Here's what's up:

When at idle and the vehicle stopped, there is a whir while in any gear. Put it in P or N and the whir goes away. Presumably because the turbine is spinning at matched speed with the impeller.

Seems to possibly indicate a TC turbine bearing issue. Just a guess.

Any ideas?

Whir is not loud enough to detect once at speed and moving. Perhaps because both input and output of TC are nearly matched in speed. Or perhaps other ambient driving nose masks the whir. Not sure.

BTW, it's not the flex plate bolts. Recently serviced them and no difference in whir. (one was finger tight, three were hardly tight. Now they are all Loctite.)

Also, oil is good in color, odor, and age. Regularly serviced.

293,000 miles on the engine and transmission. So a failing transmission would not be a surprise. As my former XJ lost its AW4 transmission at about 225,000.

Does your XJ automatic whir slightly while stopped and in gear, but goes silent in N or P?

 

Can you poke around it with one of these?

 

Curious? Have you noticed whether it goes away or not when the trans is hot and well warmed up? Last winter I noticed the same thing with mine. I suspected that it was caused by the fluid being thicker since the weather had changed. But the sound went away after it was well warmed up and up to operating temp. And once spring came and it warmed up it went away. Just a thought.

 

Best I can tell it fades a bit on warm up. But then again, at running speed the road noise, exhaust, tires, etc make it hard to discern. But warmed up and stopped, it seems to still be there. Perhaps not as pronounced.

No sheered off bolt heads falling anywhere, so that's a good thing.

 

I would take a good listen underneath and make note while it is cold on first start and then take another listen underneath after a substantial drive and you know it's good and warmed up to see if it's gone. Do it on a work clothes day and not an office clothes day. lol

 

Thanks. I will keep monitoring it as you suggest.

With 294,000 miles on it the TX is bound to go out one of these days. I just installed new Goodyear Assurance Kevlar 31's. So I am hoping to get another 70K out if it!

Chances are the transmission won't make it that far. Just a matter of when and how it goes out.

 

Bringing this back to life as I'm experiencing the same Whir noise. Present in all gears as well as P & N. Fluid is good and full. Noise tends to lessen once my 98 is warmed up nicely. I thought it may be a bearing so I took the S belt off, but the noise was still there. Definitly coming from underneath. Did you ever get to the root of the noise?

 

I have the same problem. Seems to quiet down when warmed up and nothing in N or P. Have drained and replaced fluid a few times. About 3 qts each time. Tranny shifts normal