1990 Legacy Wagon Gear Whine (how much is too much?)
Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 6:47 pm
New to the board, just picked up the fourth sub of my lifetime.
1990 Legacy Wagon, 5 spd, with 135000 miles on it. Drives good, engine sounds perfect, runs smooth. So far haven't been able to ID any bind in the driveline around tight, slow corners. No rust on the body. Clutch seems good.
The one thing I notice is an amount of gear whine in 1st and 2nd gear. Most noticeable when the car is accelerating in those gears. Is much less audible (turn off stereo, listen closely) when decelerating in those gears. When I push the clutch in you can barely manage to hear any whine at all, and only at certain speeds. If I push the clutch in and pop it out of gear it goes away entirely. Noise is gone at higher speeds and higher gears.
So my question is this, do these first gen Legacys have a louder than normal gear whine when they start getting up there in mileage? I understand old cars have gear whine. I've owned a 96 Outback Auto, 00 Outback stick, and an 04 Legacy stick in the past. Also owned a bunch of old volvos / vws with 5spd. This noise in the new sub is just over my tolerance of normal.
I plan on checking the front transaxle fluid ASAP and adding if necessary. Could this be cause by old (original perhaps) trans fluid? Should I be using Redline MT-90 or do you guys have a better fluid? Are these transaxles durable / reliable for the long haul? Any help is appreciated. Would love to know if this is a tell tale sign that she's gonna pop a trans.
Thank you
1990 Legacy Wagon, 5 spd, with 135000 miles on it. Drives good, engine sounds perfect, runs smooth. So far haven't been able to ID any bind in the driveline around tight, slow corners. No rust on the body. Clutch seems good.
The one thing I notice is an amount of gear whine in 1st and 2nd gear. Most noticeable when the car is accelerating in those gears. Is much less audible (turn off stereo, listen closely) when decelerating in those gears. When I push the clutch in you can barely manage to hear any whine at all, and only at certain speeds. If I push the clutch in and pop it out of gear it goes away entirely. Noise is gone at higher speeds and higher gears.
So my question is this, do these first gen Legacys have a louder than normal gear whine when they start getting up there in mileage? I understand old cars have gear whine. I've owned a 96 Outback Auto, 00 Outback stick, and an 04 Legacy stick in the past. Also owned a bunch of old volvos / vws with 5spd. This noise in the new sub is just over my tolerance of normal.
I plan on checking the front transaxle fluid ASAP and adding if necessary. Could this be cause by old (original perhaps) trans fluid? Should I be using Redline MT-90 or do you guys have a better fluid? Are these transaxles durable / reliable for the long haul? Any help is appreciated. Would love to know if this is a tell tale sign that she's gonna pop a trans.
Thank you