What's causing my engine whine?

Post by **Malcolm** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:33 am

My engine has a mechanical whine to it in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears, but not in 4th.

When idling, the whine disappears when depressing the clutch. (What a choice! A whiny engine or a depressed clutch.)

Any ideas what's causing this, and how can it be resolved?

Thanks.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:11 pm

Are you sure it is the engine??
The engine doesn't know the difference between 3rd and 4th gear (i.e. if the noise is different then it's not neccessarily the engine)

Could the noises be from the gearbox? When you declutch when stationary, the gearbox input shaft can stop rotating (ie when declutched at stationary this can give no moving parts in the gearbox)

Post by **newagetraveller** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:28 pm

It is probably the gearbox.

When you are in fourth gear the input and output shafts of the gearbox are both rotating at the same speed.
In all other gears they are rotating at different speeds.

Post by **chickenjohn** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:28 pm

Try topping up the oil on the gearbox! My 4-door used to whine when the oil level was low. Fixing the leak and topping the oil up helped, as did gearbox slick50.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:24 pm

Aye - low oil level and/or worn layshaft and bearings. Adding any 'slippery' additive to a gearbox will reduce the effectiveness of any syncromesh !

Post by **Onne** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:55 pm

surely oil is slippery, Roy?

Post by **rayofleamington** » Sat May 13, 2006 11:10 pm

surely oil is slippery, Roy?

he said slippery additive... The bearings need oil for lubrication, the synchros need to stick to the cones. It's always going to be a compromise but as modern oils have lots of nice additives already I'd rather just use oil as specified.

Post by **Onne** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:51 am

all right.. learnt something