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transmission woes... making a very strange 'SCI-FI' noise

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Old 10-23-2007, 10:04 PM
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transmission woes... making a very strange 'SCI-FI' noise

Yeah, thats the best way i can describe it. when its in neutral and i rev it up, its fine. if i rev it up in gear, i hear something whining/winding up in the transmission. sci fi is the term that comes to my mind. i have NO idea what it is... jiffy lube did the tranny oil... im thinking they didnt put enough in??? i have no clue ive never heard this before... anyone help!
Old 10-23-2007, 10:08 PM
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in my runner the tranny input bearing whinned fro 5000 miles then went to crap. Put in a spare i had not knowing if it was good or bad and it howls in 1st, 2nd and third but has done it for 10k with no issues except for noise.
Old 10-23-2007, 10:12 PM
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somehow it seems to grab a hell of a lot stronger, and believe it or not, the truck seems to be.... stronger. much more torque, much better accel. i got out to check the hubs, thinking it was in 4x4 and thus was responsible for the torque, but no. unlocked and in 2wd. think it might be the synthetic tranny oil kickin in?
Old 10-23-2007, 10:13 PM
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doesnt sound like a bearings going out either
Old 10-23-2007, 10:25 PM
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hmm never heard of that befor, dont know what to tell you. My 4runner feels like it has double hp when it rains and the air is dense....
Old 10-24-2007, 07:13 AM
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this has me baffled, i was up until about 1 last night diggin thru the manual and i didnt find anything even close that resembled the noise.
Old 10-24-2007, 07:50 AM
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Don't take it to aamco that is for sure. I had a bad experience with them and cost me a chunk of change to get it right
Old 10-24-2007, 07:53 AM
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Originally Posted by ozziesironmanoffroad
jiffy lube did the tranny oil... im thinking they didnt put enough in??? i have no clue ive never heard this before... anyone help!
Pull the fill plugs and check the gear oil level. Should be just at the bottom of the check hole.
Old 10-24-2007, 08:14 AM
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yeah i think i found out what it is.. i went out this morning to put my new insurance cards in the glove box, and it appears that the tranny is leaking, a lot worse than before. i mean its not like, a big puddle, but enough to have me worried. didnt leak that bad before i took it to jiffy lube. think that could have caused the noise? and should i take it back to jiffylube since they worked on it last and it didnt leak before they touched it? they have this thing on the receipt.. warranty on workmanship only due to high mileage. qhat should i do???
Old 10-24-2007, 12:02 PM
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Originally Posted by ozziesironmanoffroad
yeah i think i found out what it is.. i went out this morning to put my new insurance cards in the glove box, and it appears that the tranny is leaking, a lot worse than before. i mean its not like, a big puddle, but enough to have me worried. didnt leak that bad before i took it to jiffy lube. think that could have caused the noise? and should i take it back to jiffylube since they worked on it last and it didnt leak before they touched it? they have this thing on the receipt.. warranty on workmanship only due to high mileage. qhat should i do???
Take it back - Nothing Ventured , Nothing Gained
Manual or Auto by the way ?
Old 10-24-2007, 07:15 PM
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its a 5spd manual. and i put it up on the lift at work today and me and my mechanic went all over the undercarriage. found the leak. the green stuff is actually coolant leaking out of the freeze plugs(pressurized the cooling system), the tranny isnt leaking out of where i thought it was leaking, its leaking out of the seal where the clutch thingamajig boot is on the side of the tranny, mixing with the dirt and grease to become 'black gear oil'. so my only option is to drop the tranny to put a new seal in, and while i have the tranny out, im gonna put a new clutch in, since it seems to be slipping a bit at high rpms. might as well also, since ive never done it with this truck. all this is being done next paycheck. any good brands of clutches? or should i just buy an OEM factory clutch? im not sure i want a racing clutch... i want one that will last as long as this one has.
Old 10-25-2007, 07:32 AM
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Originally Posted by ozziesironmanoffroad
its a 5spd manual. and i put it up on the lift at work today and me and my mechanic went all over the undercarriage. found the leak. the green stuff is actually coolant leaking out of the freeze plugs(pressurized the cooling system), the tranny isnt leaking out of where i thought it was leaking, its leaking out of the seal where the clutch thingamajig boot is on the side of the tranny, mixing with the dirt and grease to become 'black gear oil'. so my only option is to drop the tranny to put a new seal in, and while i have the tranny out, im gonna put a new clutch in, since it seems to be slipping a bit at high rpms. might as well also, since ive never done it with this truck. all this is being done next paycheck. any good brands of clutches? or should i just buy an OEM factory clutch? im not sure i want a racing clutch... i want one that will last as long as this one has.
yeah the whining at higher rpm in gear sounds like a throw-out bearing or pilot shaft bearing is going bad anyway so good choice

Your leak from the clutch arm area - sure it is not the slave cylinder leaking ?
Old 10-25-2007, 07:37 AM
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I think Excedy Clutches, Inc has made a lot of the newer model TRD clutches, might want to check with them, I have run them in cars before, and they were always nice clutches.
Old 10-25-2007, 07:56 AM
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The 5 speeds have historically failed at the bearings supporting the higher gears...usually 4th gear. In neutral, a whine would be the input bearing or cluster gear...generally its the input bearing. Sounds like you will be due an overhaul in the near future. The bearing will continue to deteroriate. All of the above presumes you have the proper amount of gear oil in the transmission.
Old 10-25-2007, 08:08 AM
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Agreed with all. Remember -and I may be instigating some discussion here- but if you had a slow leak with dino oil, SOMETIMES it'll become a fast leak when you switch over to synthetic. So if you can't get after it for awhile, keep an eye on level and maybe top off with dino? It's cheaper, may leak less and you are essentially just pouring it on the ground anyhow.
Regardless, good luck.
Old 10-25-2007, 08:11 AM
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Manual Transmission Problem

Originally Posted by SEAIRESCUE
The 5 speeds have historically failed at the bearings supporting the higher gears...usually 4th gear. In neutral, a whine would be the input bearing or cluster gear...generally its the input bearing. Sounds like you will be due an overhaul in the near future. The bearing will continue to deteroriate. All of the above presumes you have the proper amount of gear oil in the transmission.
If you are getting the whine in gear not moving while holding clutch down then more than likely it is Pilot or Throwout bearing , if you get it excessively while in gear and moving then it is probably internal bearings .
Also we are moving into cooler weather and manual trans oil is getting thicker and this can cause some noise as well due to poor distribution and high vis , there are some much better gear oils out now than the standard and these trannys are very pacticular with the older gear oils .
I changed mine to Mobil One Synthetic 80-90 and oh what a difference that made for mine , mine was noisey and hard to get in gear when cold as a result of using traditional over the counter gear oil .
There are some threads on the forum in regards to some others that people have found to eliminate all their manual shifting and or noise problems
Old 10-25-2007, 02:41 PM
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the part that is leaking is the front tranny seal, and oils dripping out of the clutch arm boot. so i gotta drop the tranny to fix the seal, and since i will have the tranny out anyway, im gonna do the clutch. if i could afford it, id do a tranny rebuild. but my casings all messed up, i think im gonna look for a used tranny. i dunno. thanks all, some great stuff here. its getting the 'whine' while im in gear while im moving. it never did it before i took it to jiffy lube. i dunno. will repost once its done. will take pics too, so you all can see how black my underbody is
Old 10-25-2007, 02:47 PM
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If its leeking out the clutch fork boot that means you have a bad front seal on the transmission, you might be able to save putting a new clutch in as the reason its slipping is most likely that there is oil on the friction surface of the disk.
Old 10-25-2007, 05:27 PM
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yeah, thats what i said. i think. if not, oh well you said it for me. its the front seal on the tranny. need to drop the tranny to fix it. and while its down, since i have NEVER done the clutch on it, and the previous owner who had it for about 9 years never did a clutch on it, im gonna do it. might as well do it since the trannys down, plus covered in oil.
Old 10-26-2007, 09:52 AM
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Manual Transmission Problem

Originally Posted by ozziesironmanoffroad
the part that is leaking is the front tranny seal, and oils dripping out of the clutch arm boot. so i gotta drop the tranny to fix the seal, and since i will have the tranny out anyway, im gonna do the clutch. if i could afford it, id do a tranny rebuild. but my casings all messed up, i think im gonna look for a used tranny. i dunno. thanks all, some great stuff here. its getting the 'whine' while im in gear while im moving. it never did it before i took it to jiffy lube. i dunno. will repost once its done. will take pics too, so you all can see how black my underbody is
If you are getting the whine after jiffy lube while you are driving then they probably used the crappy standard diff. oil , change it to some synthetic (i used mobil syn) or one of the other gear/diff gear oils that peeps are using here on the forum and that will fix the problem there , these manual trannys are funny with some of these gear oils because they are too thick, do not provide good cold lubrication and do not distribute well in the housing while in use.
I used to have the same problem with mine before I went to the syn and it would be hard to shift a little as well as whine.

Last edited by n4ynu1010; 10-26-2007 at 09:53 AM.


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