Diff/prop whine

[horatio]

W210- I've had my centre bearing changed which has solved a bit of clonking but now I have a whine (from the rear/diff) when accelerating at approx 40-50mph, especially going up hills.

Any thoughts why this could have happened and whether this should concern me?

I'm going to change the diff oil to see if that makes any difference.

 

[Ted]

I've had a diff whine on three of my cars -w124, w210 and r170.
It never got any worse, and I'm sure it got better on the 210.
I did do an oil change on the 124 and I'm sure it was a little quieter but that may have just been a placebo.
Tip. Make sure you remove the filler/level plug before the drain plug.

 

[kid-jensen]

It's always worth changing the oil in the diff, but in my hard-won experience, it'll make no difference to the whine. The damage has already been done.

Sorry....

Only fix that regularly worked for me was an extra layer of sound insulation under the rear carpets and rear seat. Mechanically, the diff will probably go on for many more years, but not get any quieter..

 

[horatio]

Thanks, owning a 190 means I'm well used to a bit of diff whine.... what is a bit worrying is that its started after the centre bearing has been changed. Is it possible that something could be misaligned?

 

[kid-jensen]

It's more likely that the center bearing noise covered the whine a bit....

That being said, it's possible there's a misalignment....maybe a suspension bush was stressed too much during the spannerwork and split or broke-up? There's certyainly plenty of them, and the while only needs one transmission path to the body to sound a lot louder.

I would still recomend some additional sound insulation though..

 

[horatio]

I've noticed the whine does actually seem to go once the car is well warmed up (20mins or so driving). I'm going to drain and refill with some high tech, sci-fi synthetic bulls**t I've bought on ebay and see what happens.

I doubt what comes out will be pretty after 17 years and 165,000 miles

 

[giusepppe]

try to get hold of " Activ8", that will definitely reduce the noise.

 

[horatio]

Well I changed the oil with Lucas 75w90 fully synthetic. The whine is actually a bit worse now.

I tend to think this oil might be a bit on the thin side so I'm going to change again for factory spec 85w90 and see what happens. The oil which came was bloody disgusting and can't have been doing it any favours, saving 10 mins (it is that easy) and £15 worth of oil may result in a rebuild

 

[RichardF]

Mobil 1 gear oil is what you want.

 

[horatio]

Its got worse and whines under 30, absolutely shrieks when cold

I guess my options are:

1) Scrap and buy a new car. Bit of a shame as its not a rotbox.

2) Replace with a used diff. Could waste money fitting a part which is just as bad.

3) Rebuild it. A lot of expense on an old car. Knowing my luck it will be a bad job.

Hmmm. Leaning towards 1.

 

[RichardF]

Why not try the correct oil 1st?

I'm not too sure about the Lucas stuff you've put in.

 

[horatio]

Sorry should have said, I have filled it with 85w90 GL5. No difference I'm afraid. I called Hardy Engineering in Surrey who do rebuilds, they reckon I would be looking at around £6-700 to remove/repair/refit.

 

[toolman1954]

Hi,
For £6-700 and often even less, you can get a whole E300TD. I would go with option 2 and find a good used one off of a breaker. Many reputable breakers will give you a guarantee. My old E300TD was at 180000 when I sold it and no whine at all, so there are "whine free" out there.
Steve

 

[horatio]

I still reckon it might be the centre bearing so I'm going to pop it back in to the garage. Bit of a coincidence it starts right after the job, before that there was no whine at all. It wasn't a genuine part as I was only charged £30.

If it is the diff, I will go used. Will be a faff as there seems to be loads of different ratios used, even on the same model.

 

[WDB124066]

I got lucky with this once in a Triumph TC...

MOREY?S HEAVY DUTY OIL STABILIZER | Morey's Lubrication Systems

A friend has had luck with this in his helo gearbox... http://www.powerupnz.co.nz/690g.html

 

[Deadly Dave]

Any idea which bearing causes the whine ? My 300CE is whining for the past 20K miles and I wouldn't mind doing the job myself.

 

[horatio]

Any idea which bearing causes the whine ? My 300CE is whining for the past 20K miles and I wouldn't mind doing the job myself.

I think its usually a pinion bearing on the diff on those (?). My 190 has a faint whine on deceleration between 40-50. They all do it and nothing to worry about.

The whine on the w210 is way louder, Last time I drove the car it absolutely shrieked at just under 30 going uphill. I know something is wrong so I'm not driving it until it goes back in.

 

[Deadly Dave]

I think its usually a pinion bearing on the diff on those (?). My 190 has a faint whine on deceleration between 40-50. They all do it and nothing to worry about.

The whine on the w210 is way louder, Last time I drove the car it absolutely shrieked at just under 30 going uphill. I know something is wrong so I'm not driving it until it goes back in.

Thanks Horatio

 

[horatio]

Well I have listened more carefully to the noise - its more from the trans end of the propshaft than the diff. I have ruled out the diff.

The noise has got worse, there is a high pitched whine at about 30-40 mph when cold, this mostly goes away when warmed up. The 40-50 remains and is less high pitched.

I took the car back to the garage who did the centre bearing, they drove it numerous times and said they think its the transmission but they can't diagnose it. That said they are 100% sure its not the centre bearing A bit farcical really.

Not surewhat to do. I could take it to another specialist with an excellent rep (like John Haynes) and have a genuine bearing fitted and see what happens but it will be good money after bad if the trans is indeed going bad.

Thoughts please!

 

[horatio]

View My Video

- I recorded the noise and uploaded to tinypic

I think it sounds pretty similar to other centre bearing noises I've found on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9vlTXxX3JQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mF6FqFh03M