320i Gearbox whine

[djk]

Hi to all, I'm a total noob, just acquired an 89 320i 4dr in really nice nick. The only worrysome thing before I start spending money on some cosmetic rust repairs is that there is some (not intrusive) whining fom the gearbox esp in 1st and 2nd, and also syncro on second seems a bit abrupt to me, though I am used to newish front drive cars so I'm not sure my perceptions are to be trusted. It never jumps out of gear or anything and the action at the lever seems fine, not finding myself having trouble navigating the gate at all. Is the box on its way out?

I've heard some talk of replacing gearbox oil, I guess this is proably a good idea in any event, any thoughts?

Apologies if this is something that gets asked every week on here, I find that the forum is so popular it is nigh on impossible to locate anything specific with the search! Already learnt a hell of a lot just browsing though!

Cheers,

Doug

[murran]

if the noise isnt intrusive as you say. then its ok, basically a little trasmission noise is very common whether it be the diff, prop bearing or gearbox...... should run for thousands of miles. id change the diff oil and gear oil as they get neglected amongst the other service items, i changed the syrup/mud in my gearbox for some gearoil and it quitened it down bout 50%.
count yourself lucky, my diff makes it sound like a train is following me!

[djk]

Cheers for replying. Yeah, I'm probably worrying about nothing, but will prob change gbox oil anyway, if it quiets things down it won't be nagging at me, and I guess I'll get the maximum life out of it that way. The car is so totally unabused I'm just waiting to find something major wrong with it, usually if things seem too good to be true it's coz they are, know what I mean?

[insertnamehere]

Cheers for replying. Yeah, I'm probably worrying about nothing, but will prob change gbox oil anyway, if it quiets things down it won't be nagging at me, and I guess I'll get the maximum life out of it that way. The car is so totally unabused I'm just waiting to find something major wrong with it, usually if things seem too good to be true it's coz they are, know what I mean?

I dunno, BMWs always seem to put up with a lot more than an average car without major complaints. That's not to say nothing will go wrong, but I'd doubt it if everything seems good now.

[djk]

but I'd doubt it if everything seems good now.

Well, I am messing around with some odd spots of rust on the car, bit annoying, offside front mudflap had a load of crud caught behind it so had rusted through the wing, and when I took the flap off, found that the bit the bracket attaches to at the bottom had rusted away completely, so there's now a structural section with no underseal or anything covering it. F£$^&*g mudflaps! They look cack and do more harm than good it seems! So it'll have to go for some welding on that as well as the wing replacement/repair which is a bit of a ballache. Both front mudflaps have now found a new home in the bin.

It's a 1 owner car tho, low miles, garaged all its life and came with a stack of bills an inch and a half thick, basically been maintained regardless of cost for all of its 18 years. Bad points? It's a bit of a minging colour, it's on bottletops and it's a 4dr, so I don't think it's really something people on the zone will get that excited about. I like it though, I spose that's all that matters!

Is changing gear oil as horrible a job as I think? Apart from old gear oil being rather nasty stuff, I understand that as far as BMW is concerned, it's all sealed for life, so it might be a bit beyond my non-existant mechanic skills? I've spotted a few tutorials online for various other maintenance stuff, if someone could point me towards something for this I'd be delighted