Manual transmission still making noise after fluid top off
Topping off the transmission fluid can quiet most gears, but a specific gear like 6th can continue to wear down and grow noisier if internal components are already damaged. This persistent wear leads to total gear failure, effectively turning a multi-speed transmission into a lower-speed unit.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 10.9× more often in r/MechanicAdvice than across the site as a whole.
- 2 of the 4 people here also raised “How to figure out what an unfamiliar car engine noise is”.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1topping off the transmission fluidDid this help you?
- 2switching back to the previously used oil viscosityDid this help you?
- 3planning to do an oil change after 100 milesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My freinds 04 pontiac grand prix 105k miles, started making a ticking noise last week and my old buddy added some trans fluid to the engine hoping it would relieve the problem and we were just going to do an oil change after 100 miles or so but now it’s making this noise please help.”source ↗
“It was making a noisy whirring sound for a last couple weeks. We topped it off with ford DCT fluid and the rest of the gears quieted down but 6th seems to be getting noisier. Is the trans hosed?”source ↗
“No more 6th gear. It's a 5-speed now.”source ↗
“ever since i have switched to this oil I have been noticing an engine noise.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 3Rear diff noise after rebuild on E46 M3
- 28Why does my car run terribly and stutter after a long drive?
- 10How to diagnose transmission clunking and slipping before replacing it