My 4cyl auto, on my 2002 Tacoma whines, prior owner noted it too but with no performance loss(?)

O

 

So is this a statement or a question? Are you hoping for the magical repair fairies to show up and take care of it for you? If you want advice, how about providing some actual information.

 

OP fucked up but I'm pretty sure there was a nicer way to go about this

 

Ok, my initial post was both a question and a statement and was admittedly brief. I'll attempt to elaborate. The truck is a 2002 Tacoma with a 4 cyl, 2.7 l engine. It is coupled with a 4 spd automatic transmission and is a 4x4. The truck has 264,000, primarily highway, miles on it. The transmission fluid is a normal coloration and in the normal range on the dip stick. After starting the engine, whether it is in park, or neutral there's no unusual noise. But when subsequently putting it in gear I hear a whining type of sound while it is sitting still and my foot on the brake. When beginning to move the sound increases in conjuction with the rpm's as at it smoothly shifts through the gears. There is no sense of slipping between shifts, or when on an incline of any pitch. When descending a hill the sound decreases considerably to the point of almost becoming inaudible. With normal highway speeds the sound is essentially drowned out by highway noise and is fairly quiet though I suspect it is still there.
My post was simply to see whether it rang a bell with other members who happened to see it or responses of possible causes before I take it to my mechanic. I don't however need, or expect insults on here from other adults. If that's the norm here I'll pass. I also don't have the luxury of being on here daily and will respond when able. Thank you!

 

This should have been your first post. Sure, I could have ignored your original post, but I'm sure everyone else would have as well. Then we would have never got to this point.

Check out this post (https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...sions-write-up-your-4-speed-automatic.325531/) for a boat load of information about the automatic transmission in your truck. When you check the transmission fluid is the truck at temp and have you run through the gears? Is it in park or neutral? I have a manual in my Tacoma, so I don't know what the procedure is for checking the fluid in the Toyota automatics. However, a previous truck that I had was an automatic, and they wanted the truck to be at temp so the fluid was warm. They also wanted you to go through each gear and hold something like 1500 RPM for a short time and then check the fluid with the transmission in neutral.

 

Yes, I did check the fluid after I had been driving it for about a half an hour. However, other than Park and Drive, I did not run through the other gears. Thank you, I will try that next. I have also spent about 20- 30 minutes looking at the attachment and barely touched the surface. Very informative and will spend more time reading it more in depth when I have a little more time. Good solid reading. I will also share with my mechanic as some appears to be Toyota specific and he became a new Toyata owner / fan in the past 2 years.
Thank you for your time!

 

That's a fair amount of miles.

Do you know if the trans has ever been serviced, and if so, how frequently?

Based on your description of sound, my first though is converter whine.

@gearcruncher, any comments to add?

 

Might at least drop the pan and put on a new filter. And few fresh quarts of trans fluid.
Not saying your truck is a pile of junk or anything, but when they have that many miles on them something is going to make some noise and it's hard to just diagnose a noise.
If your ok with DIY stuff maybe get somebody you really trust to sit in it with e brake on and put in drive while you climb under and see if you can tell where the whining is from, also check the tires with something. A 1 or 2 foot section of garden hose that you can stick to your ear helps out with pin pointing noise.