Dct transmission whine

[Jive]

The transmission has been solid for the past year but I did notice it was emitting a strange noise for a few months now. It is a high pitched whine that is only heard when I am on the accelerator AND in an odd gear. I did a forum and google search but didn't find anyone that had the same problem.

Aside from the noise, the transmission has performed flawlessly. So I dropped my car off for low mileage oil change and asked them to check the transmission while they are at it.

They gave me a call back saying they failed to reproduce the noise but invited me to take a drive with the head tech. Did that this morning and the tech was able to hear it when I pointed it out to him.

So they are going to keep the car for another day and have a bmw rep look at it. I don't know who this bmw rep is but they said it is good timing as he was currently at the dealer and would know more. I'll post an update to let you guys know what they say.

[TrevorM3]

i bet your tranny gets replaced.

[dmk08]

Whine could be from the diff?

[to///m]

i get minor whine sometimes but its nothing that really sounds bad, i just figured it was normal diff whine or something... interested to hear what happens

[Jive]

I haven't done much research on the diff whine but If it was diff whine wouldn't it be in all gears and be irrelevant of the accelerator position? The reason I think it's the tranny is because the noise is coming directly from the dct, rather than the back.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Jive

I haven't done much research on the diff whine but If it was diff whine wouldn't it be in all gears and be irrelevant of the accelerator position? The reason I think it's the tranny is because the noise is coming directly from the dct, rather than the back.

How many miles on it ?

[dmk08]

I have owned quiet a few of these cars and frankly they are just noisy. I used to freak out about everything but now I'm just like 'whatever this mofo is under warranty'.

[dparm]

It is indeed a noisy trans. I would certainly monitor it, but for now I wouldn't worry.

[dmk08]

Originally Posted by Dasmatu

So when does he start to worry?

Op make sure they do a full diagnosis. Transmissions should not make any weird noises or whines.

Except every one in every E9x I've ever owned.

[meez]

Originally Posted by dmk08

Except every one in every E9x I've ever owned.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by Dasmatu

So when does he start to worry?

Op make sure they do a full diagnosis. Transmissions should not make any weird noises or whines.

Yeah, I get your point. It is hard to say. I think it will be hard to diagnose until it gets much worse.

[phrozen06]

check your water pump. it may just be the pulley.

[Lucrecio84]

same exact thing happened to me when I had my DCT w only 25k miles on the clock. Had BMW take a look at it and sure enough they told me the tranny was going out slowly but surely. Because my car was an 08 my warranty had expired time wise and they wanted 15k to put in a new one.... good luck

[Jive]

Originally Posted by Lucrecio84

same exact thing happened to me when I had my DCT w only 25k miles on the clock. Had BMW take a look at it and sure enough they told me the tranny was going out slowly but surely. Because my car was an 08 my warranty had expired time wise and they wanted 15k to put in a new one.... good luck

That doesn't sound promising!

I just spoke with the SA. The rep confirmed the noise but diagnostics haven't shown anything. So they recorded the noise and are sending the audio file to the manufacturer to see if there is anything to worry about. Have you guys heard of dealers doing this?

[Jive]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

How many miles on it ?

Almost 11k.

[Jive]

So I just heard back from my service advisor. They said at this time they are going to consider it a normal noise and will not proceed with any repairs. They opened a case for the car with bmw na and will keep looking into it. They don't have enough history of these transmissions to know whether this is a faulty transmission or not.

However, the bmw rep said they want me to periodically bring the car in every couple months to review it again. Especially if it's louder or does not go away.

...Sort of an indirect and fluffy way of saying that it will probably become an issue in the future.

[to///m]

Originally Posted by Jive

So I just heard back from my service advisor. They said at this time they are going to consider it a normal noise and will not proceed with any repairs. They opened a case for the car with bmw na and will keep looking into it. They don't have enough history of these transmissions to know whether this is a faulty transmission or not.

However, the bmw rep said they want me to periodically bring the car in every couple months to review it again. Especially if it's louder or does not go away.

...Sort of an indirect and fluffy way of saying that it will probably become an issue in the future.

how distinct is your whine? Like it it noticeably loud or do you really have to be listening to hear it?

I have a very quiet whine periodically when I'm around 2-3k and the RPM are rising slow, i figured it was normal but reading the above scares me

[Beemdog]

Originally Posted by to///m

how distinct is your whine? Like it it noticeably loud or do you really have to be listening to hear it?

I have a very quiet whine periodically when I'm around 2-3k and the RPM are rising slow, i figured it was normal but reading the above scares me

Mine has a small amount of gear whine also in certain conditions. Barely noticeable. I, too, figured it was typical. I had a hotrod with a '69 GM Turbo 400 automatic that whined like an SOB in first but never had any issues (it actually sounded quite cool).

[4er_Meister]

Mine whines but the foreman at the dealer said thats just normal for the DCT