Technical Whistling in 5th gear.

[bacardipops]

Hi peeps,

I have just bought a seicento, everything going well apart from when I change to 5th gear, there is a whistling noise when I accelerate. Anone have any idea why this would be before I have to take it to the garage?

Mucho thanks

 

[fingers99]

Check gearbox oil level immediately. If 899 or wet shaft (non Sporting) 1108 check driveshaft to gearbox seals for leaks.

Failure of seals will take out the gearbox very quickly indeed.

 

[Dragon Man]

this happend to mine pal.. when i got my car it only had around 300ml of gear box oil and it was black filthy.. it has a 5th gear whistle (turbo mode i call it) now because of it. with mine it only happened when i get over about 45mph in 5th. the whistle slowly faded in as the speed got higher.
what happened was the previous owner bodged the inner CV boot drive shaft seal and cause the boot to actually come off it by fitting the wrong type.

its all fixed now, new boots and new drive shaft seal.and new oil.
i still get the 5th gear whistle but its no way near as loud as it use to be.

i think that if it is your gear box thats causing the whistle the only thing you could do is get it refurbished or replaced

ill run mine till it dies, and when it goes ill replace the box and the clutch. who knows, it may never fail.. the driving i do, i don't get into 5th much.

 

[lazybones51]

Mine was the same when I bought it, CV Gaitor split = very little gear oil

Unfortunatly mine got louder and more high pitched the faster you went in fifth, even after replacing the boot and putting a good oil in it still sounded awful.

I ended up scrapping the box and sticking a known good box on.

 

[jimbro1000]

Ignoring all the doom and gloom it could just be the backlash on the 5th gear set. Older fiat boxes were notorious for having one gear that did this because you could never get all of them exactly right without an incredible amount of luck.

If the box is low on oil you can normally tell just by listening to the noises coming from that end of the engine bay (bonnet open, in neutral with the engine running). It typically sounds like a gentle ringing noise.

I had a box that did this - the shaft seals were replaced 3 times before anyone worked out that the driveshaft cups were ever so slightly narrower than the seals. No amount of hard work was going to fix it short of replacing the cups (not a viable option as they were custom made). I semi-combated the issue by using a very heavy oil (redline lightweight shockproof) which helped trace the problem (it was bright blue so I could see when it leaked) and made the gearbox as smooth as silk. The seals stopped leaking but it was so heavy that it just got pumped out the top of the box through the vent instead!

Getting back to the real problem though and assuming it is a leaky box, if you have the tripod cups on your box it is something of a doddle to swap the seals. One side presses in while the other side just bolts on. Don't try and do both at the same time as the diff gears will rotate and you'll have a nightmare lining them back up. The only real problem is likely to be the spring clips bending when you pop the shafts out. If you can it is a good idea to obtain a couple of fresh ones before you start.