Hi guys, I am stumped, hopefully someone here can help me out!

Here is my delima;


I have a loud scraping noise (kinda like brake pads scraping on the rotor when there is no pad left) that is always present when the car is moving. It doesnt matter what gear, and it increases in pitch when I speed up, and the opposite when I slow down.

I do have the bw 9-bolt disk rear, and I have gone so far as to take both the rotor and disk off the car, jack up the rear end, put it in gear, and it still makes the same noise.

There isnt any driveline play to speak of, or any clunks. I did crawl under and look for any obvious signs of something scraping on the driveshaft, and there isn't.

Its also a t-5 if that helps any.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what this noise may be???

Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
~Joe

 

Is it RPM dependant?? Does the sound go away when you put it in neutral when you're going at speed?

 

Put the rear of the car up on jackstands, under the axle tubes; run the engine with it in gear; and see if you can find it.

I'd suspect the parking brake cable.

 

Yes, check the parking brake cable. I had this happen a few years ago and I could not find out what it was, then randomly when I was under the car doing the bushings one day I saw that the one parking brake cable had come off the hook and was hanging on the drive shaft.

 

this same thing happened to me. same rear end and tranny. i drove it for one day after discovering this and my diff grenading while i was driving on the highway. beware.

----Tyler----

 

The sound is not RPM dependant, it is speed dependant, and it does not go away when I put in in neutral at speed. I also checked to see if the parking brake cable was contacting the driveshaft, and it's not. Hopefully it's not the rear end .

It has been making this same noise for over 2 years. I thought it was the brakes, but after changing those without any effect on the noise, I am kinda at a loss. The oddball thing is that the noise is the same as it was when I bought the car.

With the car on jackstands, and in gear, running, the sound almost sounds like it's coming from the transmission tailshaft area.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again!
~Joe:

 

I had exactly the same problem. I thought it was brakes. That led me to discover that my PBR Rear Disc calipers were totally frozen. Well, I fixed those but the problem persisted.

Finally, I decided that it must be my rear axle. I started tearing it down and started finding bad bearings/races. I had bad carrier bearings and my pinion bearings were so-so.

You could do like I did and get a Master Overhaul Kit and try to replace them. Or see if you can find someone that will do this work for you.

If you put the rear on jackstands and really get under the pumpkin turn the yoke and see if you can isolate the noise a little more. If its coming from the center its probably carrier/pinion bearings. If its coming from the sides, its the wheel bearings (these would be easier).

I read about people having their rear grenade on them and that finally got me to do something about it!

If its just your bearings and you replace them now, you will probably be OK.

Good Luck!

 

PS: The diff yoke on my rear had no play in it either. I don't think checking for play here is a reliable indicator of bearing wear. It will tell you if the pinion shaft is loose though.

If it sounds like someone dragging a cement block over heavy metal plate its probably the bearings.