Rubbing mechanical noise

[Rob Benham]

Hi, can anyone help.


My '95 FWB has a noise...somewhere. I've changed the front wheel bearings and no change. Rear oils seals were done recently. There seems to be no rubbing of breaks anywhere.

As I accelerate to about 25 the noise builds up and doesn't get any worse. A soft metal grinding / rubbing. I think it changes a little when I put the breaks on, but not much.

It doesn't cause any problem, but it's just not a luxury car any more

Is there a history of diff problems, or even rear gearbox/torque converter bits on this car that would make this noise?


Also, while I was poking around, I jacked the back wheels off the ground and ran it in Drive. I turned off the traction and removed the fuses to disable the ABS, but was astonished to find that with the breaks on the right rear wheel was turning. My surprise is because I have just had the breaks checked -- new master and the rear cylinders and pistons were new(ish)

Is there some control that I don't know about that will turn off one rear brake?

[Old Fleetwood]

This may be a longshot and will take some work, however it happened to me and my brother-in-law.
The noise was due to the rubbing of the DRIVESHAFT AGAINST THE REAR SEAL OF THE HYDRAMATIC TRANSMISSION.
I had it happen with an Oldsmobile, Mel had it happen with a Pontiac.
As I said, it's a longshot, but that's what happened here. A significant rubbing sound with a trace of a squeak added to it.

[JTraik]

When it was in drive in the air, were you able to localize where the sound was coming from?

[Rob Benham]

Thanks guys, I guess I can cover both replies at once.

The noise could be such a seal rim, but I was working with a rather cheap jack plus the car jack. I was worried that I might send the car down the road without me!

While it was jacked, I could hear the noise, but it was nowhere near as strong, and other general noise from the car drowned it somewhat, so I really didn't get very far.

I managed to slop the drive shaft to and fro and could hear a noise in the rear of the transmission: just like slack being taken up before the converter moves. This was worrying, but not really like the main noise and hard to believe that it would change into that noise at higher revs.

Age and a bad back have made me get help from a friends son. He was formally trained and has done some serious work on muscle-cars in his own hobby shop. He however, suggested that it was one of those noises that have to get worse before they can be located! I sort of know what he means, but it goes against the grain. A lovely old car like this should run like silk.

I'm still puzzled by the brake issue, if anyone knows what should happen with the ABS fuses out.

Rob

[N0DIH]

The ABS and Traction Control can control one wheel (any of the 4) independently....

As for is it completely disabled with a fuse out? Not sure..... There is 3 levels of traction control, throttle relax, brake apply on offending spinning wheel and timing retard.....

[Rob Benham]

Mmmm, brake apply. So the fact that I was sitting there with the brakes on and the right rear wheel spinning freely seems a bit bleak.

What I didn't look at was the offending wheel while the fuses were in. The whole car was shaking until I took the fuses out.

Just had a thought. The shaking would have to be traction, right? and that was supposed to be switched off. If the ABS was affecting a brake that wasn't working, the fault would be......erm, complicated. But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I'll get the brake fixed and then get back to chasing the noise.

It's a bit awkward cos the guy that checked the breaks is family of a friend. I guess that I'll have to address that issue then see if the noise is still there.

We've had the first rain here for months, so no lying on the drive till we're back to 75 degrees and blue skies.