328 high pitched whine

My 89 model does the same on start up.It has just had all new cam seals,gaskets etc,and fully serviced.all done due to age of car,not mileage,it has covered only 7k miles.Made the high pitched noise before,and still does.

 

I think the noise that is being discussed is more associated with USA cars. It is curious to see a UK car with it too. My friends euro 308 lacks that whining sound for the most part where my whining sound is obvious...

 

My 308 does the same on cold starts only. It goes away afrert 1 a minute or so.

 

My '89 328 does the same thing...

 

Be aware it may be the alternator belt not tight enough,
if it squeals too much, the alt belt will melt.
On cold startup, if when you blip the throttle to turn off
the charging light and if the noise gets worse (alt working harder),
I would think the alt belt is not tight enough.
Mine (84 308) needs to be real tight.

 

If memory serves, a Ferrari tech once told me this whine is from the oil pump until the oil gets a little warm. By accident once, I learned that the oil pump actually causes a lot of vibration & noise. I replaced the mounts on the oil cooler on a QV and the car whined like crazy. I figured out that the oil cooler was actually touching the upper frame and transferring the vibration to it. It was quite loud.

Dave

 

Good point, the oil pump pressure relief valves also make noise when bypassing oil.

 

He stated the noise is on the drivers side the pass side is fine. The alt. belt is on the pass side

 

my EURO 308 GTB does the same.

Best from Germany

Martin

 

My 328 did the same thing. Check the altenator belt and the water pump belt and bearing.

Mine also had a high pitch whine above 120 MPH. I finally figured out it was my wife screaming !!!!!


Regards,
Stew

 

on the drivers side the noisiest thing that is temperature related is the air injection system - for cars that have it.

stick you head next to the passenger side air scoop and see if the noise is louder there. The reason is the air injection system is sucking air from the bottom of the air filter box, so noises from the exhaust check valves or cut-off valve will come through. Later cars with the disintegrating foam flex hose between the scoop and the airbox dampen the noise a bit.

you can also try yanking the small vacuum hose off the domed top of the cut-off valve - it's the white-topped thing nestled in the hoses around the oil cooler lines. Removing the vacuum line should close the valve and shut up the injection check valves and any airflow-related noises in that system to help isolate the sound.

when operating normally, the check valves produce more of a ticking noise which will vary with rpm, but if one is stuck it can whistle. They are cheap GM parts (yeah, originally, so unless you gotta have one in a yellow box or insist that the parts need a round-trip vacation in italy before installation, just pick them up locally).

when the car is warm, air injection is disabled.

I guess also stick your head down by the exhaust tips to see if they are making the noise.

I like the oil pump/cooler/valve theories too.

 

My 88 328, 27K miles has it as well. Drives me nutz. Worse during colder weather. Just to experiment this past winter, I dumped the Mobil 15-40 and filled her up with a load of Mobil 5W-30 to see if it was thick oil related. Sure enough, the noise was there but only lasted a few seconds. Still don't know exactly what it is though. Bob

 

Funny post My '83QV has it. I just figured it was the bearing on the smog pump going out.

 

The oil transfer tubes of the oil cooler extend past the tank base on some of the coolers. The whine is related to thick, cold oil having to turn sharp corners in the end tanks to get into the cooling tubes.
There was a batch of the coolers where the tubes stuck almost 3/8" into the tanks that made one heck of a racket when cold.
I have found the magical, no noise length to be 1/8" or shorter.
Most folks diidnt care about the noise once they understood the source and the cost of a new cooler. On the track cars we would bribe the parts guys to open all the boxes to find one that had tubes that ended flush with the end tanks. On those there was no noise at all when cold.

Dave

 

Could be the dog gears behind the bell housing whining when it's cold untill the gear oil circulates then whining stop.

 

Yes, it could be. The noise on start up is what I think was being questioned and that is due to the oil cooler design

Dave

 

I think you may have solved the problem. My car would screach like hell on cold start. It drove me crazy ( no belts on the drivers side ). My oil cooler developed a leak, I put a new one in, and no more noise. Thanks for clearing that up. I must have got lucky and got one of those good ones.

 

Guys,

Its the air injection ... cold air causes it to open more... what you are hearing is the whistle of the air being sucked in ... if you ever had a major air leak ... it sounds like a siren..... it normally goes away after the temp switch circulates warmer coolant... couple of minutes... 3-8 min... the colder the more noise and longer duration.