330 Ci gear whine

I have a 2001 330Ci with 30,000 miles. I hear a slight rear end gear whine under light load. It doesn't seem excessive yet; but, I thought it unusal for the milage. Does anyone else have this and could it be considered normal. The nearest dealer is like 100 miles away; and, I hate to make the drive just for that. (I'm one of these people that, most of the time, prefers to listen to the car, instead of music; and, I probably hear too much.)

Reply to
tk
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It will be the differential.

Reply to
R. Mark Clayton

Thanks for the reply. When I said rear end whine, I thought it would be understood that I was talking about the differential. If it's not, maybe there's a cat in my trunk!

Reply to
tk

A dog is more likely to make a whining sound than a cat is. On the other hand, SWMBO is of the opinion that a "rear end whine" sound is more likely to be coming from me, at 2 a.m. in bed.

Reply to
Dean Dark

Is it possible it's a wheel bearing? Perhaps a rear seat passenger would localize it to one side?

Anyway whine in a 30k mile car is not ok, get it looked at. It won't go away, it will get worse until something gets damaged. If they "don't hear it" when you bring it in, be sure to bring it back again before the warranty is up; it will be worse by then.

-Russ.

Reply to
Somebody

tk wrote: > I have a 2001 330Ci with 30,000 miles. I hear a slight rear end gear whine > under light load. It doesn't seem excessive yet; but, I thought it unusal > for the milage. Does anyone else have this and could it be considered > normal.

FWIW, my 2001 330Ci has "suffered" from a mild rear-end whine since it was new. As you noted, it's noticeable only when the drivetrain is lightly loaded.

In my case, I hear the whine only when going above about 60 mph on the highway, and even then, the whine is heard only when the throttle is backed off a bit--the whine usually appears when the gas mileage indicator is hovering around 45 mpg (I'm using the mileage indicator as a rough indicator of drivetrain "load"). At any "load" above or below that 45 mpg mark, the whine goes away.

The whine is most noticeable when the car is going down a long, shallow grade on an interstate. The whine is not really "loud", but it's definitely noticeable.

I have no idea if the whine is harmful, but I've noticed no ill effects in about 53k miles traveled thus far.

Chris

Reply to
alt.auto.bmw

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