There is a klunky noise coming from my rear axle on my 87 Camaro.

The sound is coming when I am doing corners. If I turn a little hard to the left, I hear something say "klunk" quickly...Like the endplay on the spline axles are big...

If I turn over to a right corner AFTER the left corner, the same klunky noise is coming.

If I take 2 left corners after each other I don't here any klunky noise at the second one.

I have tried to measure the endplay at the spline axles and the endplay isn't bad...

Any ideas of what this could be?..could it be something with the bearings?..C-clips?..Endplay??..Differential???

The car drives and runs great..There is no troubles with the rear axle except this high klunky noise...

This noise also comes when driving in slow speeds at bad roads..When car is hitting the low spots on the road and the suspension is working hard this noise comes....

 

Bearings.

 

Change the oil and put in 2 bottles of GM limited slip oil additive. You probably have an Auburn differential and the cones are popping when you turn.

 

Ok..I will try that...As when it comes to my differential I am not sure if it is Auburn or something else...But I know that I have a stock 2 series carrier with the 2.73 gears..it is a OPEN unit....

I will try with that oil change...

Another thing is, the sound is coming from the right side...I think..
I sounds like that when I am in the car...

 

If you have a standard (open) differential then changing the oil is probably not going to help. This is a fix for most limited slip differentials (posi) rear ends, which is what I assumed that you had.

You might want to check the bushings in the panard bar.

 

Ok..But I think I will change the oil anyway since I haven't done it yet since I bought the car 3 years ago...The car has not been driven to much though..

The bolts at the panhard bar look a little rusty and I am going to change the bushings and the bolts...Mayby that would solve the problem..

The only reason that I thought this had something to do with the rear axle/differential was because when I putt car on jackstands and try to pull and push the whole tire and axleshaft at the passenger side, I get this kind of noise...A big klunky noise when end of the endplay is there..

 

Do a good inspection while you have the cover off changing the oil. If this car has been subjected to a lot of one wheel burnouts then there could be some damage to the thrust washers and differential case. This would cause excessive axle end play.

 

I had about the same thing happen to me yesterday when I was pulling out into traffic and the rear end made a pretty bad clunk when I caught traction and then shortly after going into 3rd. But it didn't happen after that and I have a 3.08 peg leg and the odd thing was the clunk came from the non power wheel.

 

I tried today to open up the diff cover and inspect..And as far as I can see there is no damages at all in the differential...There are very few metal particles atached to the magnet on the backside of the diff cover and the oil just looks USED...

I will try to fill up with fresh new diff oil and check if that has something to do with it...If not, I think I will try to buy some new bushings at the panhard bard and the lower control arms etc.etc..

The rear shocks and springs are brand new from Spohn..And the sway bar also with polyurethane bushings...

Actually this problem appeared right after I changed to those parts, but I have double checked everything and the shocks and springs are sitting perfect..So is the sway bar..nothing is touching as far as I can see..

I guess I just have to inspect more and try to find out...

 

If you replaced the stock parts and soft rubber bushings with new parts and hard rubber bushings then it is going to transfer more noise into the car that you didn't hear before. The problem was probably already there, you just weren't hearing it. Replace the rest of the parts and see if it doesn't go away.

 

I can guarantee that this has nothing to do with the noise coming from car..This must be something with the spline axles or something with the differential..

My bet here is the endplay, because I tried one day to put the car on jackstands and pull the pheels in and out.. And about the same klunky noise is coming from the right rear wheel. Of course it sounds a little bit different outside the car than inside the car when driving but something like that...

Is there a chance that it has something to do with the bearings?..I mean, my car has about 86k miles on it and most of the parts are stock.

I haven't owned the car for more than 3 years so I don't know if the previous owner did do many burn-outs, but I haven't done a lot of burn-outs at one wheel. Mayby a few but not many...

 

How sure are you its coming from the rear end assy itself? I would start by checking the swaybar bushings and end links. I'll bet they are dried up and/or pounded to hell and loosened up, causing the noise when hitting a bump in the road or possibly when going around a corner.

If its doing it when you accelerate/decelerate, would be a good idea to check the condition of the transmission and torque arm bushings as well.

 

Difficult to tell of course, so I am not 100% sure it is coming from the rear end.. But that klunky noise is big. Sound like the spline axle is going to jump out of the housing....

The sway bar and every bushing there is new with grease and everything.
To me they look very nice and I have reinstalled them many times without any trouble. Very nice bushings....

The only thing I could think of that could make that sound besides the rear end is the panhard bar.

I know that when I had my panhard bar down a couple of weeks ago the bolt was very rusty..So mayby the panhard bar is moving when turning because of the diameter of the bolt is not as big as it should be because of the rust..

 

I guess you could have some chipped teeth on the 4 differential gears. Have you had the cover off yet to check it?

 

I had the cover off when I changed the oil and then I also checked the teeth at the pinion and the gear wheel. The teeth seems nice to me and I did not have many metal particles at the magnet on the cover either.

I noticed that sound today also. I was going to put my car on jackstands.
So I put a jack under the front control arm on the drivers side first.
I jack up the car and after I have jacked up the car for about 10inches that klunky sound came again.

I heard that is was coming from the right side of the car but since I was at the front of the car it was impossible to recognize where excacly the sound came from...

any more ideas?..thanks for helping me out so far..I really appreciate it..