WR1 Owners Club

Hi has anyone come across this? at around 60 i start to get a high pitched noise from what seem's like the transmission, the pitch increases the faster i go, strangely if i go up an incline or hill the noise reduces or goes away!! If it was a gearbox bearing you would think it would get worse going up a hill due to the extra load, if you take your foot of the throttle the noise goes away, even the slightest pressure on the accelerator brings it back. it reminds me of the noise you would get from a car stereo without a supressor. it does it in each gear at the same speed so doesnt seem to be related to any particular gear...

Mite sound daft but do you have an induction kit.

No the cars standard!

Having had gearbox problems on my old williams this sounds pretty much the same...However they are totally different cars so don't panic...well not yet anyways.

A quick test is to simply drain the gearbox fluid - it should be fitted with a magnetic bung but drain into a clean container just incase.

If the sound is from a nackered input bearing then there will be signs of excessive wear in your fluid, and sometimes bits of the bearing stuck to the magnet. If it is all clean, then you can relax and top it up again with fresh.

A cheap check...but could save you lots more if you find the problem early.

As stated above, it might not be that at all - but does sound very similar, strange a 6sp would be break though.

My gearbox had to be rebuilt by subaru cause of a whine, Cost over £700... But they replaced every bearing in the gearbox,

Foley wrote:My gearbox had to be rebuilt by subaru cause of a whine, Cost over £700... But they replaced every bearing in the gearbox,

My gearbox has whined slightly since I got my car. Subaru told me that it would cost £1500 notes to get the gearbox fully refurbished but also said it wont affect the function of the gearbox. So with that in mind 3yrs down the line, same whine but 1500 still in the back pocket.

I too did cavemans check and checked the magnetic plug for metal shards but found none so simply replaced the oil as normal.

Megaman wrote:

Foley wrote:My gearbox had to be rebuilt by subaru cause of a whine, Cost over £700... But they replaced every bearing in the gearbox,

My gearbox has whined slightly since I got my car. Subaru told me that it would cost £1500 notes to get the gearbox fully refurbished but also said it wont affect the function of the gearbox. So with that in mind 3yrs down the line, same whine but 1500 still in the back pocket.

I too did cavemans check and checked the magnetic plug for metal shards but found none so simply replaced the oil as normal.

Mine was done while it still had it's subaru warranty so they covered the rest as a good will guesture,

Foley wrote:My gearbox had to be rebuilt by subaru cause of a whine, ,

I heard it was more of a scream from Kirsty, scared shitless from you driving into buses

thanks for the input guys, Going to get Brian Downie to drop the oil out of it and see if that helps, it had a driveshaft oil seal leak about 4 weeks ago had lost about 1 litre of oil before it was spotted but may be just a coincedence! have to say the noise buggs the crap out of me, so I reckon the box will need to be dropped and looked at and will chuck a new clutch in while it's out..

WR 1mpostor (aka number 1 moderator) wrote:

Foley wrote:My gearbox had to be rebuilt by subaru cause of a whine, ,

I heard it was more of a scream from Kirsty, scared shitless from you driving into buses

Being in a car with kirsty is scary sh*t, She's the worst driver ever
It's me who's doing the whining...

seanyb wrote:thanks for the input guys, Going to get Brian Downie to drop the oil out of it and see if that helps, it had a driveshaft oil seal leak about 4 weeks ago had lost about 1 litre of oil before it was spotted but may be just a coincedence! have to say the noise buggs the crap out of me, so I reckon the box will need to be dropped and looked at and will chuck a new clutch in while it's out..

Have you found out what caused the noise?

I get the same on mine - a whine once I get up to motorway speeds that is very noticeable. I took it to the main dealers to have it checked and they said all is ok so nothing to worry about - the car isn't under warranty so I guessed they would soon have told me if it needed any work.

Not driven any other WR1/STIs so don't really have anything to compare it to.

Think I'm going to find an independent specialist for another check for peace of mind.

still haven't found the cause, but it does it bang on 60 and above, you can dip the clutch and take her out of gear still get the noise need to get more investigation had two specialists and a dealer who can tell me whats wrong!!

Mine is the same, starts bout 60, gets louder by 80. I always thought it was the turbo or something?

Seems a bit strange that a number of owners are reporting very similar symptoms.

What sort of miles have the cars done?

L

57k on mine

Update on the gearbox whine, finally fiqured out what it is, at the rear of the box there is a bearing on the output shaft it quite high in the box so when I lost a litre of oil it allowed it to run dry, it can be gotten at by removing the rear of the box, replacement cost about £60 no need to drop the box which is good! apparently the 5 speed box was bad for this but the 6 speed is usually ok so the oil leak seemed to cause the problem..

Good news fella !

Glad you found that out seany, mine does the same, i just thought it was the speakers too, Looks like its going in the garage again !

My mates wr1 is havin this problem and hes not registered on here so im guna post for him.

Does the noise sound electricified?

Where did you get the bearing from? And how will he know which bearing to order?

Thanks

I had very similar when I bought mine rear tyres were worn more than fronts..Swapped them front to back got ride of the noise:-) don't know how long they had been run like this but was obviously causing the noise!! Diffrènt rolling radius maybe??

No whine from my beast all nice and quiet

the noise could be described as electrified, It always reminded me of the noise you got from a radio with no surpressor

Do u have the part number fr the bearing? Or an exploded diagram of the 6sp box