Starting to notice a whine in gear, tranny low on oil?

[Infinitrium]

I'm starting to notice a whine while in gear at certain speeds. The noise disappears when I'm coasting in gear though. Maybe my 5 speed is getting low on oil?

[Bitter]

it could be low, check the level.

[freakinbox]

might be a wheel bearing, thats what mine did. I also thought it was the tranny.

[REN69]

hmm.. I have a whine in my transmission too, in first gear.. I also thought it was the fluid being low so I got it done recently and still have the wine. Maybe it is the wheel bearing like freakyboy says.

[Infinitrium]

I've had bad wheel bearings before and they mostly made a growling type of sound. This sound I'm hearing is a high pitched noise. Hmm, should check to see if it's making the noise in all gears or one particular gear.

[Papa Bear]

When was the last time you changed the trans fluid ?? How many Km's on the car ?? What year ??

[Infinitrium]

375000 kms on the car now. Don't know when the tranny fluid was last changed, I've had the car less than a month but I think it's safe to assume it hasn't been done in a while. It's an 88 2wd wagon.

[freakinbox]

mine did it at certain speeds, and it was a whine... if it's the wheel bearing it's worth getting checked out. I thought the same as you, thought my tranny was on it's way out but hey still fine. When the wheel bearing whined it didn't seem to affect how the car handled, when it stopped the FRONT of the car would try to fish tail, was really wierd!

[Infinitrium]

Hmm, it did that when the car was stopped? Wow that is weird. Makes me wonder too, since my car has been doing something weird in the past week. When going around a left handed corner, occasionally it'll swerve in the same direction as the corner. It only happens on left handed corners though, and it only seems to happen over 35 mph as well.

[diver9000]

If the wheel bearings are bad, (depending on severity) that could easily cause a wobble, or a fish tail effect in your front end. The worse they get, the worse and more expensive the repair becomes. I've fixed several where a car/suv was driven to the point that the bearing welded itself to the hub and had to be cut out.

[IvanHoe]

Originally Posted by Infinitrium

I've had bad wheel bearings before and they mostly made a growling type of sound. This sound I'm hearing is a high pitched noise. Hmm, should check to see if it's making the noise in all gears or one particular gear.

Have you figured out what was wrong?
My 88 Camry 5 speed has exactly the same issue as yours!

[ghost_ryder35]

Originally Posted by Infinitrium

I'm starting to notice a whine while in gear at certain speeds. The noise disappears when I'm coasting in gear though. Maybe my 5 speed is getting low on oil?

your probally right, flush it out with new fluid and then fill it up. good luck, I just did this to a friends all-trac and solved his whinning issue.

[IvanHoe]

Originally Posted by ghost_ryder35

your probally right, flush it out with new fluid and then fill it up. good luck, I just did this to a friends all-trac and solved his whinning issue.

Automatic transmissions are NOT the same as 5 speed ones. You cant just flush it out like that. First of all, it uses gear oil instead of ordinary transmission fluid(actually it depends on the Manual tranny you have). Second, you have to access it from underneath the car. You can however drain the gear oil out then add fresh gear oil. But im pretty sure that this is not the issue(for me atleast). I have the identical problem and my mechanic checked the oil level and it was fine. Also it does it in other gears for me besides 5th gear. Im leaning towards the fact that one of the wheel bearings are on their way out(probably the right one but Im not 100% sure on that). Also if you take it out of 5th gear on the highway, you might think it went away, but in reality it subsided enough so that you can barely hear it. When in gear at speed and the gas is applied, it puts more pressure on the wheel bearings, hence the noise.....atleast that's my theory.