Grinding Noise When Off Accelerator

[thomashenson 1]

So I was driving down the motorway today, took my foot of the accelerator and I could hear this grinding noise. When I accelerate again, the noise goes away. The noise also goes away if i'm off the accelerator and I put the clutch down. Sounds to me as though two cogs are grinding together or kind of like the noise that the pointer makes on the wheel of fortune .

 

All jokes aside, i'm hoping this is nothing serious but a friend of a friend (VW mechanic) has said that purely from my description, it sounds like a gearbox issue - *touches wood*. Any help would be much appreciated! Gunna get it down to my local garage ASAP but in the meantime would like to get a rough understanding of what it could be.

Thanks!

[caretakerplus 146]

The way that you describe this noise, It sounds to me like a bearing rather than actual gears that is causing it.

The first port of call, is to check the oil level in the gearbox - better still, change the gear oil and see if there is any improvement.

Whilst it IS possible that the bearing already needs changing, it is surprising how long they sometimes go on, without getting any worse - If changing the oil doesn't help, I recommend that you just monitor it, if it doesn't get worse, you have to decide if you should deal with it or live with it.

Regards

[Buxton 137]

Sounds like the diff bearings/a bearing in the gearbox, as said they "can" last for a long time like this