hi guys,

Was wondering if you can clear up something for me.... I've done a bit of searching around on this site and found quite a few topics on diff whine. Most seem to indicate that diff whine thats directly proportinal with road speed is most likely the lead up toa blow diff. In my case I'm getting slight diff whine that slightly noticable with the roof down and quite noticable with the roof closed. The difference with me is it seems to be a specific range or RPM or rd speed. For example in 6th gear at 90KM/h it start to whine under power and by the time I've hit 100KM/h or approx 62mph the whine is gone.... is this normal for the S2000 ? it happens in all gears I'm guessing at specific RPM/load. IF you exceed that range or go below it in that specific gear the whine stops.... I'm not sure how long its been happening for (maybe 6 month)... the car has so many noises with the roof closed that I cant tell whats normal and whats not !

Thanks

 

First thing I would do if you haven't already is to drain and replace the differential gear oil. These little pocket rockets tend to wear down lube quite fast comapred to your average DD. The manual specs on frequency of change are a bit lenient IMO.From a bit of first hand and some research I've done it would seem that at least every 15,000 and better at around 7,500 miles would be a better frequency to change the lube.. Tight meshes and high revs ,which are present in S2000s like clean lube.

That said,I purchased my 06' s2000 several weeks back and the service records that came with it showed the rear lube to have been drained and replaced 18,000 miles before I bought it.When I drained and changed it it looked more like weak coffee than fresh lube.I've heard what I thought was an occasional whine myself ,but it never lasted long enough to pinpoint nor could I get it to repeat at will at any rpm range or gear.My guess is that it is merely the nature of the beast ,so to speak.
Of course I haven't driven numerous S2000s and could not honestly attest how all perform with respect to your concerns,. Best advice I have is to make damn sure it has clean high quality diff. lube of the recommended viscosity range. I put synthetic in mine when I changed it as well as the Honda MTF in the tranny before I drove this thing 100 miles.

 

hmmmm ok I guess its worth a try. I had the 80K km major service last year and have only driven maybe 3000 miles on it since... all the fluids were changed by honda during the major service... or at least thats what I'm told and have paid for. I might try some synthetic and see if it makes much of a difference.... I'm hoping all this is normal for the car though. sounds like diff problems get VERY $$$ to fix ! and I dont even thrash the car ever

 

They may have filled with the wrong fluid, I would change it right away with some 75/110 or 75/140 Amsoil, Red Line, or some other top brand GL-5 hypoid gear oil.
The rear takes just under a US quart to fill...good luck

 

Puddy, do you have a preference between Amsoil 75w110 or Amsoil 75w140 for these diffs. I just dumped my Amsoil 75w110 after a 5000 mile run with it and I had a large amount of black paste on my drain plug, I figure it was the remnants of past fluids being cleaned up but I can't be sure. I sent a sample of the fluid out for used oil analysis, waiting on the results. In the meantime I just put in Amsoil 75w140 to see if it may be an improvement, not sure if it is better or not.

To answer the op's post, I get some kind of mechanical whine at lower rpms in certain gears, it only lasts a few seconds and goes away. I'm not sure if it is the diff or the tranny, it doesn't sound like a maintenance issue but more of a natural frequency in the mechanical parts. I think if you have a failing diff you will hear the noise constantly.