Abnormal whine?

[dlb]

definitely check the gear oil sooner than later. you don't want to damage it by running it with low oil and have to replace it.

try to jack the car up on a slight incline to keep the trans more or less level for an accurate reading of the oil level. the easiest fill plug to check from is just aft of the driver side CV axle. clean the area up with a rag first so the dirt doesn't fall inside, then remove the plug. it's a shallow 24 mm bolt and will likely be torqued on quite hard so use a breaker bar with a cheater pipe to break it free. if a small amount of oil doesn't pour out when you remove the plug, stick your finger in the hole to feel for it. if you can't feel any oil, it's low. either top it up or drain what's in there, clean the magnets on the drain plugs, and refill the trans with fresh stuff.

[Petros]

If you do a full drain and refill, make sure you get 4 quarts into it. there is a thread with detailed procedure for changing the trans gear oil.

[simon]

I'm also wondering about a transmission whine.

Mine happens when I depress the clutch, and I can hear it better when I'm on neutral and not moving. Really just like a slight grinding whiny noise.

I replaced my gear oil yesterday, hoping that it would fix it, but did not do anything.

[dlb]

that will most likely be either the throwout bearing or the pilot bearing. both of them spin when the clutch pedal is depressed, the throwout bearing on the fingers of the pressure plate and the pilot bearing in the center of the flywheel. they might sound bad but are not generally a cause for immediate alarm. they usually come with everything else in the clutch kit and are replaced when doing that job.

[simon]

Mm the weird thing is that the previous owner had just changed the clutch before I bought the tercel off him a few months ago... I would trust that, the clutch feels quite new.

[irowiki]

He could have thought either of the bearings were "good enough" and not replaced them. Or he replaced them with defective (from the factory) bearings.

[geobond]

Ok. I had something similar happen to me the other day with my new to me tercel. When I pushed in the clutch, the starter would kick on.... I wasn't sure it was this until I purposely engaged the starter with the car running. It sounds awful, certainly a grinding and squealing noise . Also, the dimming of the lights at night tipped me off to the starter as well. Anyhow, I noticed that my ignition key was not returning all the back to the acc. position after starting. When I made sure to back the key off a bit to the right position on the ignition, the sound and starter did not engage when the clutch was depressed. It was really weird, but somehow when the ignition did not go back to acc., and I depressed the clutch, the started would engage.

Good luck,

George

[dlb]

geobond, that's because of the clutch safety switch. you have to depress the clutch to start the engine so if the key is stuck in the 'start' position, it will only send power to the starter when you step on the clutch and close its safety switch circuit.