[V8] Visitation with the patient

[Buchholz, Steven]

... a "whine" is such a difficult to define sound ... the symptom I'm
thinking of does not create what I would consider a "whine" but I thought
I'd toss it out just the same.  

Every so often with several Audis I've owned I noticed a song that comes and
goes while driving on the freeway.  When I did some investigating at the
dealer they asked if the symptoms occurred on concrete freeways.  With this
tidbit I started taking note of the road conditions, and sure enough it was
on concrete freeways.  They told me that it was some sort of tire noise that
is created as the tires ran over the grooves sawn into the road surface ...

Steve B
San Jose, Kaleefohnia (USA)
> 
> But it has a "whine".  Sometimes.
> 
> Now, I drove the car from Washington, D.C. to Maine last fall 
> when I bought
> the car, and it performed perfectly on the trip up.  After it 
> was here for a
> few weeks, in much colder climes, when I drove the car for a 
> few miles, the
> "whine" would appear.  It is not a shriek, but a fairly loud, 
> medium high
> pitched whine or "song" that appears, sometimes when just 
> starting off, and
> then sometimes after rolling along for a few miles.
> 
> It does not respond, change, go away, or appear in response 
> to anything
> except rolling along. It does not respond to sudden loading 
> or unloading of
> the front end, by swerving the car; it does not respond to 
> throttle changes,
> or to release of the clutch.
> 
> There are NO vibrations anywhere in the driveline of the car. 
>  No vibrations
> in the transmission; the front end, or anywhere else that either the
> mechanic or I can find.  Just this sort of medium high 
> pitched howling.
> 
> The real mystery is that suddenly, and without warning, like 
> the flicking of
> a light switch, the sound......goes away.  It just stops and sometimes
> doesn't restart for miles or until the car has come to a rest 
> and then been
> restarted.  All of a sudden, it's just....GONE.
> 
> Shocks on the car are relatively new Bilsteins.  There are 
> some "issues"
> with the suspension, and on the list, including replacement of rear
> suspension arms, is the draining of the transmission and 
> refilling, with
> examination of the transmission fluid; and a new rear suspension mount
> bushing that is sorely weak.
> 
> We suspect that it might be an issue with a half 
> shaft....left side, because
> that is where the noise seems to be....front left.  We also 
> wonder if it
> might be a center universal joint, or even a transmission 
> bearing inside the
> transmission, although there are no other signs of 
> transmission "issues".
> We do suspect that the transmission may have been out of the 
> car at some
> point, and I think it was a clutch as evidenced in the 
> records for the car
> that I have.