I have an 01 CL-S that has a low pitch whining noise coming from the front. It's on the second tranny with about 20k. The car has 95k now. Can someone out there maybe try to describe to me what bad wheel bearings sound like. The sound is constant, low pitch, tranny shifts fine, gets a little louder at higher speeds not much though. I do remember hitting a big pot hole a few days ago. I'm taking it to Radley Acura in VA. Any help on this greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Leo

 

Drive until you hear the noise. Put the tranny in neutral. Still hear the noise, probably wheel bearing(s), not tranny. Also, a bad bearing will tend to get louder driving around a curve (bad bearing on the outside of curve).

 

Unfortunately, when you are in neutral, you still have the tranny going along for the ride. You've uncoupled the torque converter and engine, but you still have a number of tranny bearings, diff carrier bearings, countershaft, final drive gear, and diff gears engaged and rotating. All of these parts are located inside the transmission's (actually the transaxle's) case.

What you’re suggesting will certainly help to isolate some possible items inside the transmission *and* all of the clutch packs SHOULD be disengaged when in neutral.

However, you could still have a completely trashed transmission that would make noise(s) in neutral.


Let the dealer look at it...

 

I assummed he didn't have the ability to check the radial and lateral run-out. I thought the clutch packs were the most common tranny failure?

My bad tranny was quiet in neutral.

Any vibration? If you are due for a rotation and balance, get that done first. Then let the dealer look at it. Don't expect the wheel bearings to be covered at 95k.

 

They generally are. However, there are some problems with bearings and once the ATF gets rank enough, it will help trash the bearings. There have been a good number of people that had lots of noise coming out of the trannies. If the ATF gets trashed, it will not do a very good job of lubing the bearings -- and they did have some Q/C problems with the some of the bearings.

As I mentioned, the neutral trick helps to diagnose...

 

Maybe it is your tires.