Dorian7

Alright guys this is totally driving me nuts. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here is the situation:

I have a 2005 TL with the 5AT. I purchased the car about 3 months ago with 48k miles on it. It has COMPLETE service records from the dealer including a tranny flush at 20k miles.

When the car is under any sort of load in 4th gear it makes a whirling/whining noise as the RPMs increase (more noticeable in lower RPMs). I know that it ONLY does it in this gear by using the manual gear selector.

I took the car to the dealer and the tech said that it was "normal" and sometimes the gears just wear and make that noise. He assured me he has heard A LOT worse.

So I did a little searching on here and did the 3x3 flush using Amsoil ATF but no dice. Still there (not any quieter either). Do you guys have any ideas? Obviously I don't want to spend money on a new tranny when it isn't actually "broken."

Thanks in advance!

pohljm

Check when your warranty runs out for the 05? 50K? My 06 was to 70K plus a little class action mileage, but i needed a new trans at 69K and then a few thousand later since the replacement was bad. It could possibly be the torque convertor. These transmissions are fragile and I would have your issues well documented so you can get some recourse if it goes.

Dorian7

Since it is an '05 I think it is out of warranty based on it's age anyways tho... I don't have an extended warranty or anything. It's strange tho that it doesn't seem to have any mechanical difficulties only the noise. Anyone else?

Dorian7

I should also ad that you can only hear it when it is around 2.5k RPMs or less. It is not noticeable at cruising speed.

Dorian7

Looks like I am taking it into a transmission specialist tomorrow. I will let you guys know what the verdict is.

Dorian7

Took it in today and the car tranny has a bad input shaft bearing. This is so ridiculous. The car has 51k miles on it and had a tranny service at 20k then again at 48k. The car was totally babied. These auto trannys are JUNK.

Dorian7

I wanted to explain what was explained to me so that if anyone in the future searches for this they will have the full information.

My car is a 2005 TL 5AT with 51k miles on it.
The car has COMPLETE service records from the dealer at every recommended interval.
Tranny service at 25k and 50k.
This car was babied and not abused in any sort of fashion.
All stock.

Apparently what happened is that the input shaft (the shaft that connects the engine to the transmission) has a bad bearing. There is no fix other than pull the transmission and rebuild it (est $2k+ in cost). The reason that you might only hear a whine or whirling noise is 4th gear is because that is the direct drive gear - so it doesn't use gear cluster like 1, 2, 3 and 5th gear does. So if your tranny is making a whine it's not "normal" like the dealer will tell you.