whitez52

The other day my car started to make a strange sound from the rear of my car.It sounds metallic and varies with speed and load, it only goes for roughly 5 seconds or so and the goes away ,also only happens when from standstill and a straight line. It sounds like something is hitting a fixed object and both metallic. I've checked uni's and brake pads( hopeing the wear indicator was the culprit) but they were okay.Is there any tests I can do to see if it is possibly the diff or something else in the drivetrain.

BTW the car drives smooth when the sound appears and you cannot feel any vibration, but does have a bit of shake at higher speeds going through the car.Would the rear bearings do this and makes these sounds.
Cheers

CMYC4GO

From your description, it sounds like the half shaft u-joints to me.

JackDidley

Look for rusty red dust around the joints. If its there, they are bad. Not always there, but if it is, bad for sure.

4REGT4

Most of my problem was fixed with replacing the rear wheel bearings... but that wasn't a job I did myself... so I later found that the center nut wasn't tightened enough (needs 118lbs I believe) and that the face where the rims make contact was dry and needed lubrication (without that the wheels can seem very tight but still be loose - in this case the car may shake a little when at around 75mph or so - otherwise wheel bearings are quite possible - mine were quite bad at 80k miles on a 95 LT1 6spd). After those fixes my rear end is dead silent... hope that helps...

vader86

either the bearing or the U-joints

jrzyvet

I had the same noise and it ended up being my Half Shafts. Replaced the Joints and now is as good as new. I just did them last week.

whitez52

Thanks guys for the reply's, I'll check again under the car and have a closer look at the 1/2 shafts / uni joints, I grabed them the other day and couldn't feel any play in them ,is there any other way of testing them ?

jrzyvet

Mine Showed wear. They were shiny in some places and I could feel grooves in them.

flyinlow90

[QUOTE=jrzyvet]I had the same noise and it ended up being my Half Shafts.

whitez52

Thanks guys for all your ideas but I've come across a snag, I 've been driving my car to work lately and it hasn't missed a beat. So that tells me that it's probably isn't the half shafts uni joints but possibly something hitting the tailshaft or half shafts like a loose bolt thats moving in and out on occasions or worse still ground off or gone all together. So it looks like it's back under the vette again but looking for something that's missing or loose .
Thanks again lads.

newbecorvetteguy

Don't blow off the half shaft U-joint idea too fast. Just replaced the left side of mine last week. The needle bearings in 2 opposing trunions in the outer u-joint had turned to dust. Rather than being loose, it was actally frozen in place. The symptom started out a few months ago as a squeek coming from that wheel. The noise went away in a day or two. Drove it for a few months till last week it started squeeking and making a loud poping noise when starting out. Get it up to about 30 mph and get on and off the gas a couple of times and the noise would stop. As bad as that u-joint was, I couldn't wiggle the half shaft by hand. The point is if that's the problem, the noise can come and go, and you may not be able to feel it in the half shaft. Good luck!