Possible problem?
 

Also posted on TSN but here seems busier atm so apologies if you have read it over there

Last night coming home I thought the car sounded a little more 'whine-y' than usual so asked my mechanic to have a listen this morning as I didn't want to keep driving it and do serious damage.

The sound is coming from the back of the engine low down and whilst linked to engine speeed is a lower frequency 'drum drum drum' with about 2 noises a second at tickover. He's going to shove it on his ramp and see if he can geta better idea of where its coming from.

Anyone experienced anything similar?

Now the gearbox has a years warranty which runs out next month......

I obviously hope its just me being paranoid and theres nothing wrong but I doubt I'm that lucky. In which case here's hoping its the box and the garage don't fight the warranty claim.

Tough to really get a feel for the problem you're describing there - Perhaps remind us the year / engine of your car etc ?

If you can take a video, with sound of the noise, even better....

Gearboxes dont generally make drum drum drum noises - They're generally silent. If they have faults, they would only really show up when driving, or when changing gear....

Maybe someone else has first hand experience of a noise similar to this and can chip in.... ??

car is a D2, manufactured late 97, registered 98, 4.2 quattro sport.

I wasn't sure if it could be something like the torque convertor.

My mechanic has VAG-COM so I'll ask if its reporting any error codes.

We tried eliminiating power steerring by going lock to lock and it made no difference, tried in P, D and R - again no difference. Also switched in and out of LPG

Like I said, perhaps its just me being paranoid but you know how it is with a new ( to me) car, my old Volvo I knew all its noises etc and would pick up immediately if something 'new' appeared, at the minute everything is a new noise on this. I must say though its so quiet inside I only noticed it outside when I got out whilst the engine is running to move some glass off the road in front of the car. From inside I can best describe it as sounding like when you have a plug that isn't suppressed properly and you get that whirring through the radio. Its only very quiet inside such that even at very low volume the radio drowns it out.

I'll try and get a recording of it and post up

Update:

No error codes on VAG COM

On the ramp the noise appears to be coming from the bellhousing area, the mech said "if it was a manual I'd have sworn it was a noisy thrust bearing". Obviously thats not an option here...

Anyway the garage owner has a friend who is a long time Audi mechanic and knows these cars and has offered to have a listen to it tonight.

So hopefully I'll have some news tomorrow.

Update from last night.

They crawled over the car from above and below with a stethescope etc

Noise is definately from the box from just in front of the 'pan/sump' on the bottom. I'm guessing thats front diff or input shaft bearing thats likely to be on its way then :(

Anyone know the insides of these boxes care to comment on whats in that area?

Here's hoping the warranty is rock solid then............

Errrr that's not so good. What sort of warrenty have you ot?

the box was fitted 12 months ago and came with a 12 months warranty...I'll be calling it in tomorrow hopefully they will just honour it and fix or swap out for a re-con one or something.

Hope it works out ok.... Many warranties will only 'fix' things that are 'broken' ie completed defunct and the car can't move.... Noises are usually something they would push back on my experience as its not strictly broken... Let us know how it goes ??

i have a sound clip of it recorded on my mobile held underneath the car but the forum software wont accept wav files. I'll try and host it somewhere else

If you're stuck, email it to me at forum@a8parts.co.uk and I'll host it on our servers for you +++