Gearbox/diff issue? Urgent help required

[gers1]

When driving, I hear this highpitched whining noise, which gets louder the faster I go. Initially, I thought it was coming from the engine but, when I take it out of gear the noise remains. Anyone got any ideas? Not sure if it might be a gearbox or diff issue.

cheers

Jonathan

[Error404]

Sounds familiar... mine does that
From your description sounds like the gearbox not the rear diff - likely input shaft bearing or diff carrier bearings.

[gers1]

Cheers mate. I got someone to change the seals on the rear diff recently; do you think problem could be related?

[Error404]

maybe. did they put any oil back in it?

The noise would come very defintely form behind you though, doubt you would have mistaken it for an engine problem?

[gers1]

Fair point. They definately replaced the oil in the dif. Noise is definately coming from the front - gearbox sounds like the most likely candidate.

[simon20vq]

Did it make a noise before the rear diff seals were done?

[mcandmar]

The original gearbox from my S2 did that too, a constant whine that varied with road speed. Oddly enough it didnt change pitch if it was under load accelerating or decelerating, or even costing in neutral. Was either a diff carrier bearing, or as i suspect the main bearing on the output shaft pinion gear end. It did get worse after the first few hundred miles i had it, probably due to the homefry and enthusiastic new owner

Looked into fixing it and found the bearing was 250 quid, plus the cost of various gaskets, and while your in there would be silly not to replace a few synros. In the end i decided a second hand replacement box seemed the better option.

Having said that, the replacement box has a whine in 4th gear, and the 2nd gear syncro is a little weak, you cant win sometimes. Someday when budget allows i will buy a new set of syncros and build a good box out of the two.

[Error404]

Yeah pretty much all the bearings in the 01E are special / unique and uber expensive... a full set of new bearings alone is well over £1k
Decent used boxes are getting hard to find now too, I think I'm going to DSY / EDU next but whatever it is I'll be opening it up to check it over first.

[gers1]

The problem I have sounds very similar to macandmar, although it does change pitch with the speed of the car, but not the engine speed. Can someone give me an idea of what the implications would be of not doing anything about it?

cheers

[gers1]

I've been having a look under teh car and think i amy have identified the problem. From reading other post, I think that the propshaft centre bearing has actually broken off its mounting - is this possible? It is free to move right the way round.

[s2driveruk]

yep, definately seen it stripped off the carrier and it'll rattle around a fair bit i'm sure!

[gers1]

I think i may be getting a bit mixed up about what part i am talking about. What i'm talking about is the (what seems like a) bearing between the gearbox and the diff - any ideas?