2003 Toyota Echo T-IV ATF UOA report

[dkrivosheyev]

Hi all,

I have a 2003 toyota echo with 115,000 miles on it. It has a slight gear whine between 35 and 50 mph which as I understood is a common problem with Aisin-Warner transmissions. The whine does not get any worse and was present since I bought the car in 2008. I replaced the original ATF fluid with fresh T-IV at 94,000mi and then at 110,000 miles again. The whine is still there. I recently did UOA on this ATF and found that the viscousity was low (6 at 100C). I wanted to post the UOA report here for everybody to look at but could not figure out how to attach a PDF file. The iron wear metal was low so I am assuming the transmission is still healthy. I don't have any other issues with it except this whine. Some people have reported that switching from T-IV atf to Redline D4 makes the whine go away. Does anybody have any experience with Redline D4 in toyota transmissions? I want to try it in this echo (doing a full flush) and see if the whine will go away, but wanted to check here first as Redline is kind of expensive.

Thank you!

 

[hate2work]

Here are some links to check out. I personally use the Amsoil ATF in place of the T-IV in both of our Toyotas and like it a lot, both rigs make less noise and shift smoother.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&a...amp;safe=images

 

[Kestas]

My dad - a transmission engineer - explained that it is easy to get whine from a gear if it's not machined exactly to spec. It happens often with older worn machinery.

 

[dkrivosheyev]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
My dad - a transmission engineer - explained that it is easy to get whine from a gear if it's not machined exactly to spec. It happens often with older worn machinery.


I don't think the gears are worn because the oil analysis did not show any excessive iron content. I read that it is not uncommon for these transmissions to have gear whine event when they are new. My mother's 2003 Corolla does it also, but at the speeds below 25 mph.

 

[Kestas]

I got the impression from my dad that the noisy transmission gears didn't always result in excessive wear - just noise.

 

[dkrivosheyev]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
I got the impression from my dad that the noisy transmission gears didn't always result in excessive wear - just noise.


This is true, but also if the oil is too thin the gears will make noise. My UOA came back with a comment that T-IV was too thin at 100C, that is why I am thinking that Redline will do better as it has a higher viscousity at 100C - 7.5 vs 6 with T-IV. The tranny does not maike any gear noise when cold, only after it warms up.

 

[RxxR]

I think that the noise is there when the gear tooth angle is small. The bigger is angle the less noise comes out.
When you driwe backwards you hear the gears with 0 tooth angle.
Impropper assembling will also make it noisy.
And yes, the oil viscosity if lower or higher then specified can result in the wine

 

[mikered30]

I have D4 in my 9th gen corolla (Spec'd for T-IV)and it works well, noticeably in the cold. I do not have the whine, so I cannot comment.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325325

That is for a corolla, but should be similar to the echo.

 

[dkrivosheyev]

Originally Posted By: RxxR
I think that the noise is there when the gear tooth angle is small. The bigger is angle the less noise comes out.
When you driwe backwards you hear the gears with 0 tooth angle.
Impropper assembling will also make it noisy.
And yes, the oil viscosity if lower or higher then specified can result in the wine


Ausin-Warner transmissions are known for the whine problem. I came across three cars with this issue, the first one was 89 Geo Metro that I bought used with the whine and never had any issues for 80,000 miles, however, was never able to get rid of the whine. I still have this car and it runs great. I heard that this is due the tolerances being too large on the assembly line...