Recently when I was travelling ~60 mph and up, I hear whistling/high speed drill like noise from the passanger side/under the hood? I have not be able to determine from front or back yet. It disappears when the car stopped, and comes back again when goes above 60 mph and up. Wheel bearing gone bad?? or some other items gone bad?? Any suggestion will be helpful.

If it is wheel bearing, difficult to replace?? My skill level is limited to brakes, shocks, springs replacement and regular maintance.

Thanks.

 

wheel bearing?

Does it otherwise run/shift/drive well?

 

Yes, it runs/shifts normal. Nothing out of line except the whistling. The top speed is about 80mph and maintainable. The dilling/whistle is constant and subside when the car stop. Any help/lead is appreciated. I hope is nothing big/under the hood etc.

Thanks,

 

top speed is only 80 mph? even our 400,000 miles 240 GL (non-turbo) can easily go 100MPH, albeit not much faster



get this noise going on an open road with no traffic and a lot of safe room, and put the car in neutral and let the engine idle. does the noise remain constant? if yes, then its speed related and not RPM related, so its probably not the engine. shut off the a/c compressor (if you have one) and set the ventilation fan to zero. no change?

as you slow down (coasting still in neutral), does the pitch change, or only the volume?

lightly brake (still in neutral), does the noise shift at all? brake a little harder to slow down more, does the pitch go down with the speed, or just the volume ?

get back up to the cruising speed that has the loudest noise, try cracking a window, does this affect the noise at all? if you have a sunroof, try opening it halfway. does that change the noise?

 

Thanks for the advice. I drove the car today on hwy to check out the noise as directed. Actually I cannot reproduce the whistle/high pitch dill like noise. It was gone, at least for this 20 miles hwy run and the car ran normal to me. When I got home, I decided to check the transmission fluid. The level is at maxi. but the color is light brownish/slight yellowish and watery viscosity. I know it is not a good sign. I checked the A/T fluid when I bought the car about 5 months ago and it was oily ruby red color. I have since put ~ 4k miles on it and it drives ok for a 19 yrs old car with 193K miles on board.

Any suggestion(s) on how deep trouble I am looking at?? Approx. how much it will hit my wallet?? because I know it probably is above my head.

I bought this car for my kid. I was hoping that I can just do some routine maintance/repair and will get it operational and hand it over. It seemed that I may be stepping into a "Black Hole".

 

transmission fluid darkens with use. its a very light oil, something like 10W, so yes, its pretty watery. if the transmission bands are slipping when you accelerate hard, that will greatly accelerate the aging of the fluid, and likely leave it with a 'burnt' smell. this slippage would be noted as the engine revving higher than it should for the speed you're going under heavy throttle, and slow sloppy shifts, most noticably the 1-2.

a good tranny shop would likely charge around $150 to pull the pan, clean it, flush the tranny and check for damage. if there's damage, then you're looking at a rebuilt transmission, maybe $1200-1500 ? (total wild guess, I haven't had one done in years).

 

Is it a turbo car? With the whistle grinding noise on pass side sounds like the turbo is giving up. Also may be why it is so slow! I can get 80 in mine without overdrive engaged.

 

No, it is not a turbo, (I wish it is). It is a 244 DL. The prior owner said he had a 740 transmission swap on it secondary to poor mpg?? It has a trailer bar attached also. I did not know what series the A/T is. On the hind sight I should be suspicious: trailer attachment/ transmission swap. I used to have a 90 744 turbo with 225K miles on it. We bought that one new. Some guy rear ended and totalled it @~1998. This 240 rides about the same as the 740T except. the low end passing power.

Anyway, if without knowing the A/T fluid color and now the disappered noise. The car drives ok for a 19 yrs old car and get me around and to work. Doing 80mph on right or middle lanes in Atlanta area in that car will keep me out of police's attention. I will try to flush the A/T fluid out later and keep an eye on it. I sure do not want to go into rebuild A/T route. I will update as time goes by.

Thanks for all yours advices.

1990 744 turbo R.I.P.
2000 Acura Integra Type R (my daily driver and what my kid wants from me)

 

a 240 non turbo post 1982 or so likely uses a AW70 transmission, exactly the same as a 740/940 non-turbo. the 740/940 turbos use an AW71 which is a somewhat beefier version of the same thing. The earlier 240's used an AW50 or 55.

all of these are Aisin-AW transmissions, made in Japan. Same transmission as was used in various 1980's Toyotas, like a Supra Turbo. very good reliable and robust transmission.

 

Look at the exhaust mani and see if the bolts are loose or somewhere else on the exhaust.

 

itr, getting back to your whistle noise. Is this a high pitched noise when running at 60 mph? Does the pitch lower as you slow down? Does it stop completely when stopped? You say that this noise now is no longer there? Do you suppose this is temperature related, for example, when it is cold outside you may get the noise at high speed but sometimes when it is warm you may not. I've had a drive shaft hanger bearing do this to me on my old 1980 244. It might we worth checking out if the symptoms are as I've indicated.

 

Bluefox, thanks for the info. It was exactly like you pointed out. As of my last post, the noise disappeared when I drove it that day. The next day it came back and was reproducable. I sent the car to an independant Volvo shop that I have used before. After missing $200+, they replaced the drive shaft center support bushing and bracket. They also pointed out that the motor mounts are shot and the A/T fluid are ok but dirty. I have never change a motor mount before but seems doable. I think I have my Thanksgiing holiday booked for now.

Thanks again for all you guys' inputs and pointed me to the right direction.

Thanks

 

see, I never would have guessed the drive shaft support bearing. when one went out on us, the sound was more of a rumbling and clunking when you applied power. it was very much speed dependent.

 

itr... Glad it worked out for you. Motor mount replacement should not be too bad. I recall doing that once as well - like about 1977 on my 1969 240. Ejoy your Tanksgiving weekend.