nah its not a turbo spooling, its a high pitched whine and it goes away after 3k rpm. and it only happens in first gear.

So figure when you're at 2k rpm the whine starts and from 2k to 3k it gets louder and it goes away right after. at the same time it is feint and it's masked by all the engine noise and turbo spool. Im wondering if its my MR SST Tranny?

drivetrain noise.
could also be pulleys on the engine. new pulleys are nice and tight. When I did the timing belt on my old RA I replaced all pulleys and since then the engine had a whine through 2500 rpm.

My Evo does it too. I love it.

It almost sounds stupid but you know when you use those disposable cameras and you use the flash? then you click the button to recharge the flash? that whine noise is what i hear.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Yea I noticed that as well. I once shut off the cabin blower motor and I think the noise went away. I doubt thats what it was, I just thought it was a curious coincidence.

Does it by chance sound like this?


(apologies for the dusty dash and having to star at my vents)

I've been wondering about this particular sound for some time. I've heard some people say it's an indicator of shaft play/dieing turbo, this is my first FI car so I can't really say. It's been really cold here the past few days, either the sound has developed or I've just noticed it recently.

My friend's X has a very similar noise in the same RPM range... about the same that you're describing, above 3500 it seems to ebb away. Can't confirm if it's normal or not (granted two cars making a similar sound) but I go to the dealer in about ~400km for my next service so I will definitely be inquiring about it..

My car makes that noise as well, but its not the one that i am describing. Im going to make a video when i get a chance, but i feel like the video wouldnt really pick up the noise as it is very feint.

Oh I knew I was f'd if it was the turbo. But the dealer I go to is pretty chill but not chill enough to cover the turbo (if that's the problem in my case). Just got back from them today.

Got back from the dealer today thinking it was the turbo whine and the tech came out to talk to me and suggested it may be the alternator tension spring. They had several cases with it in the past couple months. Taking it back on Monday so they can do a cold start drive to hear it.

+1

mine does it too

My car does that too, seems louder in winter than when I first got it late spring.

It's the turbo spooling. The turbo is right in front of the fire wall so the sound of it spooling is going to peep through the vents into the cabin.

It's the transfer case if the noise is only in first gear at low rpm. Normal drivetrain noise. If if was the turbo, it would not go away past 3500 rpm. If it was t-case death whine it would occur throughout the rev range

+1 on transfer case

T-case is covered under 60k mile warranty correct?

It is depending upon your mods. My dealer here will not honor any warranty work if a single mod is on the car. If not covered under warranty, Jack's Transmission will do a rebuild for $2.3k but, like I said, a death whine is loud and will persist throughout the RPM range....even cruising in 5th. Just YouTube "Evo X death whine". What you're describing sounds like normal drivetrain noise to me if it only happens in first under 3500 rpm.

I actually am stock right now. I saw the vids on yt for the death whine and that's not what it sounds like to me. I don't think the OP mentioned it whining throughout the rpm range either. Like I said I'm passing it off as operation noises.

If your nervous about it, get some diaqueen LSD gear oil, drain, level the car and use the overfill method to fill the t-case. Then drive around for 10 minutes and pull the fill plug with the car level to check the fluid level. The t- case holds about 0.8 L of fluid.