7AT 1st Gear NORMAL Whine: Curious
 

Hey there! There's nothing wrong with my Z, but I was curious about the really cool whine the 7AT makes in 1st gear. There is a very distinctive, cool sounding higher-pitched (in the whistle range) whine that the transmission only makes in 1st, which is proportional to engine speed.

Ironically, the first time I heard a similar sound was the 1st gear whine in a 90s Ford Explorer (which sounds EXACTLY the same) and the Crown Vics (police cars) make it too, and I always thought it was the coolest sound.

Hopefully other 7AT members will know what I'm talking about. It's very distinctive and easy to hear. All the other threads I could find were talking about whines where something was wrong.

Do any transmission savvy members know exactly what that is? I'm sure it's just gear whine, but it's so distinctive and common to other auto's in 1st gear only that I thought I would ask out of curiosity. Hopefully one of you will know something about it I can geek out on. Thanks!

EDIT: This is exactly the sound! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saMXBroGed0

Well mine doesn't sound like that at all so one of us has something wrong with our car! :ugh2:

Hmmm, mine definitely isn't that loud, since I've never noticed anything like that. I'll pay closer attention to it if I go for a drive tonight.

However, our 2005 Camry that has had its maintenance and check engine lights on for the last couple of years has something like that, but I feel like it's from the air conditioning belt.

OK obviously it's not EXACTLY like the Monte Carlo. It's much quieter, and is very normal. It's a staple for many many automatics and I'm thinking it's a straight-cut first gear like they sometimes do in reverse? But it's not loud enough and I just can't see them doing that...