Bongo Fury

Morning all, arrived at Silverstone yesterday and had my first night's sleep in the Bongo - jolly comfy. However, on the way here we were accompanied by a noise akin to "a whale giving birth" every time I lifted off when we were going above 55 or so. New noise, wasn't doing it last week, and we were loaded to the max (five adults and about 300kg of camping gear) and very low over the rear. Defo transmission, when I put the gearbox in neutral the noise immediately stopped

Start by checking fluid levels

Ensure wife isn't nagging at same time noise is produced!

maxheadroom wrote:Start by checking fluid levels

+1....... agree totally.....

fivepints wrote:we were accompanied by a noise akin to "a whale giving birth" every time I lifted off when we were going above 55 or so. New noise, wasn't doing it last week, and we were loaded to the max (five adults and about 300kg of camping gear) and very low over the rear. Defo transmission, when I put the gearbox in neutral the noise immediately stopped

I am afraid most of us will not have heard a whale giving birth so that description is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard fivepints. Are you saying the noise starts or stops when you lift off the throttle? If it stops when you lift off then it will almost certainly be a differential problem. I & my colleague here cannot think what it could be if it is the transmission, they normally make noises in lower gears unless it is to do with 4th (o/d) but it makes no sense that it happens above 55mph when you are in 4th from much lower speeds, however an accurate description that is understandable would help us to help you.

A number of differential problems have come about because of wrongly sized tyres, causing wind up in the transmission.
In the past these have showed up at speed on long runs, which kind of sounds like your situation.

What tyre sizes are you running?

As for the sound, rather than 'a whale giving birth', (we don't have whales in our local canal), was it like the noise when Lampard's goal wasn't allowed?

Er, sorry, I wasn't trying to be flippant but whining is the best description, followed by, sounds a bit like a whale. It's a medium to high pitched whine which only happens when you lift off at speeds over 50 or so, plus it didn't happen when I wasn't loaded to the max. Worse in the back than the front.

As far as the diff is concerned, wouldn't that still be noisy in N, that's why I thought it was transmission related, although I agree I'm no mechanic

RE tyres, I see the book says 215/65 for rears but I have 205/65, am I correct that the first number is the diameter? could that be a cause? I have a v6 btw.

fivepints wrote:RE tyres, I see the book says 215/65 for rears but I have 205/65, am I correct that the first number is the diameter? could that be a cause? I have a v6 btw.

First number is the width in mm. Tyre size will only be a problem if you have a 4WD.

You are not alone.
My V6 has also developed a whining noise. Slightly different circumstances though, mine only does it after a reasonably long journey. And only starts to do it once it's been stood for a short while during the journey, say for petrol/service station break. I can drive for 150 miles no whining. Stop fill up and when I start off again the noise is there and stays until the engine unit has a complete cool down. Whilst running around locally it's fine.
I've noticed that if you knock the gear box into neutral the sound goes away and comes back when put back into gear, So must be the box. What I don't understand is why it only comes on after a break in a long journey.

Must be gear box related, but not heard any diesel owners complaining and there's more of them out there than V6 owners & can assume the boxes are not that different.

WINDYWATSON wrote:I've noticed that if you knock the gear box into neutral the sound goes away and comes back when put back into gear, So must be the box.

Not correct. When you take the transmission out of gear you also remove all the load from the transfer box (if 4x4) all drive shafts & the differential(s). So don't get yourself convinced its the tranny, it may not be. Trying to diagnose a noise on a forum or over the phone is very difficult as noises are subjective - we all describe them differently. I need to study some natural history programs to get some idea of what noise whales make as there aren't too many of them around Eastbourne these days (do they all make the same noise? Or do you mean Wales? ).

I've noticed that if you knock the gear box into neutral the sound goes away and comes back when put back into gear, So must be the box.

Not necessarily.

Trying to diagnose a noise on a forum or over the phone is very difficult as noises are subjective - we all describe them differently.

That's what my hubby says.
Several years ago, I suggested that it would be good if we had a way of recording a noise and playing it back on the forum. We didn't have the technology then, but now we have YouTube... I have no idea how these things work, but wonder if it's possible to record a noise to that, and then link to it from the forum? It may be worth considering for the more complicated noises/problems.

Good idea, IF you can capture the sound clear of background noise. Our brain is brilliant at doing that without us realising it, video camera's etc. just seem to give you a wall of sound. A classic example is recording outside on a windy day, all you hear is the bloody wind!!

Alacrity is right - tried to record it but can't hear anything except road noise!

Just got back from 3800+ km of fully loaded and trouble free motoring. I have now worked out that the noise is most definitely there both on and off the throttle, on the throttle it sounds very much like a vuvuzela - or a rattling exhaust - like a buzzing drone, and bumps in the road which make the back drop down make it much worse. Off the throttle it's the whale noise - which, after a bit more consideration, sounds like maybe a hub, or something in a metal container? Neither noise is present in neutral and with the revs up at 3.5k.

It's definitely worse when the back is lower, as you can tell from going over bumps - all that said - we did well over 2500 miles and nothing went bang so I'm much less worried about it than I was!

Hi Guys,
Was there ever an answer to the 'whining transmission' ............. Ours has started what can only be described as an intermittent whining, buzzing noise from the auto gear box (I think) that has only recently had a £1600 recon job following an internal self destruct episode!!!

It does it mainly going up hills whilst labouring hard and droppin from 4th to 3rd gear at about 2500 rpm. It sounds like something is slipping in the box and only lasts a few seconds.

I want as much info as poss befor i go back to my man who rebuilt the box.

Cheers,

PaulF