I have owned my car for a few months and it has been working Okay. I seldom have used the trip tronic side of the automatic gearbox. (But it works fine) Generally I just use normal auto driving and all gears have been and still work fine.

Recently I have noticed a “rattle” noise coming from I believe inside the automatic box or around the box. I know this because when Drive “D” is selected and I pull up at a set of traffic lights, with my car windows down I can hear the rattle. When I select Neutral “N” the noise goes away. If I select the lower gears i.e. 4, 3 or 2 the same rattle returns, that is when the car is not moving. When I start to drive off the rattle remains say up to 10 to 15 mph then the noise goes away. As I slow back down to below 15mph and when then I come to a stand still again, I can hear the rattle. Sometimes the noise (rattle) is worse than other times. Moreover when car is next to walls or other cars one can hear the noise more so. I have also noticed that the longer I drive, (when the car is warmed up) the more inclined the rattle is to sound louder. That said even from cold start the noise remains and does not seem like it will just go away. I believe it will become louder.

BUT I do not know what the cause is!

PLEASE can anybody assist? Can you please write what you think the noise is? I do not want to ask garages (mechanics) in my area right away because I do not trust them, in that the issue could be minor or low cost to repair (replace parts etc) but they could pretend that it is worse than it could be, if you see my point. Even if the issue is a major one then once I have a good understanding what is wrong, I can then speak with a mechanic knowing roughly how much the issue would cost me to have put right.

When I select Reverse “R” there is no noise if that information helps you to diagnose the leakiest problem. No noise too when Park “P” is selected.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Edited by stephenlondon on 02/09/2010 at 01:03