GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Here's a bit of a weird one...
This is for a 2003 FWD automatic with about 209k miles on it.

Lately I've been hearing a slight whine from the engine/transmission when I put my car into drive or reverse soon after a cold start. When accelerating, a sort of chugging/chain can also be heard. The behavior stops as the car gets to operating temperature.

I suspect that it has to do with the transmission because ethe behavior only occurs while in drive. I would imagine piston knock would occur when accelerating on park or neutral.
I recently did a ATF and filter change at 207k miles, and extracted ~1.2 gallons (near 5L) of the old fluid after dropping the pan. I refilled with the same amount using the recommended ATF. However, I recently found out that this certain transmission only needs about 3L of fluid.
The last owner (a relative) said he had the ATF changed at 160k miles or so. I also check the fluid levels at operating temp, and they seem fine, but somewhat thick.

Is it possible that I have too much AT fluid?

Its pretty easy to check the tranny fluid level. Once the engine is warmed up, cycle through a few gears, then put it in park, let it idle, pop the hood and check the dipstick

Putting it in drive or reverse puts a load on the engine, so it could be engine or tranny, or something else

joatmon wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 3:55 pm Its pretty easy to check the tranny fluid level. Once the engine is warmed up, cycle through a few gears, then put it in park, let it idle, pop the hood and check the dipstick

Putting it in drive or reverse puts a load on the engine, so it could be engine or tranny, or something else

agreed.

perhaps an engine mount or 4 are bad, causing some extra noises that you wouldn't hear otherwise?

I did a check yesterday according to the manual (15-25 miles of driving, sat for 5 minutes, cycled through gears) and pulled out the dipstick to find it about an inch above the top hot notch.

My front right engine mount may be bad, and I'm thinking about replacing all four eventually, but I doubt that's causing the noise I'm hearing.

From my notes. My last drain and refill of the transmission fluid I used about 3.25 quarts of Toyota Type IV.

You do appear to have overfilled the transmission. It should not be difficult to loosen the drain plug and let a quart or so drip out.
Note that the torque spec. is only 13 ft. lbs. on that tranny plug so don't go crazy on it.

Good deal. I've bought a quart of T-IV fluid just in case I let out too much. It's crazy how low the torque is for the transmission bolts and plug, but that's likely to prevent squishing the gasket from what I've read.

axelkabre wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 11:14 am Good deal. I've bought a quart of T-IV fluid just in case I let out too much. It's crazy how low the torque is for the transmission bolts and plug, but that's likely to prevent squishing the gasket from what I've read.

yep, it's tight enough it seals, but loose enough it doesn't get stuck in there.

Possibly a low torque because overtightening the pan bolts can deform the pan sheet metal, and overtightening the plug can strip the threads out of the pan.

Let us know if dropping the fluid level solves the whine on cold start

It took me a while, but I was finally able to empty some transmission fluid this past week. I've noticed that I'll likely need to replace the gasket, as it as a slight crack on the edge, although there has been no noticeable leakage.
The whining noise from the transmission takes less time to go away now, so I suspect that it was indeed overfilled. I'll post any updates if something else happens, but hopefully that was it!

I would just drain it and replace the gasket. You know it should take about 3.5qt to refill from a drain, so just drain what will come out and put 3.5 qt back in. Now you've done a second drain & fill and should be close to right on the money.