Hey all,

That time of year again for me in good old New Jersey. Hit temperatures close to 36 degrees this morning. Took the car extra long to warm up and get it extra toasty in my **** pit. Begin to drive down my road leading me to my lovely commute to school. What do I hear as I pick up some speed (30 mph)? That good old whining sound. Best way to describe it is the whistling sound the wind makes on a nice windy day. Kinda like that train whistle sound. Hard to explain but you know the sound when you hear it. I believe it's from the transmission from not being warmed up because once it warms up and I drive for a little bit, it goes away. I know it's not a problem because I went the entire summer and not a single sound or problem. One cold morning and it's back. That bastard!! Anyone else in the northern east coast waking up throwing on an extra coat this morning have a similar experience?

Best,
Justin

 

Yes it's the transmission. It drove me nuts trying to figure out what was making that sound. I thought maybe my p/s pump was going out or something because it gets higher pitched with RPM.

Then I pushed the clutch in and it went away.

But now with my solid diff bushings my diff is so much louder than that at speed I don't even notice it.

 

This is completely normal. It has been discussed many times. No 100% sure answer but from what you described is not a problem. If it makes you feel any better yet, mine has been doing that for over 200,000 miles and it's fine. I can tell you one thing it is not that other people have guessed - it is NOT the rear end even though it can sound like it's coming from there sometimes. I know this because I got a junk yard rear end and built it for 4.08 gears and a Quiafe LSD and the noise never changed one bit. It's from the transmission area...

Drive your car and be careful in the cold. Your tires have much less grip below 45 degrees outside....

 

What drives me crazy is all the rattles that the cold causes on the interior plastic. I took out my hatch plastic because it started rattling... I will eventually have a gutted car at this rate

 

I eventually just got used to it. I use the exhaust and the radio to cover up the rattles now.

 

My assumption is that you are hearing the gears meshing. Older cars used to make a similar but louder sound when you threw them in reverse. This because they used to use straight cut spur gears for reverse where as all the forward drive gears are typically helical gears. Helical gear teeth stay in more constant contact hense the reduction in meshing noise. Some gear combinations make more noise than others. This is largely due to varying contact ratios. The contact ratio of a gear set is essentially the average number of teeth in contact at any given point in time. The noise goes away because gear meshing produces a tremendous amout of heat from friction which allows A.) The gear oil viscosity to change and better lubricate the gears and B.) The gears themselves actually expand and stay in more constant contact.