiet though, no whine. Is this likely caused by the straightcut gears? I don't recall it whining much when I just got the car, but I could have not noticed it to be honest, its much like a loud turbo would sound, just not coming from the turbo.

 

This post describes mine to a T.

I would imagine if there was something physically wrong enough with the gears to cause them to whine then it would be manifested in other ways too, right? ie. hard to shift into/out of that gear, or grinding or something?

first and second gear whining is normal.

 

 

/thread

Well where were you 4 days ago? Quite succinct.

 

Any idea what causes it on our trans? I've read a few reasons like transfer of power through 4th gear, etc.?

as long as it only happens in 1st and 2nd, there is little reason to worry. if it happens at other times, you should get it looked at

Would using a synthetic fluid reduce it?

I would imagine if there was something physically wrong enough with the gears to cause them to whine then it would be manifested in other ways too, right? ie. hard to shift into/out of that gear, or grinding or something?

 

Not necessarily. It could be a bearing or something allowing the gears to not quite mesh the way they should.

Sort of like a rear end that makes a whining noise but never actually has many problems.

 

Ill see what the SOA engineer says and let you all know.

 

 

If it is normal for THIS TRANSMISSION that is fine, Just want to make sure so I am not shelling out 1,000's for a transmission.

Would using a synthetic fluid reduce it?

 

Using synthetic and have changed it religiously about every 20,000 miles. If you saw the tranny fluid in my car you wouldnt believe how clean it is.

 

I take VERY good care of my cars so I can run them a long time.

Mine does the same thing in 2nd. I thought it was normal. I did notice more noise (as expected) in general after my STS install that included all busings and the cobb mount.

Same here ATB, I am enclined to believe it is normal. Still havent heard anything from the dealer yet.

I am at least going to have them check it.

2nd gear whine is not out of the ordinary.

ive got it too..thought it was abnormal till i read this thread.

My whining I feel was excessive before it was fixed, I'm talking past volume level 10-15 on radio to drown it out. Read my previous post in other Tranny Whine thread and see what was replaced. I imagine some things that were replaced had nothing to do with the noise but I can honestly say that it is 10 times quiter.

 

I will say it still has slight whine but something that can be passed on as normal straight cut gear noise.

Mine whines in all gears and is quite loud in 4th and 5th during acceleration. At first I thought my turbo bearings were shot but now I can tell that it whines whether I'm on the boost or not and that the pitch of the whine increases with speed while the volume increases with power. Should I get it torn down right away or can this wait a bit? I'd hate to not have the car with summer right around the corner.

 

The car has almost 70K, 320/350 at the wheels and a fresh synthetic gear oil change.

 

EDIT: Clutch and flywheel are original as well.

The consensus seems to be 1st and 2nd gear whine are normal, while whine in other gears is a sign of things going south. Considering the amount of power you're making and the mileage you've accrued it might be prudent to at least get it looked at first hand by someone with experience. Or check your own trans/diff fluid levels, perhaps you've got a problem elsewhere causing the whine? Best of luck!

I gave a tranny a ride in my LGT once. Whined everytime I "got on it" so to speak.

Trannies are often loud when you wail on them. Especially Japanese trannies, they're tough and tight but if you abuse them enough... they get loud...