I have an '89 Bonneville SSE with about 230,000 miles on it. When the engine is under a load (going up a hill, or accelerating hard), it makes a whining sound (sounds like someone learning to play a trumpet) that increases in pitch as the RPM'* go up. I think it has something to do with the EGR valve, because something around there got hot enough to melt some of the wires, and the plastic fuel rail cover. I tried disconnecting the EGR completely, and it makes the same noise. The "service engine soon" light is on, but I haven't retrieved the codes yet. Can anyone help me out here ...????

I observed a noise something like what you described in similar conditions over the summer during a road trip in a hilly section.

If I recall correctly, I had it accelerating reasonably hard in 2nd gear going up a hill at ~3000rpm. Once you back off on the throttle and/or you see 3rd gear and/or the road becomes more level, the noise subsides. Happened after about an hour of driving, and since no long road trips have been done since summer, I haven't replicated it. Fluid levels are good, far as I know.

It'* a high pitched noise that stays pretty constant in frequency - and gets louder as the revs climb? I sure hope to hell that it isn't transmission death whine.

TRANSMISSION DEATH WHINE ???? That'* encouraging :? I actually had the same exact problem before, and it went away. I was on a road trip a few months later (about a week ago) and I noticed the same problem minus the broken trumpet noise. I swapped the EGR valve with my '88 bonneville SSE (parts car), and the noise came back. I figured I'd keep it that way for a while so that it makes the noise, and so that I could diagnose it easier. I'll have to try swapping the original EGR valve back onto tit and take it for a test drive. I really hope it'* not the transmission ... that'* the reason why my '88 bonny is my parts car now - it never made a funny noise like that when it was going out though.

And also, to add, I'm not sure I'd have noticed this sound with the windows up and tunes on, the lack of AC meant that windows were all the way down, making the sound very clearly audible.

i think you should pull codes before jumping to any conclusions at this point. there is an article in tech info telling you how to do that.

werd. But there aren't any codes on my end Just a big fat freakin' ABS light cause the system is disabled.

okay ... finally got around to retrieving the ECM codes. I got code 26 and code 63. The code 63 might be due to the EGR swap that I performed prior to checking the codes. The SES light wasn't on before I performed the swap - I'll have to swap it back and see if I pull the same codes. I also discovered that I have a broken motor mount ... could that be contributing to the problem?

so far so good ... swapped original EGR valve back into my '89 bonny and cleared the codes. When I started her up again no trouble codes, and when I took her for a test drive, she performed great! I guess it was just an intermittent problem... I will keep an eye (or should I say "ear") on it though. Well, on to my motor mount ...

Interesting, me being a '91, I have the digital EGR setup...



and my mounts ain't too good, either. I cringe when I command for a downshift