As i pass through 60-65mph i am experiencing a whining sound comin gfrom what seems to be the gearbox. The noise does not change if i change gear and is independent to engine revs.
It has done this from 30K miles to its current 65K miles. Bought car from Subaru, full Subaru service history (for what that is worth!).
52 plate Impreza WRX bug eye 2002 sportwagon.
Any ideas if this could be terminal? Final drive on way out? Any thoughts appreciated.

 

had a similar problem, the noise was very hard to pinpoint. on mine though it turned out to be a rear wheel bearing.
i thought at first it was a g/box or diff problem

 

Cheers for that - the sound sure behaves like a wheel bearing going west, except that it happens in straightlines/corners/acceleraing/braking/whatever. Very odd. Very annoying too, as 60 is a pretty common speed!

 

Mine does the same at 68mph

 

ahh right - so it could just be a transmission quirk. Normal stuff. It def could be described as a high 'ish pitched resonance. On and off quite quickly at 60 then 64mph. Glad i asked the question. Good forum this guys/gals - keep it up.

 

Im sure they cant all do it - mine is in for a service next month so i'm going to get it all checked out just to be on the safe side (gonna cost me a fortune this car i know it is!)

 

it will if you go to a subaru garage

 

Nah i'll take it to a local Subaru specialist down the road from me

 

nearly all newage do it.. even in the USA there was a big thread about it, one guy had subaru change the diff twice and the gearbox, the wing mirrors and the bonnet scoop trying to find out what it was. he never fixed it !

 

Subaru identified it as harmonic vibration in the diff.

 

So this means its normal then?

 

I had a whining noise as you describe only it could be heard from about 30mph. Had a few local garages look at it and they all said it was prob the gearbox and would need to come out, be sent away for repair the refitted. All at huge but undefinable cost. Not happy.

Went to APi, the put it on the lift and drove it with all four wheels spinning in mid air. Could identify where exactly the noise came from. I popped back there for a service a while later and they did a bearing change with the box still in the car. Takes a few hours.

Thw moral of the story is go to an expert, it will save a lot of hassle/ rip offs.

 

I recall a thread about harmonic or resonance issue on that age of car. Can't accurately remember the cure but it was something like adding a weight to the nose of the final drive unit to alter the natural resonance.

JohnD

 

Thanks for all the tips.
It certainly does sound like resonance

I'll just forget about it. If it aint broke...

 

harmonic noise results in the diff crossmember being changed first to the slightly thicker version and if it's still there after that it's a new diff