when i accelerate, the car has this whining sound. i have to turn off the music to hear it. this is heard especially driving on the highway when the car is accelerating faster. i hear the noise coming from the back and im assuming its from the differential?

 

Hard to say whether it's a problem or not without actually hearing it. It's not uncommon for a differential to whine a little, but a whine can also be a sign of trouble. Is this something the car only just started doing, or is it something you only just noticed?

Do you hear the noise on all road surfaces, or just on certain surfaces? You might be hearing tire noise. ???

If you can get someone knowledgable to ride with you and listen to the noise, they'll be in a much better position to advise you than anyone here on the Web. If you can't do that, and the whining isn't really loud, then I'd just keep an eye (or an ear) on it for a while. If it doesn't change over time, it's probably not a major problem. Get somebody familiar with the sound of a healthy differential to drive the car as soon as possible, just to be sure.

 

well i recently put on lowering springs(espelirs) and put around 1k miles on it. can it be a sign of the differential wearing out because i didnt have the half shaft spacers?

 

I dobut its because of a drop. My car was drop for a few thousand miles before I bought spacers and I never had a whine. you dont have gears right? Have you changed your diff fluid lately? if not try that and see if you have any shavings.

 

The half shaft spacers are a bandaid that relates to the inner CV joints and have nothing to do with the differential itself. CV joints vibrate rather than whining. You feel the vibration first when cornering and accelerating at the same time. The vibration is caused by the old wear patterns in the cups, and the fix is to use spacers, flip the inner CV joint buckets (probably the smartest solutioin), or install new CV joints. From your description it doesn't sound like this is the kind of problem you're having.

You still didn't tell us whether this is something the car just started doing or something you only just noticed. Has anyone ever done any work on the differential? When did you last change the diff oil?

All differentials whine. Some just do so at such a low level that you never hear it. If what you are hearing is a VERY low level whine, then it's probably normal.

 

it could be a wheel bearing. Does it get louder as you go faster??

 

I also thought I could hear mine. Let's hope it was only my imagination...I don't even have 4000 miles on the clock yet.

 

my 06 diff howled when I used mobil one 75-90 synthetic(only on accel). I switched to regular 80-90 (non synthetic), and no more howl. That's just my personal experience. I don't beat my car...and I have 7400 miles on the clock. I was kinda pissed after using the synthetic stuff(waste of money). Well I hope this helps you.

 

the whining sounds faster. not quite louder. i think its about due, for the differential oil, considering i have 38k miles on it already.

 

Another possibility for the whining could be the bearing in your tailshaft of the transmission. This is the issue i am currently having and my whine is also speed dependent. You might want to check this also since it was driving me insane trying to locate where the sound was coming from, thinking it was either my diff or a bad wheel bearing. I finally took it to the dealership, they said it was a wheel bearing which they changed and charged me for then afterwards when the noise was still there. the mechanic then mentioned that he thinks it's the bearing in the tailshaft. (I was pretty pissed for the mis-diagnosis and having to pay for it) Anyhow, i'm pretty sure he's right this time b/c if you put your ear to the cup holder area (right above the tailshaft of the transmission) of the car while it's driving you can hear this whine above 35mph and is louder with acceleration.

Is your car only making this whining noise while it's moving? It really does sound like a similar issue that i am having and haven't decided how i plan to fix it. Just thought i'd give you another possible avenue to check.

I hopet his helps.

Joseph