yahu

iTrader: (55)

I'm hoping you folks can help me identify a death-whine issue that has reared its ugly head on my setup. For the last couple months I've been hearing what I described as a low tone "whirring" coming from the front driver side area of the car. I only seemed to notice it when pulling into my garage as the sound would bounce off the wall. At first I thought it was the sound of the FP-Black at low spool. In the last couple weeks the whirring has gotten a bit louder and what I started to think was a phantom noise from my paranoia has turned into a full blown problem.

As a bit of background, I'm on a stock clutch at ~45k miles, and pushing 500whp on my DD Evo. I don't launch or track my car, but I knew something would eventually have an issue, and assumed my clutch would be first. The whirring I described above was when I was driving into my garage with the clutch engaged (foot not on the pedal), so I knew this sound was likely not my TOB. In the last week or so I started researching what else it could be, and I am wondering if it is my input shaft bearing.

Today I was decelerating off a freeway exit ramp and all of a sudden the whirring became a loud whine for a split second. I hoped it was the car next to me, and couldn't repro the sound again. 15 miles or so later I was leaving a parking lot and I had to get on the gas to get in front of traffic, and once I shifted from 1st to 2nd the loud whining was here to stay. The clutch still grabs and holds strong, btw.

Currently when I am driving in any gear at about 2k rpms the whining starts loud and gets progressively louder/higher pitched to 3k, at which point I have not pushed past due to the harshness of the whining at that point. The whining is unrelated to speed but to rpm, and the more load that is put on the motor, the earlier the whining seems to start. For example, if I am going up a hill the whining seems to start almost immediately, whereas driving on a flat surface I can keep the whining at bay with early shifting.

Seeing that I am driving while this is happening, with my foot obviously off the clutch pedal, I am certain this is not the TOB. At a full stop I can put the car in neutral (foot off the clutch pedal) and throttle up until the whine starts, but it is quieter and seems to come at a higher rpm. I assume this is because neutral has less load on the motor and less systems connected (tranny, etc.) to amplify any vibrations/noise. I haven't tried throttling up in neutral with the clutch pedal down, but I don't know if that is necessary at this point.

So with those symptoms does it sound like the input shaft bearing or could it be something worse in the tcase or transmission? I am thinking that since this repros in neutral that it is more likely to be the input shaft bearing.

I'm going to drain fluids in the coming days to see what material might come out of the tcase, tranny, etc. hoping to provide any clues. When I did all fluids 10k miles ago, I had extremely few shavings on any drain plugs and floating within the fluids. After looking for clues in the fluids I'm not confident, nor do I have the tooling to continue working through my tcase, tranny, or possibly something in the motor, so I will figure out how to get the car to English Racing.

FWIW, I have all bolt-ons, M2 cams, Magnus v5 IM, and I'm running the FP-Black. I am also on the stock bottom-end at this point. Any thoughts or things to try would be much appreciated. If there are any questions please let me know. Thank you!

MyEvo8Urs

iTrader: (4)

I am intrested to see what reply's you get, I have same sort of problem, I was told TOB by a few people. but, I ran it by Pure Tuning and took one of the guys there, he said it was typical Evo sounds.

black95tt

iTrader: (13)

Have you inspected the timing belt and associated pulleys, gears, etc? If it's more RPM related than speed, I think it's safe to rule out drivetrain issues. Hope you get it figured out.

yahu

iTrader: (55)

Thanks or the replies. A good friend suggested belts (which I wasn't thinking of) so I'll be looking into that too.

@ MyEvo - this definitely isn't typical Evo sounds so hopefully your situation isn't too similar. The whine is so bad by 3k that I can feel the vibrations in my left foot on the dead pedal, and it sounds like something is about to explode, sending bits into the cabin.

Mine started off as a low "whirring" that progressively got worse, so while I don't want to scare you, you might want to get more opinions. I was already chalking my noise up to phantom noise, until it started getting louder.

BTW - if the noise is present when your foot is off the clutch pedal then it is likely not the TOB because there is no stress on it at that point.

WAIRONWORKER

iTrader: (6)

Thats hard to say, I have had pulley's that make a similar sound when the bearings in them go out. belts i suggest also. when you are driving does the car act any differently?

yahu

iTrader: (55)

Good point - it doesn't seem to, but I wasn't really paying too close attention to some of the other systems in the car as I was focused on the whine and shifting, and keeping my lower legs intact. If it was the timing belt I'm sure there would have been a noticeable change.

yahu

iTrader: (55)

*update*

Okay, I haven't gotten around to draining the fluids as I got a new job (FML on the timing!). I drove the car around a bit today just to see if I could narrow in on the sound a bit. I can definitely reproduce the whine in neutral but it is quiet enough that I couldn't nail down where it is coming from. It is definitely metal-on-metal and teeth seem to be grinding.

Something interesting, when the whining gets real loud above 3k I can push the accelerator but the car doesn't get moving very fast, almost like a slipping clutch. However, the rpms don't jump. I'm guessing that has to be tcase or input shaft bearing at this point. It is in every gear so I don't think it is the transmission, and the symptoms don't point to throwout bearing or clutch either (issue occurs with foot off clutch pedal and rpms don't rise).

Any thoughts? I think I have time to drain the fluids this Saturday which I hope pinpoint the issue (metal chunks in the tcase or tranny area?) and I might try to gingerly drive down to English Racing next week.

yahu

iTrader: (55)

anyone with feedback?

Berts24

iTrader: (3)

again the fact that it's rpm related and not speed makes me belive it's not drivetrain related plus the fact that you said it's not that noticable in nuetral backs up me up even more..... if it was drivetrain related the noise would be loud if lets say you throw in nuetral at 50 mph

yahu

iTrader: (55)

^agreed with that. I'm guessing tcase or more likely input shaft at this point. Maybe not the bearing, but gearing related to the input shaft? There are definitely teeth grinding when this occurs.

Thanks for the input - anyone else?

yahu

iTrader: (55)

bump for input. I should be draining the fluids tomorrow.

iTune

iTrader: (3)

Could be a whole host of things. Belts, tensioners, water pump, oil pump, pulleys, balance shaft and/or belt......the list goes on and on. Start troublehooting appropriately. GL!

dbsears

iTrader: (37)

Don't rule out a wheel bearing...not usually the case at these miles but it can happen. I'm guessing something in the tranny. I have a fairly loud intermittent howl when decelerating above 50mph but it has never got any worse so I don't worry too much.

I have heard input shaft bearing going out on MR's but it shouldn't effect your acceleration.

erald01

iTrader: (5)

is the noise constant through out every gear and speed??? does it sound like a siren kind of whine?? if so it could be the tacase..check this video and see if you relate to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXbisxnAW-s

traxxasman

iTrader: (1)

I've also have a whine. Can't tell where exactly its coming from just that its from the engine bay. It seems like its synchronized with the engine rpm's. And you can only hear it during idle rpms. Waterpump? Alternator? Powersteering? IDK