Is a transmission whine normal in a nearly new gladiator?

[TMGladOverHighAlt]

I’ve got 7500 miles on my New gladiator and I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed before, but I can hear whine. It’s clearly more like a transmission kind of a wine or something farther back from the middle of my gladiator— never towing, never hardly accelerated, just an easy-going comfortable little truck to drive.
I’m almost positive I’ve never heard this before but I’ve noticed it the last 45 days driving her.

I’m not ready to go to a dealer yet and look like a dumb shit for asking such a stupid question, but do you guys notice a wine in your gladiator in gears first or second? Maybe it’s just winter and it’s 37° and it’s within two blocks of my house. The fluid just hasn’t warmed up yet.

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[Maximus Gladius]

I had that whine in my second transmission and in my 3rd.
First and second gear, just as you described.

When I replaced the first transmission with a new one, the whine in those gears was heard at about 500 kms. Dealership service manager said it sounded like planetary gears and it was replaced right away.

The third transmission developed the same whine and I asked about it again. The service manager said, FCA said the whine is normal and was told to just drive it. I’m fine with it now. I’ve got 10k miles on it now and the transmission is strong and shifts just fine.

 

[Mav4x4Chris]

Mine makes a light, but audible whine when decelerating. It only happens between 45 and 38 MPH. Only decelerating when OFF the throttle. Touch the gas and it immediately goes away.

It's a '22 with 8100 miles on it. It's done it since the day it left the lot. All fluids I can check look fine, all temps are fine, transmission shifts great, engine runs great.

So - I have just been ignoring it, LOL.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

This guy did a muffler delete but if you go to 5:00 AND 6:38 you will hear the exact whine in his transmission in first gear (5:00) and then again you’ll hear his whine in second gear (6:38).

This is the identical whine I have that the tech said was planetary gears and transmission was replaced but then FCA later said is “normal”.

 

[Barnaby’sdad]

Mine started doing a little whine kind of thing. Not too concerned at this point (famous last words), just sounds like I put them whistle tips on there.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

I had that whine in my second transmission and in my 3rd.
First and second gear, just as you described.

When I replaced the first transmission with a new one, the whine in those gears was heard at about 500 kms. Dealership service manager said it sounded like planetary gears and it was replaced right away.

The third transmission developed the same whine and I asked about it again. The service manager said, FCA said the whine is normal and was told to just drive it. I’m fine with it now. I’ve got 10k miles on it now and the transmission is strong and shifts just fine.

UPDATE: 21 JTR, 30k kms on the 3rd transmission. The whine I mentioned in 1st and 2nd gear from new, has morphed into a “zing” spooling kinda sound in 1st gear before the whine is heard.

I pulled an oil sample out for the lab last week and they highlighted IRON @151ppm, COPPER @166ppm and CHROMIUM @ 0.3ppm. (These numbers are typically seen at 100k kms, not at 30k.
The lab alerted me to change the oil and filter. As we all know, FCA doesn’t want the oil changed so I took the truck in for my shop Forman to ride along with me and he heard the whine right away.

4 days later I was informed FCA approved the dealership to investigate what’s going on and truck is going in next week to consider a 4th transmission.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

UPDATE: Truck went in to investigate the 1st and 2nd gear whine in the 8 speed and just received a call to say the transmission is getting replaced. Complete internal failure. This will be my 4th transmission in 74k kms.

 

[Jeep~N~Jay]

My JL had the wine, and my brand new gladiator has a very, very, very slight whine from new, also I rent a lot of vehicles in whenever have a chance to rent a jeep. Several tend to have a whine as well. On my JL I put over 30,000 miles with whining, never had any issues, I think these ones just whine due to the planetary style gearing.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My JL had the wine, and my brand new gladiator has a very, very, very slight whine from new, also I rent a lot of vehicles in whenever have a chance to rent a jeep. Several tend to have a whine as well. On my JL I put over 30,000 miles with whining, never had any issues, I think these ones just whine due to the planetary style gearing.

Very possible. You are in overdrive or underdrive almost all of the time in these, a lot of planetary gears, lots of planets spinning around those suns.

If I had to give an answer as to whether a transmission whine was bad or not - I'd have to say "maybe, it depends" and I'd want to hear the whine.
Some is normal, and some people have hearing that is more likely to pick up those frequencies than others so to one person it's loud, to another it's like "what whine?"
Depends on the circumstances - gear it's in, load, acceleration, cruising or coasting.....
Just make sure the whine is the transmission and not the differential gears back there. Sounds can travel through metal to other areas. "But the differential and axles are isolated by rubber bushings" - not the driveshaft............ it's a tube that can transmit sounds.

Both of mine whine in reverse like the thing is haunted. My wife even asked what that sound was when I had my first JT and was backing down our 120 foot driveway in reverse.

 

[Jeep~N~Jay]

Very possible. You are in overdrive or underdrive almost all of the time in these, a lot of planetary gears, lots of planets spinning around those suns.

If I had to give an answer as to whether a transmission whine was bad or not - I'd have to say "maybe, it depends" and I'd want to hear the whine.
Some is normal, and some people have hearing that is more likely to pick up those frequencies than others so to one person it's loud, to another it's like "what whine?"
Depends on the circumstances - gear it's in, load, acceleration, cruising or coasting.....
Just make sure the whine is the transmission and not the differential gears back there. Sounds can travel through metal to other areas. "But the differential and axles are isolated by rubber bushings" - not the driveshaft............ it's a tube that can transmit sounds.

Both of mine whine in reverse like the thing is haunted. My wife even asked what that sound was when I had my first JT and was backing down our 120 foot driveway in reverse.

My JL was definitely the transmission. I re geared my stock sport axles, then bought Rubicon take offs, then re geared those. The whine was always there with both sets of axles and gears.

 

[Wild thang]

Mine makes a light, but audible whine when decelerating. It only happens between 45 and 38 MPH. Only decelerating when OFF the throttle. Touch the gas and it immediately goes away.

It's a '22 with 8100 miles on it. It's done it since the day it left the lot. All fluids I can check look fine, all temps are fine, transmission shifts great, engine runs great.

So - I have just been ignoring it, LOL.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My JL was definitely the transmission. I re geared my stock sport axles, then bought Rubicon take offs, then re geared those. The whine was always there with both sets of axles and gears.

Sounds like the only thing you didn't change was the transmission and engine.

 

[Dick]

Only Jeep could fuck up a German transmission. They're fools at best.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Only Jeep could fuck up a German transmission. They're fools at best.

Actually, the MOPAR build ZF transmission is having fewer troubles than the German built units being used in Jeeps.
Our Wrangler has been back twice for leaks - and that transmission is made in Germany by ZF themselves. A fair number of Jeep owners are waiting to have the whole transmission replaced because the other attempts didn't fix the leaks. I'm crossing my fingers that our JLU doesn't have to go back again - if it does, it means we wait months for a transmission from Germany.
At least 10 people on a forum have spoken up about the troubles, and knowing that most owners aren't on any forum, you can figure the numbers to be a lot higher.

 

[AmosMoses]

My 2020 sport never had this transmission whine but noticed it pretty soon after getting a used 2021 rubicon. It's only noticeable in first and maybe second gear, from a takeoff. I've heard the same type of whine from other vehicles I've seen in parking lots etc. Its almost like a gear was cut on the edge of tolerance when it was manufactured and therefore makes more noise when engaged with another gear.

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