Thread: SR16VE tranny - 4th gear whine

Hey guys,

My 16ve tranny is making a whining sound only in 4th gear. What's the problem?

Has brand new 75w90 Castrol BOT130 full synth GL4 oil in it.

both of my se-r trannys whine in 4th so I dont think theres a problem.unless there is and Ill have 2 of them lol.

My old stock N14 GTi trans whine too. I guess its bad synchros or something like this. Im not skilled in trans.

I've always been told it was a product of having the gears slightly misaligned. This can happen if the bearings were pressed on too far, or not far enough on the gear shafts, or if the gears themselves were pressed on to incorrect tolerances. I guess it might also be possible that a significant jolt to the transmission could move the gear on the shaft slightly.

At some point my 2nd gear started to whine. I'm not sure if it coincided with a change to the transmission I did, or me removing a whole bunch of stuff that might have masked the sound in the past. Either way it is very minor in my case and only at low speeds (the sound goes away above 2.5k rpm) so I haven't even begun to try and think about fixing it or even worrying about it.

Cool. Got this tranny off of a friend of mine and afaik it has never been opened.

When we first started up the motor there was only 1 litre of oil in the tranny. It made a bit of a racket, and it only idled for about 2-3 mins like that, then we turned the motor off. Not sure if the noise was there prior to my having the tranny.

does 4th gear have a "gear" or is it 1:1 on the input shaft?

Does 4th gear have a "reduction" or "overdrive" (torque multiplier)? I don't know. I believe it is 1:1 on the B13s but no idea on yours. I'm sure there are plenty of posts by Miko that have that info in it.

It will be close to 1:1, but its not exactly 1:1. 0.975 probably.

the shaft floats on both ends and cetnres itself.

If the transmission has been apart recently it possible the shim thickness on the output shaft is wrong and pushing it hard up against the casing, transmitting this wining noise?

Hey guys,

Ok the problem has seemingly progressed. I've only done about 100miles on this tranny now - been busy running in a new motor.

Anyways, Now I occasionally get this rummbling sound on idle. Sounds as if the motor ran a bearing. Quite loud. When the clutch is suppressed the noise goes away.

Sounds like I got a bum tranny doesnt it?

Oh yeah, I should probably mention the following as well:

When we started up the car for the first time. The tranny only had about 1Lt oil in it. It made a light rumbling sound on idle but nothing horrible. Car idled like this for about 3-5mins max. Could this have damaged the tranny?