Wong noise..

[yogibear]

I know this has been covered else where but I can only find small bits of info on this problem...

I recently had the car in at mazda for its 30,000 service, not long after the service I've noticed the car when turning either way has developed what seems to be the dreaded wong wong..This seems to only occur when the car is cold, usually in the mornings and after work. And goes away shortly after!!

Can anyone confirm this might be the problem, or give me a link to more info!!

Cheers

[Nexus]

I know this has been covered else where but I can only find small bits of info on this problem...

I recently had the car in at mazda for its 30,000 service, not long after the service I've noticed the car when turning either way has developed what seems to be the dreaded wong wong..This seems to only occur when the car is cold, usually in the mornings and after work. And goes away shortly after!!

Can anyone confirm this might be the problem, or give me a link to more info!!

Cheers

Differential noise, I believe. Penrite SIN75W90 gearbox oil got rid of it once and for all for me. Covered by warranty.

[yogibear]

Cheers Nexus..I'll give mazda a call and have a chit chat

[TD]

Nexus is spot on. I'm surprised that Mazda dealers are still doing the gearbox oil change with the wrong oil, a tech note to all service managers telling them to use Penrite SIN 75/90 for the 3 MPS gearbox and LSD oil change was sent to them ages ago...

[lilbeefer]

What exactly is the "wong wong" noise? Is it the noise I might be hearing when I am driving at certain RPMs in 4th gear?

[TD]

The "wong wong" is the sound of the LSD gears when turning the wheel and applying some throttle, noticeable after the incorrect gearbox oil is used.

Your 4th gear noise is likely to be some other harmonic vibration, could be influenced by many things such as tyres and tyre pressure, gearbox etc

[Jmac]

Yep, or redline MT90 I believe

[Wardski]

The noise originates from the LSD

Redline MT90 only fixes the problem for about 3000km.

Go with my original solution (thanks to Oldmac Mazda Cleveland). Penrite is a permanent fix and warranty covered.

Just a note to the moderators - the Wong Wong fix used to be a sticky. You might want to put it up again.

[Doc]

Penrite SIN75 is a GL5/6 lubricant.

GL5 is a different spec, and is not 'backwards compatible' with GL4.

GL5 gear oil is a lubricant with very high extreme pressure performance needed for Hypoid gears where sliding and rolling contacts operate under very high loadings. It has a high sulfur content. The downside to such high sulfur in oil is it tends to corrode yellow metals, so can ruin parts like brass synchronizers and some bushings. So any equipment needing GL5 performance is designed taking this limitation of the lubricant into account.

GL4 oils are much more friendly to yellow metals, and so are used in equipment where such high load sliding-rolling contacts aren't present. The designers of such equipment aren't as limited in the use of brass parts. So the bottom line is that if your equipment calls for GL4 it probably doesn't need GL5 performance, and you may be asking for trouble down the line if you use a lube it wasn't designed for.

The reason MT-90 works so well for Mazda trannies is that they do not use friction modifiers which lets the synchronizers get a good bite on the gears and get them up to speed during a shift. Don't be surprised when you start getting crunch shifts after adding friction modifiers or a GL5 oil.

Adding friction modifier reduces the bias capacity of the LSD. It amazes me that people will open their exhausts to make them louder and blowoff to atmosphere to hear the pssshhhh and then cripple their LSDs because it makes a slight hum when turning at low speeds as part of its NORMAL OPERATION.

I know this may not be overly popular with everyone here, but watch out for one wheel spins, and crunching gears when trying to hurry the synchros.

.. but I can hear you typing "mazda has covered this under warranty"
Sure.. nothing will break. fall apart.. or fall off the car. Especially in the warranty period.

Long term: synchro's wont be happy, LSD will never work correctly after it has been slipping for that long. Mazda wont care by then.

Short term: synchros having to work much harder (like slippng your clutch all the way to work) when shifting quickly, because they are not as grabby.
You looking like an idiot as the VW golf blows you off the lights because you sitting there doing a one wheel wounder.

Plagiarised bits and pieces for all over the place to put that together.

[TD]

All well and good Doc, but when you have the "wong wong" it isn't a slight hum...it's pretty damn loud! If the Penrite didn't work I was selling up, that's how bad it is.