Why would a 4l60e whine in neutral but not in park, I've noticed it before, but the other day I was sitting in the drive thru and put my car down into neutral and I thought I was hearing beeping in the distance like a truck backing up but I realized that it was my car doing it in neutral, but it doesn't make the noise in any other gear, also the transmission seems to vibrated helaciously when it's cold and idling in drive or reverse with the brake applied so the transmission may have some problems, although there may have been a misfire because RockAuto sent me an heat range 6 NGK plug when it should have been a 5, that I swapped out for the correct plug today, I'll have to wait for it to get down to 34 degrees tonight and see if the cold vibration is still there. also the pump seems to make whining noises, and there's a noticeable noise, I wouldn't exactly describe it as a whine but it's like you hear the pressure building for the 1-2 shift and on other occasions I hear the pump whine sometimes especially around 35-40mph, I'm not sure if I'm hearing it in association with the 3-4 upshift or when the lockup clutch is being applied.
4L60E, whining in Neutral but not park.
- Thread starter blufeb95
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Odd, The only difference between Park & Neutral is the Lo/Reverse Clutch & Parking Pawl are engaged in Park. But in Neutral the with the vehicle not moving......The driveshaft will hold ALL the geartrian stationary.
The only reason the Lo/Reverse clutch in "on" in park is to further cushion the garage shift from Park to Reverse.
When was the last time the unit was serviced (Fluid & Filter)?, Miles?, Year & Model?
The only reason the Lo/Reverse clutch in "on" in park is to further cushion the garage shift from Park to Reverse.
When was the last time the unit was serviced (Fluid & Filter)?, Miles?, Year & Model?
In a 2008 4.2L RWD Trailblazer, when I got the car last year I experimented with sucking fluid out of the dipstick a couple times, I could only get about 2.5-3qts out, so I replaced maybe 35% of the fluid the two times I did that and added a bottle of lubegard red, about a month ago I got a new AC Delco filter and an aftermarket Dorman pan with a drainbolt and paid a friend $40 to drop the pan and put a new filter in because it was cold and my driveway was too covered in ice for me to mess with it, I used about 5qts of Valvoline dexron VI, so at this point it's probably about 30-40% old fluid wit mostly new fluid, I also added half a bottle of that Auto-Rx about 250mi ago which was about 2 weeks ago to see if that does anything. The fluid that came out when the pan was dropped was dark red but didn't smell burnt/varnished and there was quite a bit black crap around the magnet in the bottom of the pan it didn't cover the whole bottom but it extended quite a ways around the magnet but there wasn't sludgey oil loaded clutch material in the bottom of the pan, I chocked up the amount of crap around the magnet to the fact that the car probably has never had a pan drop in the 14 years it's existed and 170k+ miles it's traversed. When the pan was dropped I found a piece of rubbery-plastic material in the pan that I'm not sure what it came from. I have a video of it posted somewhere.
JHZR2
Staff member
Interesting. I know my Daimler 722.3 isn’t a 4L60E, but I notice A difference in sound between drive/reverse, and neutral/park. Shift to neutral and it almost sounds like something “spools up”. I don’t notice that on my 4L60E, or my 47RE. On those neutral just frees up a couple RPM on the engine.
Did the filter seal get changed as well?
We just reused the old one. It was in there good and we figured we'd possibly do more harm than good getting it out.
Here's a video of the piece I found in the pan it looks like discolored white/beige plastic with rubber on one side
Maybe more of an amber color, but it was clearly brown/amber on one side and rubber on the other, it looked smashed or twisted and possibly discolored, but I have no idea what it's from.
They're usually good to reuse on a 60E.....If it's not cut or damaged in any way. The issue I see is people trying to remove it & damaging it, Then give up & install the filter anyway.
I don't recognize the piece you found in the pan. Wouldn't worry about that, Could have came off the crossmember or something during removal of the pan?
If it made noise in Park & Neutral.....I'd call the Input Drum to Stator Bearing is about to fail. The 278mm Torque Converters used behind the Atlas I6 are not nearly as robust as the 300mm used behind V8's. But the 278mm sheds a TON of aluminum when it fails clogging the filter up, Then the 3-4 clutch will burn up real quick.
Think you can catch the noise on video??
I don't recognize the piece you found in the pan. Wouldn't worry about that, Could have came off the crossmember or something during removal of the pan?
If it made noise in Park & Neutral.....I'd call the Input Drum to Stator Bearing is about to fail. The 278mm Torque Converters used behind the Atlas I6 are not nearly as robust as the 300mm used behind V8's. But the 278mm sheds a TON of aluminum when it fails clogging the filter up, Then the 3-4 clutch will burn up real quick.
Think you can catch the noise on video??
I'll see if I can get it tomorrow morning, right now I'm gonna let the car cool off all night, so that when it's 34 degrees before the sun comes up I can see if it's still doing that bad vibration with my foot on the brake while it's in drive when it's cold or if that was caused by having too cold of a spark plug in cylinder 2.
Could be what was left of the dipstick tube plug that was in from the factory. When the dipstick is first installed it pushes the dipstick tube plug out into the pan. Search 4l60 dipstick tube plug in transmission pan and you will see what I’m talking about.
That's a Ford thing....GM doesn't do that.
Well I started it and it still is grinding/vibrating when it's cold and I put in in reverse or drive with my foot on the brake and let it idle. the vibration is worse in drive than in reverse, which I kind of expected the cold plug was too simple of an explanation, although it may explain why my fuel economy has seemed a little low and the exhaust was smelling rich over the past few month. I had a shop I go to look at the engine mounts a few months ago and they didn't seem to think they were bad but the car was also not dead cold when they looked at it and marginal hydraulic mounts may be easily missed if the car isn't stone cold.
I wasn't hearing the whine in neutral, I don't think it does it until it's been fully warmed up..
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Exterior to the transmission, you should be checking your transmission mount and crossmember and I'd eyeball your engine mounts, too.
If those are fine, more than likely your transmissions oil pump or associated bearing/race. If it was the torque converter, more than likely the noise would only occur in gear (not P or N) and you'd likely see junk in the pan/oil. It could also be that your transmission is not actually fully in N. The detent from R to N is kind of small, but typically not being fully in reverse is an issue, not not being in N.
Regardless, it's a 4L60E which means you're probably high in mileage. Likely time to rebuild, if I'm being honest. These things don't last forever and a whining/vibrating transmission that is otherwise filled with good fluid, mounted to healthy mounts, and attached to a healthy engine without a misaligned crank means the transmission has to come out. My bet is you find wear with or around the pump.
If those are fine, more than likely your transmissions oil pump or associated bearing/race. If it was the torque converter, more than likely the noise would only occur in gear (not P or N) and you'd likely see junk in the pan/oil. It could also be that your transmission is not actually fully in N. The detent from R to N is kind of small, but typically not being fully in reverse is an issue, not not being in N.
Regardless, it's a 4L60E which means you're probably high in mileage. Likely time to rebuild, if I'm being honest. These things don't last forever and a whining/vibrating transmission that is otherwise filled with good fluid, mounted to healthy mounts, and attached to a healthy engine without a misaligned crank means the transmission has to come out. My bet is you find wear with or around the pump.
I've been thinking the pump is probably worn, and yeah it's got 175k on it and I have no idea how it was service before I bought it, I bought a $3000 car in today's market, that's pretty much the equivalent of the $1000 car described in that The Bottle Rockets song from 1991. Since it vibrates when it's cold but once it warms up it doesn't and also the 1-2 shift is pretty slow when it's cold, and the vibration was worse in forward than reverse which I guess would make sense since forward drive is probably more demanding on the pump than reverse, my thinking was that the pump is having difficulty sucking up the fluid when it's like 50x thicker when it's cold than what it is at operating temperature I thought the filter might have been plugged when I changed that out but it didn't look but a little dirty in the part I could see, I didn't cut it open though, but junk didn't pour out the filter when it was removed so I don't think there was any big chunks of crap in there. I wonder who I can trust to do a rebuild around here or at least who I can trust to install a rebuilt unit from a reputable remanufacturer.
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Almost anyone can install a 4L60E in any car/truck they're found in - I wouldn't freak out too much about who's doing that part. I mean, hell, you could drive down to Georgia and I'll do it (not for free). It's nuts and bolts. Whomever does it, you just need to make sure they reinstall the brackets that attach to some of the bell housing bolts, which is something lazy technicians skip because it's frustrating to do right. Personally, I'd try to find a local transmission shop with a good reputation for not rushing jobs like an Aamco or similar. They should also be telling you that you need to do a transmission line solvent flush and add (if you don't have one) a transmission cooler (if it's a full size truck). If they don't, they're either tired of being told no or they don't actually ever honor their warranty. Most shops will have a rebuilt unit shipped in vs. rebuild it themselves. It's not economical for most shops to devote the labor to a rebuild AND provide a warranty. The shops will either have a direct distributor relationship or the smaller ones will order through their nearest auto parts store. The 4L60Es that NAPA sells are done by a group that has terrible reviews. The ones that Autozone sells have better reviews. You will need to do some searching for a local shop that'll actually do the rebuild (if you prefer that). Almost all rebuilds will take care of the most common issues with 4L60Es unless they're done with used parts or it's a "fake rebuild" (aka, paint job on a junkyard transmission).
We had a reputable transmission shop but about 5 years ago the old timer running the place decided to retire and the people he's selling it to under contract are awful, we used to go their for all of our car repairs and since the new people took over everything they've done for us has had to be done twice and they cracked my mom's power steering suction hose and didn't bother to tell us when they replaced the crappy alternator they put in under warranty they also filled the cold power steering system completely to the upper full mark, it's an Odyssey so you have to move the reservoir to access the accessory drive, the hose was old and brittle, I wouldn't expect them to replace it but they could've paid better attention and told me, but this shop is completely unprofessional I think they ate buffalo wings in our car and left some residue on stuff sitting in the console, also when we came to pick up the car the guy that runs it was completely berating an employee and throwing stuff and slamming doors. Too bad the place shares the same name as that shop in Texas with the popular YouTube channel.
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