Ok so i have been reading plenty of posts about the dreaded tcase death whine and it seems like in every one of them people say if you still hear the noise with it in neutral its the tcase and others saying if the noise stops while in neutral its the tcase which is the correct answer? My 03 VIII is making an odd whine like noise when cruising at 55-60mph and I am almost positive it is not the tcase because i just had mine rebuilt along with the tranny a little over a year ago and i just changed my fluids with diaqueen and both the tranny and tcase were dirty but absolutely no metal in the oil or on the drain plugs. I am beginning to think its just a normal drivetrain noise but im still paranoid. if anyone has dealt with this knowing its not their tcase it would be awesome for some input on it and thanks in advance. i should also add its more so at 55-60mph and not just 5th gear because sometimes in 4th at 55-60mph it makes the noise.

 

Sounds like it could be tcase whine. Post a clip.

 

Yea i will have to get around to seeing if i can capture the noise or not. But everyone that i have known or talked to that has had a tcase go out on them has had metal in the tcase fluid whereas mine was clean as could be which confuses me.

 

does this happen at any throttle position? or cruising at 55-60 only? full throttle or full decel as well?

 

It only happens at 55-60 mph and only if i am cruising at very little throttle, if i get on it or speed up past 60mph or slow down below 55mph it goes away and if i am say getting on the free way and speed up to 70 giving if like half throttle you cant hear the noise, only if you are cruising at 55-60

 

are you sure it's not a vibration?
what clutch are you running?
I've got a wicked vibration at that speed in my car. Just like you described, it only happens at light throttle (cruise), it goes away on full lift off and partial acceleration.
It seems to have been accentuated with using solid urethane mounts for my rear diff and mustache bar.

Someone gave me the idea that the transfer case could be slightly misaligned? did it start after you reinstalled the transfer?

 

I am pretty positive that it is not a vibration, but i am just running a stock clutch and as far as i know it has only been doing it for like a week or so and it just seems out of place and i am just stumped as to what it could be.

 

hmmm.. I have an exedy twin. and when i get up to around 50 or something and let off throttle, i hear this weerrrrr weerr noise. Is this what you hear? It happens in 5 and 4th im not sure about 3rd..

 

^same here

 

This is "clutch chatter" im running the same clutch and it dooes it in every gear when decelerating. The more heavy duty the clutch is the more it does this. The easiest way to tell is at whatever speed ur car is making this sound when declerating slightly disengage the clutch and it should go away. If it does its just chatter and nothing to worry about. One major no-no people often do to eliminate the noise is rest their foot on the clutch pedal to eliminate the sound but as u should know this will wear the clutch out.

 

I know what noise you are talking about because my '05 does it too. It's been there since I bought the car in April and has never gotten any worse. Like you, I use Diaqueen and found no metal when I changed it about 3k miles ago.

It's only at 55-60mph right? It then shuts up when you press slightly on the throttle and, say, inch up toward 65-70. If your noise is identical to mine, you should hear it during deceleration (find an off ramp and put the car in neutral) all the way down to around 40 (it's extremely hard to hear over your exhaust/tires/wind), and then it, once again, disappears. If it's really faint, that's a good sign. From what I understand, "Death Whine" is very loud- even to the point you can't hear a passenger.

Transfer case? Probably part of it, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. Still, I had a very reputable tuner here in DFW drive my car. He said all Evos make this noise to some degree, and you should really only be scared when the noise gets louder as speed increases. In our cases, it seems audible only when cruising around 60mph.

I hope this gives you some solace!

 

Yea that is exactly what mine does..and i just did that today when i was getting off the freeway from 70mph and put it in neutral and let it coast til about 35 and i could hear it all the way down to around 40 like you were saying and it really is only at 55-60 and and if i am doing 70 on the freeway you cant hear it at all and this definitely does provide some relief but here in about a week i am probably going to have it checked out at boosted tuning when i get back home for school. but thank you for the insight!

 

hmm. i think ive had this noise before the twin disk was installed.

 

So is the noise ok?
I have a IX with aem stage 3 clutch, cat back, boost control. I just got my car back about a month ago, my tranfer case was being fixed as well as the clutch.
My car does same noise when in 5th goin 55-60 but my noise goes away when i get on it. Not give it a gas. The noise gets worse and louder. Lost and worried ???
???

 

Well i have had this noise in my car for about 7 months now and it has not gotten any worse and my car seems to be fine, i drive it daily and it is something i have just gotten used too. I am going to be changing my tcase fluids here soon and I'm hoping that it is still metal free so i really have not found out anything about what it could be, i guess if there is something wrong i am just going to drive it until it breaks lol