5 speed transmission noisy when cold....?

[gcfishguy]

2008 extended cab, 3.0L, 5speed, 2wd, 4:10's. 61,000kms

When it's cold out, the transmission is noisy when it's in any gear. You have to be moving, and it has to be in a gear. Coasting in neutral it's quiet...as soon as you put it into any gear, rolling, even with the clutch still pushed in, the noise starts again. (Essentially, whatever the syncros start spinning as you move the stick into a gear...well...that is what's making the noise.
The noise is there in 1st, but hardly noticeable...very pronounced in 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
Once the transmission fluid gets warmed up, the noise goes away.

Laugh if you want, but the best way to describe the noise is like water/air in a pipe. The first time I heard it I thought it must have been air in the heater hoses or heater core.
When you start using your garden hose, and there's big air bubbles working their way through the hose....yeah...that.

What it actually is...I don't know...one of the bearings on a mainshaft?

I have another 2 years and 40,000 kms on the powertrain warranty, and the noise is definitely in the transmission, so I'm wondering if it's something I should be hounding the dealer about right away, or if it's a common thing that i'd be best to wait until I was getting near the end of the warranty to have fixed (if there is a fix).

Anyone have this noise? Normal? Common?.....

 

[DRanger024]

Well It's not the input/output shaft bearing cause it wouldnt make any noise in 4th unless it was totally thrashed. Have you checked fluid level? Does the truck shift any different than it used to? I have noticed that my truck is a little noisy when the trans is cold but It does go away when warm like you stated. My fluid level is a little low but not by much. My trans only has about 3,000 miles on a rebuild also. Info is in my sig.

 

[gcfishguy]

K...won't lie....I shelled out for a new(ish) truck because I'm tired of crawling around under old junk in the snow.
The fluid level should be fine, everything's dry, no leaks. So, whatever has been in there all along, still is. And it's just cold that there's this noise. After driving for 15 minutes it's gone.
I know, I know...I should be religiously checking fluids.....but I'm only at 61,000kms.....it's a road truck only, rarely even sees a dirt road, so no chance of water contamination.

I've only had it since last spring, so I can't say if it made the noise last winter. Shifts just fine, and you can't really feel any roughness on the stick....it just makes that noise.

No noise sitting still. No noise rolling in neutral.
When it's cold and you're moving, it's making the noise. (Until it gets warmed up)

I have a fair amount of mechanical experience, but not with transmissions....

Best I can explain is that the noise is about the same in all gears, but the 'speed' of the noise changes with the speed of the gear and/or shaft you spin up when putting it into a gear....

Say you're rolling along in 3rd gear. Push in the clutch, noise does not change. Pull it into neutral, noise is gone.
Pull stick into 2nd, clutch still in, noise comes back, faster (matching the speed of 2nd gear spinning)
Same if you go into 4th or 5th...the noise is right there, but slower and quieter, because 4th gear and 5th gear would be spinning slower.

 

[feellnfroggy]

The fact that you wont even get down tehre and check the fluid knowing that you should tells me it dont matter what advice we offer it wont matter. check the fluid!.

 

[gcfishguy]

I didn't say I wouldn't check the fluid. I said that I haven't as of the time of posting. I have checked for leaks and there's no sign of any, everything is dry as a bone and there has never been a drip in the driveway.

You don't need to make me out to be lazy because I'm not.

I drove to work, and it was quite cold that morning, so I parked the truck at work and posted during the day. I went into great detail describing the noise I was hearing and asked if anyone was familiar with it, and if their transmission always made a similar noise when it was cold.

As for checking the fluid, yes, I'm going to. At the time of posting, I hadn't, so rather than lie and say I did, I figured I might as well tell the truth.

Having read the manual after getting the truck in the spring, I remember it specifically said NOT to open up the transmission or diff to check the fluid until the recommended service interval came up. But in real life, that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I didn't ask how to fix it, that's why I spent the extra to get a truck that still had warranty on it. I was asking if anyone else was familiar with the noise...if they were they would likely also tell me that it's normal and that they all do it, or that they've never heard it before, indicating that I should have it checked out at the dealer. If they all do it and it's normal, then there's no point of me leaving the truck at the dealer overnight, likely have it broken into in their lot (which is pretty common) only to have a tech road test it cold in the morning just to say that it's normal and probably charge me an hour's labour for nothing.

Now that someone with nearly 4,000 posts has told everyone that I won't take any advice that's given, I doubt I'll get any at all. Thanks for that.

If I could have popped the hood in the parking lot at work and checked the fluid on a dipstick, I would have. It's now the weekend, and once I get tonight's snow shoveled out of the driveway tomorrow, I will get under there and check the fluid.