SpitfireS

If you remove the rear wheels there is less mass rotating = a bit safer.
It was pretty clear with the trans in gear where the noise came from in my case.
I didn't even need to use a screwdriver to listen to the bearings - they were pretty noisy.

WayneCallar

But from driving it how can you tell? The human ear sucks at pin pointing sound! I originally thought it was coming from the passenger side roof, I thought I had some kind of air leak as it sounds like that! Then as I was driving on the wide open road I put my ear to the centre console quickly and heard it coming from under the car! I thought it was this... untill DMS found three bits of metal in my diff oil lol, now I have no idea!

Doesn't the wheels hold all the disc, calipers, carriers on etc!? You would have to take these off as well if removing the wheels?

SpitfireS

Just put the rear on jackstands, block front wheels, remove rear wheels, start engine, in gear.
Ask a helper to sit in the car and rev a bit or make a ty-rap (or something) at the throttle to get a bit more than idle revs when alone.
Get under the car and listen, I'm sure you can hear it on the floor next to the car as well.
That way you'll know for sure.
And without rear wheels it is pretty safe IMO.
Watch out for the rotating prop shaft!

Red2ks2k247

Did any body here replace the bearings them self and live in cali and will to do it again for another member?

WayneCallar

So is it normally a better idea to get a newer low milleage gearbox and swap it straight over or refurb the current one? (Paying a garage to do the labour!)

I appreciate the former is a risk! The whine is really annoying me now! How easy would it be to soundproof the back of the gearbox do you think? My gearbox works fine other than this whine!

EDIT: Replaced my diff and it didn't change the sound! Needed to be done though I guess!

SpitfireS

The whine is because the bearings in the sec. reduction are damaged.
They will not heal themselves - unfortunately.
And if you don't hear them they are stil damaged
A damaged bearing starts to spread metal parts through the gearbox that might damage other parts - eventhough there is a magnet in the gearbox - this in not something you want for too long.

WayneCallar

I appreciate that curing the problem rather than hiding it is for the best, but i'm not in the financial state of being able to spend ~£1k on the car any time soon! If I can deaden the noise a bit, I could prob get another years motoring out of the gearbox! I have already bought a silly loud exhaust to try and hide it hehe!

I bought this car because I figured I had a nice one and I could get a years motoring out of it and not lose too much on depreciation. Tracking needs doing too, so £400 on the diff, £1k on gearbox and £xxx no doubt freeing up alignment bolts is... well... frustrating! But that's motoring ay! Lol. Oh and when replacing my front discs and pads I was told my caliper sliders were sticking badly so I need to find some money for a rebuild too!

Why couldn't I have found a cheaper hobby/interest like, uhm, knitting!

ICE9

I was curious if we ever found out the right part number(s) for the replacement parts for the tranny oil pump to bump up the pressure. I'm going through this exact issue now and want to prevent it from happening again, especially since the car will eventually be tracked somewhat. Thanks in advance!!

jkelley

Sorry to bump this old thread, but after having this issue for over 6 months I finally had the time to take care of this issue!

I chickened out and decided not to try and tackle this one myself, and thank god I did! I went to a local automotive repair shop that a buddy of mine at work recommended and he was awesome. Very knowledgeable, helpful, honest, and reasonably priced. He even let me buy all of the parts myself and ask him a bunch of questions because I was worried about compromising the differential if the output flange rotation torque wasn't in spec.

He replaced all 3 bearings. My output shaft bearing (rear-most) ball bearings rolled fine but weirdly the bearing exterior had play in the slot? Very weird. The top bearing more inside the tail shaft was the one that was SHOTTTT haha. HUGE chunks missing and pits on those rollers! Looked like crap.

I would definitely not attempt this repair without a lift. I'm so glad I didn't try. I can't imagine anyone attempting this without a lift now, even though people have said they've done it. We had to use a lot more tools to get everything apart, unpressed, pressed, and put back together than I thought. I definitely would have had to make a lot of stops to my local Lowe's or AAP had I tried this in my garage, and it would have taken me at least 8 hours, but probably more like 12. He got it all done in 3 hours though which was awesome! Some of the tools I wouldn't have thought of includes a smaller head ratchet to torque the bolts on the driveshaft so as to not strip the bolts and, slide hammer was definitely needed (some people said they didn't need one...?), and some 2 ft socket extensions seemed to be needed - I don't think 1 ft would have cut it for the bolts underneath the shifter.

Anyways, drove the car home and the noise was completely gone

And as a side note he mentioned that had I tried it myself that I probably would have messed up the oil gear timing (or something), I had no idea what he was even talking about but he said he "re-timed" it or something by aligning something behind the small gear I guess near the oil pump? He was totally right, I totally wouldn't have known to do that and would have probably oil starved my fresh bearings!

neuronbob

Bringing this thread back. I am having a grinding sound at all forward speeds, clutch in or out, especially above about 20 mph. Gotten louder with time. Had diff oil changed and no change in sound. How much does having the bearings on the secondary shaft cost? Thinking about bringing it to the dealer for this.