Growling/Vibration

[ragtop289]

Out of the blue our 2002 Grand Prix GT(102k) decided to start making a growling/vibration. It seems to be road speed related to the pitch. It dosent change with rpm, acceleration or braking. I checked the tires and rotated them, no change. I replaced the hub assemblies, no change. Finally I changed the cv axels, still no change. The trans. shifts smooth with no slipping, but I fear there being a problem in the differential or shaft bearings. The drivers side is solid, but the pass. side has some lateral movement. Oddly enough there is no leakage around the inboard end of either cv. Any sugestions or tips on repair without removing the trans. would be greatly appreciated.

 

[QUICKSILVER462]

I am just now in the middle of repairing my car that had similar problem, turn out to be a worn out thrust washer in the differential. It was making a sort of humm/scaping noise on de-accleration only. So now I have to replace the entire diff. because the sun gear chewd into the diff. housing, and the thrustwasher bearings that scatterd chipped some teeth on the planet gears.

 

[ragtop289]

One thing I should have mentioned, I acctually replaced the hubs about a month earlier. After verifying everthing in the final driveline of the trans. was ok. I tried replacing one of the hubs that had just been replaced. Wasn't the drivers side but the passenger side had went bad. It wasn't loose and seemed to roll smooth by hand. They were toqured right but it was dfective. AutoZone reimbursed me but that dosen't fix all the work I put into checking and replcing parts. So don't trust that because it's a new part you can rule it out as being the problem. After all it acted like a bad hub all along.

 

[FordMan77]

Was it a Timkin hub/bearing that went bad so quickly, or did you go the cheaper route?