Winning noise

[Dan Aseere]

A friend of mine in the Tampa area has a 94r/t 10. Claims he hears a high pitch winning noise in the rear area at about 65 mph. Says it doesn't seam to be a bearing type noise. Any suggestions? Rear end does have the proper lubricant installed.

 

[jdeft1]

wrong rear end fluid, worn rear end or tires IMO,.... So, is he running mudders?

Sorry, I couldn't help it...

Does the sound change cornering? Check the fluid level in tranny?

 

[Martin]

He's hearing a "winning noise"? He should enter the VCA raffle - maybe his car is telling him something Sorry, couldn't resist...

The Gen I and Gen II cars often had noisy rear ends, and if the rear-end was rebuilt, they may not have set it up perfectly. My GTS made some noise from the day I got the car, and I swapped out the standard fluid for Red Line Shockproof oil and it quieted it right down.

 

[Dan Aseere]

Tranny and rear end has new fluid with the proper additive. He tells me the noise starts at 55 mph and quits at 62mph. New tires did not make any noise when put on about 1 year ago. He put 55lbs of air in the rear tires to see if the sound chanaged but it did not. He will try the cornering idea and let me know. Thank you for your help.

 

[Martin]

Tranny and rear end has new fluid with the proper additive. He tells me the noise starts at 55 mph and quits at 62mph. New tires did not make any noise when put on about 1 year ago. He put 55lbs of air in the rear tires to see if the sound chanaged but it did not. He will try the cornering idea and let me know. Thank you for your help.

If he's hearing that noise through that narrow of a speed range, what's probably happening is he's hitting on a frequency that's resonant to some part of the car due to either an imbalanced driveshaft (bad U-Joint probably) or rear-end gear noise. It could either be the U-Joints starting to go bad, or just normal noise from the gears and drivetrain that happens to resonate with the rest of the car. As these cars get older and parts start to wear, you can get enough play in the joints, bearings, bushings that noises like this pop up. To (possibly) diagnose a U-Joint problem, have him leave the parking brake fully engaged and gently try to drive forward, and then reverse. If a U-Joint is going bad, when he loads up the driveshaft in reverse, he'll probably hear a distinct "pop" or "ping" sound. That's the play in the joint, and typically that means he'll need to get those repaired pretty soon because the vibration will just keep getting worse and worse until it gets REALLY out of balance and ruins the grease seals to the rear-end and tranny.