Strange growling from left front.

I own a 1986 Mercury Lynx L wagon. It has around 52k miles on it, and none of the owners were particularly hard on the car. It's a 5 speed 4 cylinder.

About 3 weeks ago, a noticed a growling vibration from what seemed to be either right under my seat or at the front left wheel. It has gradually gotten worse since then, and does it whenever you accelerate particularly hard or when you accelerate on a hill. However, once your speed levels out or you get off the hill, the sound stops. It doesn't happen if you accelerate really slowly, either.

It's hard to pinpoint. Nothing is scraping the ground, and there's no loss of power. It's simply annoying sound and vibration. I took the wheel off last weekend and noticed that the boot was busted. Other than that, I have no idea. Help meeeee! That noise is threatening my sanity!

Edit: I noticed it started happening one day when I hit a STEEP driveway going fairly fast. Yes, stupid, but I was new to manual transmissions and the street was a narrow dead end. If I didn't get up that driveway quick, I would have rolled backwards into a ravine :). There are still some scrape marks on my left front floor bottoms from it. When I drove home, I bnoticed it happening for the first time.

Alignment?

Thanks!
Danny :smoka:

I think that the lynx is hungry.

If it's related to the torque output of the engine (which it sounds like it might be), then look at things like your motor mounts and/or transmission mounts. Also, try to see whether the exhaust system is bumping the body somewhere (like under your seat, perhaps).

The engine mounts are okay, I checked them last week. I'll check out the transmission mounts, though. The little rubber hanger-thingies (technical term) are cracked and hanging lower than they should. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to replace those anyway.

Thanks!

''I took the wheel off last weekend and noticed that the boot was busted. Other than that, I have no idea. Help meeeee! That noise is threatening my sanity! ''


Axle Boot??? You might start by replacing the axle.

Might be your differential. My buddy's Cherroke had this problem (obviously the sound was comming from the back) but the sounds happened the same times yours are. Dude, you need a tranny rebuild, or one of those fixer fluids like "Trans-X."

Oh, and my parents had a Lynx.......

Good Luck Past 60K Miles. Hope your block holds out to the poor coolant system. Their's failed at 33K.