Dave!

So since I've owned my car ('00 C2, 57k to 68k miles) it's had a pretty distinctive whine. It's a medium pitch whir to high pitch whine that varies in pitch with engine speed, and volume with acceleration (there on decel but no change in volume). It is not present just revving the engine, and is still there when I clutch in or put it in neutral at speed, just quieter since there's no load. I can't say for sure if it has changed at all since I've owned the car so I can't tell if it's getting worse or not.

It's pretty obvious it's something in the transmission, just seeing if anyone else has had a similar sound/experience, and what it took to get it fixed.

--I haven't tried playing with it to see if it's a wheel bearing, but I've had wheel bearings go before and this doesn't sound like that.

pszikla

Dave, is it louder when you are coasting than under throttle?
You can pretty well tell if it is the differential/transmission cause it is like a"right there" sound at your right side of the driver seat.
Generally speaking, a whine from there is a bearing related issue and i went through this late last year and had the repair done this spring..
In my case, the differential ring and pinion were also badly worn so we ended up buying another used transmission from scrap yard and changed out the gears for the diff. and then bought new bearings and synchro's. $3000.00 total approx.
good luck
Pete

ivangene

OK-

coasting with the car in nuetral = still there?

its a little confusing because you said it changes with engine speed, but not when you rev the motor - This could be as simple as a tire issue. I had a tire that was going bad and it made noise....one day it made the road really bumpy (tire separated finally) - new tires are quiet.

That said I pulled the front wheel off the suburban last night and I will be buying a new front spindle bearing and housing assy today - its toast !

GL

Dave!

Yep, that's it. If I lean to the right and tilt my head back it almost sounds like it's coming from inside my head. So in your case what bearing was failing, or did you just replace all the bearings while you had it open? And that $3000, was that just parts and you did the work or was that the final bill from the shop?

Edit: More importantly, where you can find part numbers for all the itty bitty transmission bits and where can you order them from?

Paul 996

The parts are available at most any of the major parts suppliers. Just pop the part #'s into google.
Some of the major bearings are:

996 302 808 00 is the Pinion Shaft Bearing (Primary) (most likely culprit and know for failure)

996 301 806 00 Pinion Shaft Bearing

996 302 807 00 Main Shaft Input Bearing (Primary)

Just some examples that my trans needed. Yours may not need all of them.

Dave!

Great, I appreciate it. Now to bug someone with a nicely equipped garage and offer the holy 6-pack and pizza bribe.

Edit: Hello there Pinion Shaft Bearing, I see you've brought your friend "The Porsche Tax" along with you, how nice. $500 bearing. I don't understand that, but whatever I suppose.

peavynation

If you get into the transaxle, you might want to take some of the advice on the link below for the bearings. Like the IMS bearing, Porsche used sealed bearings in the transaxle too, and after time the grease leaks out, and no oil can enter because of the seals. The bearing then have no lube and die premature deaths. Unsealed bearings are recommended.
I work with about 30 mechanical engineers (I'm an electrical) and they're all wondering why Porsche did what they did. Seems foolish, but they must have had their reasons...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxV4XRTLBKY

Dave!

Yeah the sealed bearings I don't really get (Mech. Eng. myself), though I would assume they did that because they wanted a very specific lubrication in there and not just the gear oil. You could get away with this pretty easily if it were an easy to change wear piece, but for longevity not really. I guess they really never tested it for long-life under varying conditions, which is really bizarre.

I'll have to call those guys and see if I can buy those bearings from them--didn't see anything about buying parts from their site--or their suppliers.

The upside to this is that my company is forcing everyone to use all the time-off they've accrued this year by New Year's, so I'll have about two weeks to go through this carefully.

Edit: Was just thinking about this, and if I'm going to have a good bit of time off and I'll already have the transmission out I should consider doing the LN Engineering IMS bearing upgrade. At that point it won't be much more work for me and I'll be able to sleep more soundly at night.

I'll be sure to take pictures of everything I do to make you folks happy, just have to set the time to do it.

Paul 996

The bearings are pressed onto the shaft. Takes a 100ton press to get them off. I wouldn't consider it a DIY.

Dave!

Well I'd better start working out then.

Alternately I suppose I could tear it down, rush order some parts and then take it to a shop to have them replace the bearings.

pissedpuppy

I have a similar whine but only after depressing the clutch in while shifting????

Dave!

Sounds like a throw-out bearing.

goliver

Mine whines like a banshee under load. Can hear it some off load but not near as bad. Have a gnarly/monster 100+ton press available at work so am gonna tackle it in the next few weeks. Going to definately remove seals from bearings. Seems retarded they put them there in the first place. All the syncros etc. on my car are flawless. Been told by several "in-the-know" types that I trust that if you keep driving the beasty with the noise you could wreck the whole tranny if a bearing chunks.

Darren

How many ton???

ivangene

that is a lot of tons !