Noticing a whine sound when cruising at 70mph. Normal or not?

297 Views 7 Replies 3 Participants Last post by JS91, 13 d ago

JS91

Discussion Starter · 19 d ago

Just got my ST yesterday. Runs great but I noticed it makes a high pitched whine sound when cruising at around 70mph in gear 5/6. Don't really notice it at other times.

It is definitely audible but its not terribly loud and if I drop the speed a bit lower to around 65mph then it seems to get a lot quieter. Also when I decelerate in general it goes away.

I've seen people posting a similar situation with their cars. So is this just normal, or a sign that's somethings wrong? Maybe in the transmission?

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Darran

· #2 · 19 d ago

JS91 said:
Just got my ST yesterday. Runs great but I noticed it makes a high pitched whine sound when cruising at around 70mph in gear 5/6. Don't really notice it at other times.

It is definitely audible but its not terribly loud and if I drop the speed a bit lower to around 65mph then it seems to get a lot quieter. Also when I decelerate in general it goes away.

I've seen people posting a similar situation with their cars. So is this just normal, or a sign that's somethings wrong? Maybe in the transmission?

If it's a very very faint whine around 70mph it's perfectly normal but I mean very faint, you have to really listen for it, radio/music off etc, I asked about this when I first got my car brand new 8 years ago, after upgrading exhaust, cat, intake, I can no longer hear it, saying that after upgrading Turbo I no longer hear the intake lol.

The faint whine I'm referring to you have to a bit OCD to hear it.

On these cars they're known to sometimes come out of the factory with not a great deal of Gearbox oil, if you like tinkering it's a 15 min job to drop and replace the gearbox oil, I do mine every 20k miles or so:
Darran's SB MK7ST

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JS91

Discussion Starter · #3 · 19 d ago

Darran said:
If it's a very very faint whine around 70mph it's perfectly normal but I mean very faint, you have to really listen for it, radio/music off etc, I asked about this when I first got my car brand new 8 years ago, after upgrading exhaust, cat, intake, I can no longer hear it, saying that after upgrading Turbo I no longer hear the intake lol.

The faint whine I'm referring to you have to a bit OCD to hear it.

On these cars they're known to sometimes come out of the factory with not a great deal of Gearbox oil, if you like tinkering it's a 15 min job to drop and replace the gearbox oil, I do mine every 20k miles or so:
Darran's SB MK7ST

I would say it's not that faint, but would be masked by the radio being on a moderate volume. Although I do still notice it because i'm probably a bit OCD in that regard. I've looked at a lot of videos online and people who seem to have the same noise as me are saying it is gearbox related. Hoping that's not the case with me, I don't want to keep bothering the dealership because they've been really good with me but if this is an issue then it needs fixing that's for sure.

I'd say the sound heard in this video is very similar to what I experience at around 70mph in the higher gears at cruise speed >>> Vauxhall Astra J 2011 gearbox whine

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Darran

· #4 · 19 d ago

JS91 said:
I would say it's not that faint, but would be masked by the radio being on a moderate volume. Although I do still notice it because i'm probably a bit OCD in that regard. I've looked at a lot of videos online and people who seem to have the same noise as me are saying it is gearbox related. Hoping that's not the case with me, I don't want to keep bothering the dealership because they've been really good with me but if this is an issue then it needs fixing that's for sure.

I'd say the sound heard in this video is very similar to what I experience at around 70mph in the higher gears at cruise speed >>> Vauxhall Astra J 2011 gearbox whine

I made this post here which explains in more detail the faint whine mine had:

Wining sound

Hi all Not sure if I'm going a bit mental or whether I should be concerned... My car wines between 60 & 75mph in 6th. It's a 13 plate, 19k on the clock and is driven sensibly, mainly town driving, occasional motorway run. It's nothing too loud, can only hear it in the cabin when the radio is...

www.fiestastoc.com

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JS91

Discussion Starter · #5 · 16 d ago

Darran said:
I made this post here which explains in more detail the faint whine mine had:

Wining sound

Hi all Not sure if I'm going a bit mental or whether I should be concerned... My car wines between 60 & 75mph in 6th. It's a 13 plate, 19k on the clock and is driven sensibly, mainly town driving, occasional motorway run. It's nothing too loud, can only hear it in the cabin when the radio is...

www.fiestastoc.com

Can I ask, do you have an aftermarket rear motor mount or gearbox mount insert? Apparently these can transfer gearbox whine through to the cabin. After crawling under my car earlier I found what looked like the classic yellow polyurethane inserts. I'm no mechanic but after googling what the stock mount looks like, I'd say a previous owner has changed mine (see pics). I'm now suspecting this could be what's amplifying the sound I'm complaining about, as well as increasing NVH in general.

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Darran

· #6 · 16 d ago (Edited)

JS91 said:
Can I ask, do you have an aftermarket rear motor mount or gearbox mount insert? Apparently these can transfer gearbox whine through to the cabin. After crawling under my car earlier I found what looked like the classic yellow polyurethane inserts. I'm no mechanic but after googling what the stock mount looks like, I'd say a previous owner has changed mine (see pics). I'm now suspecting this could be what's amplifying the sound I'm complaining about, as well as increasing NVH in general.

Yes, I've had Mountune's RMM and I'm currently on my second Collins Performance RMM but I had that very slight whine when I bought the car brand new and completely stock, it's a common trait of the car.

Removing that RMM might help with NVH (especially when car is cold or you have AC on) but I doubt very much it'll help with your paranoia regarding this whine, if you remove that RMM expect wheel hop and slightly less precise gear changes when pressing on, if you don't' have excessive NVH leave that RMM on.

Like I wrote above these cars have been known to come out of the factory with less gearbox oil than what Ford recommend, so would be a good idea to drop the gearbox oil and put in the correct amount, this is a very easy job, luckily these gearboxes have both a fill and a drain plug.

Replace the gearbox oil, try to stop listening for that whine and enjoy the car.

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Tim

· #7 · 13 d ago

I had a whine on my old blue 66-plate ST. Picked it up brand new with 14 miles on the clock, drove from the dealership in Cambridge, got down the M11 (about 30 minutes) dropped a gear and the gearbox whined it's head off, I mean like serious, like you were dragging baked bean cans behind on the road. Changed up and down gears and varied the speed a bit and it went away, but there was always a faint whine noise if you listened closely. Got fobbed off by local Ford garage. But had that ST around 18 months and it never came back or caused an issue when I had it. Might just have been a friday afternoon car.

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JS91

Discussion Starter · #8 · 13 d ago

Tim said:
I had a whine on my old blue 66-plate ST. Picked it up brand new with 14 miles on the clock, drove from the dealership in Cambridge, got down the M11 (about 30 minutes) dropped a gear and the gearbox whined it's head off, I mean like serious, like you were dragging baked bean cans behind on the road. Changed up and down gears and varied the speed a bit and it went away, but there was always a faint whine noise if you listened closely. Got fobbed off by local Ford garage. But had that ST around 18 months and it never came back or caused an issue when I had it. Might just have been a friday afternoon car.

I think these cars do make all kinds of strange sounds tbh. But I had the dealership replace all the motor mounts for me with the standard OEM mounts. That whine I was talking about has gone now when cruising at the higher speeds. Turns out my suspicions were correct. There may be a slight whine left behind, but I can't really hear it so I'm satisfied and it definitely made a difference! Also the horrific vibrations caused by the A/C are no longer present and the car has less NVH in general. Much better to drive on the daily.

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Noticing a whine sound when cruising at 70mph. Normal or not?

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Wining sound

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