Annoying Idling/Acceleration Noise - Please ID!

[scyrusurcys]

Hey everyone, I have a '95 540i with 167K miles and during the mornings (or anytime I haven't driven my car for over 6 or 7 hours) when I start my car, I get a whining/gargling noise that gets faster with my RPMs. The noise is high-pitched and sounds like it's coming from under my dash, but inside the engine bay. It will dissipate almost completely when in 3 gear or higher.

For the record, I am about 700 miles short of an oil change but even after a fresh change, the noise continues.

Could anyone identify the culprit of this horrible noise?

[pingu]

If your car is an auto then it might be the infamous gearbox whine. Mine used to do it a lot when cold but once things had warmed up it was fine. If it's autobox whine then it's probably low transmission fluid and/or a blocked filter - do you know if the fluid and filter have ever been changed? For more info, do a search (Google is good as there lots of info on the www.e38 forum, not just this one) for "5HP30" (which is the model number of the gearbox) and "whine".

[scyrusurcys]

Thanks a lot for the information! That's exactly what I was [unsuccessfully] looking for.