My friend has a 98 Se 5 speed and while in gear (mainly first and second) it makes a whining noise which is dependent on engine RPM. It has nothing to do with the motor because i would push the clutch in and rev to make sure it wasn't coming from the motor. What could this be? Throw-out bearing bad? Bad sinchros? Anyone have any problems like these?

 

bad differential bearings ...

how many miles?

eventually, the whining will spread into all 5 gears and you will notice a tranny fluid leak coming from the driver side axle.

 

yeap, like he said above - same thing happened to me, faint whine that got progressively louder and then spread through all the gears - my suggestion: get on car-parts.com and look for a used 5th gen trans. and swap it before it gets worse.

 

ok thanks for the input

 

How quickly will the spreading take place? Because I have had the whining noise primarily in 1st and second since I've owned the car (2000). I can't say it has gotten much worse. At time of purchase in 2000, it had 46K miles. Now, it has 95K miles.

 

yeah.. mine too
hasnt gotten worse but still whines in 1st
i assumed it was just the previous owner engine braking into 1st or just bagging on the poor gear in general.
i have a trani leak coming from the gear housing, nothing from the drivers side axle

 

Ditto for me with the leak too. It is so slow a leak I only check it once a year and only have to top it off every 1 1/2 or 2 years.

 

Last time I heard a whine in my car like that my alternator blew out. There was literally smoke coming from it. Luckily, there are recalls on them and got it replaced for free. Towing and everything.

 

It only does it when its in gear. If it was the alternator it would while in every gear and in nuetral when you rev it. It didn't do that though.

 

yeah ... if the whining sound is in first and 2nd gear and you have some leaking ... i woudln't suggest to just jump and change your tranny. It's not like your tranny will explode on you on the free way or anything. I drove with bad differentials all the way till the whining spread to 5th gear (10-15k mi). The leak didn't get any worse than it was since the beginning ... on and off - especially leaked when the car was driven for a long time... and the smell of tranny fluid on a hot day sucked.


just save up money .. i suggest you keep an eye out for a 5th gen 5-spd tranny and go from there, or just rebuild your tranny and cross your fingers the problem doesn't happen again.

 

my car does the same thing

 

It could also be a throw out bearing, or input shaft bering, or main bearing, you have to keep in mind, someone who is there (a mechanic) and can actually hear the sound and test w/ pressing the clutch in and letting it out is going to be able to give you the best answers

 

I also have a 99 SE-L that makes kind of a whine in 1st and 2nd. I think mine is attributed to the alternator or air compressor, because it is only really noticeable when the air is on.

I don't know if it could be that on yours, but check that out too.
Good luck.