Subaruclub.ca

5th gear in my 05 LGT whines like 2nd gear.

My wrx whined in 2nd but not at all in 5th. I understand this has to do with the profile of the gear. Just wondering if its normal for an LGT or a defect.

67k miles. Stock. Gear oil has not been swapped out yet. Previous owner did not beat on it.

The LGT has straight cut gears for first and second, but not fifth. Maybe it's somewhere else in the drivetrain that only becomes noticable at fifth gear speeds.
LGT's do have rear wheel bearing issues and can be replaced under warranty up to 100K miles (I think). Normally that feels different than gear whine, but it could be easily mistaken for the same thing.
I recently replaced the front left wheel bearing (hub assembly) on my LGT. It was louder when turning right tipping me off to the location of the problem. I think it's harder to determine when it's in the rear, but I've seen people put their cars on jackstands, start it up and 'drive' it. A helper listens with the shaft of a hockey stick on the centre hub nut to determine where the noise is coming from. Of coure it could be one of the diffs, or another problem in the transmission/drive system. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the input Keith!

checked gear oil - level, colour and smell were all good. (well smell is rather gross...but normal)

My '98 Impreza's 5th gear has been whining for the last 3 years now. (Currently at 300K) Hasn't gotten any worse, and I've had other vehicles with similar sounds. A pretty simple way to distinguish the drivetrain sound from a wheel bearing noise: get up to speed and pop it in neutral, keep the clutch in.. if the noise stops it's not a wheel bearing. Does the sound change under varying acceleration/deceleration? Unless it gets worse, it's probably nothing to worry about.

Thanks Mikaz,
Its definetely related to the 5th gear. I popped it into neutral on my way to work this morning on the highway and it went away.

Sound increases with speed in 5th.

I asked the previous owner about it and he said he hadn't noticed anything.

Apparently 60K service has been done so that should be relatively new gear oil.

I'm just trying to make sure everything is good with it before I start sending more power through there

5th in my WRX whines like crazy about 80% of the time, has for a while. 230k on it. I should probably do a fluid change this spring.

I had an old Nissan truck one time with a drivetrain noise. It sounded like gear howl from the rear end. It ended up being a transmission idler shaft bearing. It was the front bearing, so it was noticeable through all gears, but if it was the rear bearing there may be a possibility that it would show up significantly in 5th. Then again I have never had one of these transmissions apart...they may be different. Does it do it at all in any other gear?

Just 1st and second. Third and fourth make no noise at all. As soon as I pop into fifth the whine starts.

My transmission whined at times an it was due to the output shaft thrust bearing having some spalled rollers. We had to run the car on a lift to hear where the noise originated.

After spending an hour and a half in the drivers seat. I'm going to say that its the turbo whine, not 5th gear.
/thread.