Just what it says, my T5 is whining in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, not at all in 4th, then again in 5th. It also grinds in reverse but shifts through the forward gears fine except for the whining. What is causing this?

Also i wanted to know if changing the oil in the tranny would help and what oil to use if it will help? Any additives and so on?

 

just a guess , when was the last time you check the fluid level ? sounds like it might be very low . a little more info. , W/C or non W/C ? year of car ? you may get away with a fluid change . later trannys used ATF , early ones gear oil . i like full synthetic ATF in mine .

 

Its a 92 z28. Im sorry i didnt put it in the first post. I checked it lastnight and it was VERY VERY low... I added and we will see today if it is better.

 

I had the same issue with my T5. Oil was leaking out the rear seal only when the car was in motion. Turned out that it was almost out of oil. I threw some 80W90 in it, and changed the seal. Even though the transmission doesn't leak any oil now, the sound never did go away. I find turning up the music helps.

 

Well do you still hot rod it with the whine? I mean will it hold up ok to the pounding?

 

I sure do. It hasn't gotten any worse.

It's currently the on my 74 Camaro. Mild 350 (200 hp, 300 ft-lbs). I drive it fairly hard.

 

I recently swap to t5 from auto and put on a rebuilt WC on it. The gears whine on first second and third. I have researched this alot. Many people say it is normal but I dont believe so. Here is a post by user NXCOUPE from another forum:

Ok, I will take a stab at this. One, if you just got it rebuilt, it didn't whine before, and it does now, then pull it out immediately. Something was done incorrectly and you are destroying it by driving it.
But first, lets talk about 'rebuilding' a transmission. I have heard this term abused so much on the internet. A transmission isn't rebuilt by putting new blockers and little bearings and seals. The gears do the work, the blockers and frictions slow the gears down so they can mesh together, like little conical brake pads on each gear. Oh and forth isn't a 'gear' per se, it's just locking the input and output shafts together, so the whine will disappear in 4th usually. To 'rebuild' a trans, it requires gears being replaced because I have never, never, never had a T5 come in for a rebuild that didn't need at least 2cd gear and a 1-2 slider replaced. If the trans was pulled it's always because it is either clashing(grinding) between certain gear shifts, or popping out of gear, or it has had a major failure of gear teeth.
Now that we have that out of the way, you are not rebuilding anything, you've just stuck a bunch of new parts into a bunch of worn out gears, which since they were bathed in ATF, except for the one guy that thinks he owns a 69 camaro and used MTF, your small bearings and such are still like new. Rarely do they need replaced except in a catastrophic failure, like gears breaking teeth off. The reason they use ATF is because all the little nooks and crannys are so small that a thick oil will not be able to penetrate and keep them lubricated properly. Every T5 I have pulled apart with gear oil in it needed every bearing replaced because if it. It's thick and flings off of the bearings and gears as they spin faster.
Back to the original question at hand. Gear whine. 90% of gear whine comes from the input not being shimmed properly by the trans person, I won't say rebuilder because of the lengthy explanation above, when they put the bearing retainer on. They usually just leave the old shims in and seal it up and call you for their payment. The input shaft should have around .002 to .004 endplay if I remember correctly, I've done it so many times I don't even use a dial indicator anymore. I have probably rebuilt 200+ T5's over the past 16 years. Maybe more. I am not sure. The next thing that makes the whine, this is probably about 3% of the time, is the little needle bearings in the back of the input shaft get damaged or one gets left out, or a piece of dirt gets into them, or someone puts the spacer ring on the wrong side of the needle bearings, or it is shimmed too tightly and the bearings get hot. The last thing it can be is from the thrust Torrington bearing and the race(round steel ring, looks like a shim, but smaller) being switched, in other words, they are put on in the wrong order. This is all that causes what you are hearing. The other thing is it can be caused from the trans getting really loose as far as the shim goes, and the gears get 'gulled' which is when they get a pattern on them that can be seen under a magnifying glass, which I always keep on my bench.
Quick way to tell it if is shimmed properly, if you grab the input on the part that goes into the pilot bearing with your thumb and index finger and you can wiggle it more than 1/32", then it is shimmed too loosely. If you grasp it in the same manner and it doesn't move at all, it is shimmed too tightly and this will ruin the trans, by heating everything up and burning up the needle bearings I mentioned earlier.
Hope this helps. Tranny's can go for miles making that **** noise, but they usually don't last long under power. Usually what happens is the teeth get thin from wearing funny and not meshing correctly and they will loose their strength,and then sheer off. Or a bearing can get hot and come apart.
That's all I have for ya.

 

Thank you so much for the great info.