Whining 1999 Mercury Sable

Car has whining sound at cold start. Whine gets louder on higher rpm. Whining sound seems to lessen as car warms up but never completely disappears. Whining changes sound when parked and manually change gears. Transmission?

Yes, sounds like the transmission… specifically the pump. It may go quite a while with this whine and considering this car is 19 years old, it likely won’t be worth it to rebuild the transmission. Start preparing to send this one to the scrap yard.

Could be anything . If it whines without being in gear then check alternator for bad bearings and any pulleys or belt tensioners .