Growling/Clunking noise in rear while accelerating hard in 1st or 2nd ??

Its been -10 and lower here for more than a month, and I have been on my nitto summer tires until today (235/40/18s) I switched back to stock rims with Michellen X-Ice (215/45) and IMMEDIATELY the noise came back.

 

I remember I had this last year and from what I can remember, it has to do with (i thought the front) the front diff being cold and the gears inside chattering.

 

I can assure you this noise WAS NOT THERE this morning (-20c) and arrive immediately after i switched to winter rubber.

I can assure you I can make the noise with either tire.

It seems like I'm also having this noise now! And well I'm in Canada, so colder temp is the only thing for the next few months.

 

Has anyone experimented anything wrong if you drive the car hard? Does it have any downside about it? Other than the growling in colder temps?

 

I didn't read the whole 50+ pages, but pretty sure I have this noise now! Is it only annoying, or should we be worried?

 

JP

It seems like I'm also having this noise now! And well I'm in Canada, so colder temp is the only thing for the next few months.

 

Has anyone experimented anything wrong if you drive the car hard? Does it have any downside about it? Other than the growling in colder temps?

 

I didn't read the whole 50+ pages, but pretty sure I have this noise now! Is it only annoying, or should we be worried?

 

JP

 

Just annoying.

I had this problem and traced it to exhaust shielding that was rubbing on the driveline. It only happened in winter and hard acceleration in low gears, maybe the heating and cooling of the shielding when its cold gets it a little out of shape. I bent the shielding a bit where it was rubbing and the problem went away.

Hmm! Sound just sounds too solid to be heatshilding.

Hmm! Sound just sounds too solid to be heatshilding.

 

The shielding itself is fairly light so I didn't think it could be it either but its connected solidly to the chassis so the noise/vibration effect was a much lower resonance (aka "the growl") than the tinny material would suggest. In my case, I could tell it was rpm related by the noise it made which may be different than what others are experiencing.

Mine is a definite clank (or heavy click) noise - could be end-links, but tend to think this is more to do with the differential bushings allowing movement...

mine does it in 3rd now or if im standing on it around a turn. its getting REALLY annoying. what were the big fixes for it? there needs to be a sticky thread with ONE good post defining fixes people have tried and their successes with it

there isn't a definite answer and what has worked for one hasn't worked for others so until then, this is the thread.

And... I shall continue to wait....

ok ben thanks for that lol

looks like ill have to put some cheater bars in to prop up the ass end. my guess is the cars squatting bad enough to cause the differential to pitch in such a way and the sound your hearing is the ujoint on the driveshaft. i could be wrong but it does it HELLACIOUISLY loud when im gunning it through a corner

I only have one thing to add.

 

I did NOT have this noise until last week when I had 4 things done to the car.

 

1. New snow tires.

2. New plugs

3. New belts

4. New diff fluid F+R.

 

The car now does it when I get on it hard in 1st gear. The car did not have the problem before last week. 68K miles.

switching from OEM stock tires to snow tires? More grip on the ground?

switching from OEM stock tires to snow tires? More grip on the ground?

 

From Toyo Proxes 4 to Blizzak snow's.

Toyos have good tread/grip before change-out? I ask because there seems to be a correlation between torque-grip at the wheels and the noise.

The Toyo's only have 5K miles on them so they were nice and sticky. The Blizzak's grab the snow and that's about it. They have terrible traction on dry pavement but are unstopable in the snow. This is my second set of snow tires and I never had the noise before.

 

At first I thought the shop may have forgot to add the rear diff fluid. I freaked out a little until I read the forum and saw I wasn't alone.

 

I guess I'll have to see if the noise goes away in the spring with the tire change. The downside is it will be warmer so not an exact comparison. The car has much more torque in this cold dry air.

yeah but i get it too and i just put on bilstien hd's....i think its something with the rear diff. upgrade the bushings maybe??

all im saying is it deffinately has something to do with how low that back end is squatting

yeah my ass end is def lower, which is the exact opposite of what cobb said would happen i thought the front would be lower and look "raked". oh well i live in a city where theyre afraid to take care of the many potholes so i guess it worked out better.

I just went stage 2 and I believe this sound is coming up, in first I am just spinning but when hooking in second it sounded like the tires were hooking then slipping then hooking. On further listening it almost sounds like center carrier is loose or something slapping the car underside.

 

If this is the similar sound as everyone else? anyone have a video or sound file of this? it would appear that I'll have to have a look as to what may cause this in the coming weeks.

I've had this noise ever since I got the car used in 2008. It had 60,000 light miles on it. The original owner was in his late 60's and never reset the trip odometer since new, and still read 26mpg average! I wish I could say the same for my driving, my average is in the teens!

 

The noise was most notable in 1st and 2nd when I first got it, and now does it in hard acceleration in third and fourth I have 89k on it now. I'm now going to tare my car down and replace the clutch because of a bad throw-out bearing and at the same time I'll inspect the drive-line.

 

This sound, you guys are describing and that I have been experiencing are reminiscent of a blown u-joint. I had a 72 240z with a supercharged LT1 (I blew tones of u-joints!). This will also come and go with temperature changes, since the grease gets displaced or burned and or dries out. The warmer the weather gets the grease will become viscous thus causing the problem to go away, the colder the harder the grease becomes and binding starts all over again.

 

I'll post here in a moment my conclusion after inspecting the drive-shaft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MWw7xA97C4[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MWw7xA97C4]YouTube - 2005 legacy gt u-joint[/ame]

 

 

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_sTMj9y76FwA/TTm61FQ0y3I/AAAAAAAADTc/RwJI-Kb1h_0/s640/DSCF1039.JPG

Nice grease stripes from the U-Joint puking on heat shield!

 

Now I've got to order a $600 drive-shaft from the dealer! I'm doing this because these stupid things are non-serviceable!! A drive-line shop will cut these u-joints out and weld on new ones and balance it for cheaper---- but they said my shaft will be shorter! Yikes! These u-joints look to only hold like 80hp or so, they are tiny! I think a racing drive shaft would be needed anything over stock modifications! When I get my new one, I'll take this old one and have the shop modify it with much heavier duty and serviceable ujoints to handle our hp and see if that helps, I hope there wont be any clearance issues with a bigger shaft and u-joints! I'll post next week when I get this all back together, new clutch and drive shaft.

Edited January 21, 2011 by Thourbow

wow thank u!! looks like i've got yet another project so more money and time will be spent.......i have one question tho have you shopped around or is subaru the only place to get an upgraded drive shaft,and also should i just wear mine out a bit more before doing this like with a clutch? im only at 57k mi. and i really only notice it when i get wot or launch