I have a 94 FWD with a whine in the front end that increases in both pitch and volume only under load of acceleration. As soon as I take my foot off the gas or coast at any speed, the whine stops. Starts again at same intensity when I touch the gas to accelerate again. I have already done the $1 O-ring replacement for the power steering pump w/ no change.
While I was at it, I changed the internal tranny filter, added an external tranny filter, and changed the differential fluid. Differential had a noticable amount of fine metallic flecks stuck on the magnetic plug.
I'm hoping this might be a power steering issue as opposed to the differential. It's pretty clear that there's an order of magnitude difference in cost.
Anyone else have a similar experience? Most threads I've seen for a differential problem reported a whine when the load is removed, not when it was applied. And since this only happens under load, it's hard to jack the car up to try and isolate it with a stethoscope.
Ideas???
-Dan