Hello All,
I just aquired a '91 Eagle Talon Tsi AWD Turbo and it drives fine but when I let off the gas to stop at a traffic light, I here a whining noise from the rear of the car. The car has 99,000 miles on it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

are you down shifting when you hear the noise?

If the factory gear oil is still in there you should probably change that. It can't hurt.

check your powersteering fulid level just to rule that out.

Nope not downshifting. It does it in every gear while decelerating though. If I push the clutch in it goes away completely. The car runs and drives 100%. No grind in transmission at all.

sounds like a rear differential stress-load related problem

Is there a worry about this? Fix maybe??

Well, does it make the same whine noise any other time? Rear diff gears that are cut a certain way can make more noise than normal. Ever ride in a H0nda when it's backing up and listen to the whine? Make sure the diff isn't leaking or out of fluid either.

I don't hear it any other time. It's only on deceleration.

Not that i've been driving it I think it's the rusted down pipe rattling.

My car whines when it backs up, is this bad?

Reverse gear in almost all modern manual transaxles is straight-cut, meaning there is no slant to the teeth. That is what makes the whine in reverse. Straight-cut gears were in the late 60s Muncie M22 close ratio "rock crusher" transmission. It got it's nickname from the agricultural whine it made in all gears.