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strange grinding noise

frankrizzo

NAXJA Forum User
Location
illinois
ok so i have this grinding noise (low rumble) at any speed going forward. it obviously gets faster as i accelerate. i checked the wheels for play (hub bearings) but they seem to have no slack or movement. also after 30 min or so of driving i get a slight burning smell. what could it be. cv joints? differential? hubs? im gonna try to take it to the shop next week. any ideas would be great
 
When you smell the burning smell take a little water and splash it at your brakes at each wheel ... is it possible you have a seized brake?

I usually just reach in and feel the brakes when I check ... but I'm OK with a burnt finger or two.
 
I don't think so. I've spun my wheels while they were of the ground and they seemed ok. The front disks did make the usual sounds but they weren't seized up. Could wheel bearings be bad and not have any slop or play in them?
 
Check your driveshaft... If you havn't done it in a while, I highly recommend just dropping the shaft and popping in some new spiders in it (IIRC ~$10 ea at vatozone) takes about an hour or so.

Usually wheel bearing issue you will get pulling to one side or another. I had the rear spider in my DS go bad on my last trip up in WA, I was driving around the area and one day the vehicle just felt like I was driving down a gravel road... First I thought it was the motor, then the motor mounts, and finally got frustrated and pulled both drive shafts, the last spider to do (the rear) the bearings were all smashed up into a goo, even though it didn't feel loose, the bearings were bad.
 
The spider... in the u-joint. It's that center part that transfers motion from one yoke to the next. Goes underneath the bearing caps...

I was wondering as well...that must be a regional thing. I have never heard any parts of the u-joint called anything besides u-joint, caps, needle bearings and zirks. :guitar:
 
Probably comes more from my background in factory machinery, where calling things universal joints just becomes too cumbersome... "ah, here's ya problem, ya spider is bad"
 
That's not a spider, that's a spiral tooth bevel gear. Geese! Some people! There are also worms, worm gears, bull gears, hyploid gears, and herringbone gears.
 
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