Rear End Noise

[William maybee]

I have an 03 Sport Trac XLT. It is 2 wheel drive. When I make a left hand turn that shifts the weight of the vehicle to the right, I get a scrubbing kind of noise that sounds like it is coming from the left rear. Today I pulled the inspection cover off, drained the fluid, and replaced the outer bearings and seals. I visually checked the C clips and axle ends but did not see anything unusual. The rear brake pads, and rotors are new. The ebrakes looked good as well. I have heard this kind of noise on other cars, I just can't remember what the solution was the fixed it. I really don't want to continue just replacing parts in the hopes that something might fix it. Can anyone tell me if they have had any experience like this and what they did to diagnose it and repair it? Thanks in advance.

 

[swshawaii]

Add friction modifier (Motorcraft XL-3) if your 2WD has a limited slip differential.

 

[William maybee]

also it does not have traction control and is not limited slip.

 

[RedRanger 7]

What size tires? Maybe right rear is rubbing the flimsy plastic wheel well. :driving:

 

[Vic Sorlie]

Same question as RedRanger. When you had the wheels off to do the axle work did you look at your tires? The other thing is that you may think the noise is coming from left rear but it's really not. Try taking someone with you to an empty parking lot and see if he hears the noise and location. You might check your front wheels for play - could be a bad front wheel bearing. Have a look at what EricTheCarGuy has to say.

 

[William maybee]

I have heard this noise before in other rear ends, when I worked for GM. I just can't remember the cure. For some reason I am thinking back then we just replaced the spider gears. I just don't want to guess and end up replacing tons of parts for no real reason.



The bearings, races, seals, rotors and pads on the front have been changed. I did look at the tires and the wheels and there is no indication of any kind of scrubbing. The plastic wheel wells look fine as well.



It feels and sounds like when the body weight shifts to the right side of the vehicle the scrubbing noise starts. Its not crazy loud (yet), but it is there.

 

[swshawaii]

Hope I'm not confusing your description of "scrubbing". Body mounts are an extremely common failure with the Gen 1 ST, especially the foam mounts under the A and B pillars.

 

[EddieS'04]

I had that scrubbing noise on my '88 T-bird. Mostly on right turns. It turned out to be the front tires. Too much inward camber @ the bottom, when making turns. The outside tread blocks were scrubbing the pavement.

I could have sworn it was bearings. Drilling the towers for more camber and, alignment helped some. It never really stoped until I bought new tires of a different brand..

The T-bird was lowered 2". What I really needed was some caster/camber plates installed. Those years the T-bird was a stretched mustang (fox) chassis.

If you are lowered maybe the same, camber problem.