Transmission whining in 4th gear

[TBayToyotaBoy]

Hey all,

I posted in the Celica forum, but over the years this forum has had more advice so I thought I would re-post here.

1991 Celica w/ 5S-FE and S52 manual transmission (consider it a near-identical set up to a manual 3SFE Camry). In fourth gear, and less so in fifth, I'm getting a whining sound that increases in pitch with rpms...sounds almost like an electrical motor winding up.

Am I going to lose fourth gear soon, or is this perhaps just shavings in the fluid? I'm trying to remember how the gears are oriented inside the casing, in case a low fluid level is causing it--I'll be checking the fluid after work today.

Any input/anecdotal advice is much appreciated, as all of my Camrys have gone much longer than this one (250,000km) with no problems.

--Tim

[TBayToyotaBoy]

Turns out my transmission dropped about 75% of the gear oil on the road without me even noticing a leak...it was bone dry

Thank God for Toyota reliability...not a noise or glitch in shifting now that it's topped-up--despite possibly thousands of kilometres of being run dry.