Hi guys, I just got a 98 a4 2.8l with a 5 speed on saturday. It's making a noise in 1st gear when I get going above about 10 mph. Kinda hard to explain, sounds like a whirling noise and gets louder the higher I take the rpm before shifting. The noise is only in 1st gear, goes away after shifting to 2nd and doesnt come back. Anyone ever have experience with something like this? Thanks

 

Obviously a "noise" is pretty vague. Any chance you could take a video or audio recording of it? Does the noise dissipate if you depress the clutch?

 

from what others told me theres a wind up noise in first gear... and that noise is from your transmission and its normal... not sure if thats the same noise you're hearing but maybe that helps lol

 

It's from a chipped tooth (or teeth) on first gear. There's nothing you can do to fix it. A quick search will turn up tons of threads on this topic, its been covered many times.

 

thanks for the responses. Maybe I'm not doing it right but a search for "first gear noise" or "noise in first gear" both return 0 results

 

I just tried it and it doesn't look like the forum search is working at all lol . It was never that good anyway though, so you're not missing much. I like to use google. If you type "site:www.audiforums.com" after whatever your search term is, it will restrict the search to this site. Here's a couple:

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/b5-...noises-154701/

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/b5-...rating-181745/

Basically, the noise you're hearing is caused by one or more chipped teeth on first gear. This is common in 01A transmissions. There's not much you can do about it besides replace or rebuild the whole trans with used parts. You can buy a "rebuild kit" for that trans, but its gonna run you between $600 and $1000, and it doesn't include gears. Its not going to hurt anything if you leave it like that, but the noise will just get louder until first gear eventually frags itself. I drove my old A4 with that noise for like 2 years with no issues.

 

not to be a dick, but if your tranny frags itself, i would like to hear it! lol

 

So I would assume hard acceleration in 1st (ie launching the car) would make this happen faster?

 

[QUOTE=needsmoreboost98;1382601]Hi guys, I just got a 98 a4 2.8l with a 5 speed on saturday. It's making a noise in 1st gear when I get going above about 10 mph. Kinda hard to explain, sounds like a whirling noise and gets louder the higher I take the rpm before shifting. The noise is only in 1st gear, goes away after shifting to 2nd and doesnt come back. Anyone ever have experience with something like this? Thanks.


I have same noise in 1st gear only. I dont think mine is a chipped gear. i got under car to see if I could see anything obvious. I shook axle and tried to find a issue, I couldn't find a thing. After I put the car back down. The noise went away for over a week ,then started again. If it was a chipped tooth it would always make the noise