Loud Noise from Front axle
Reefman419
01-08-2006, 10:43 PM
Hello all!
I'm a newbie here and just wanted to thank everyone in advance for the quick replies.
To give you the quick little scoop on my jeep. I bought my 1995 Grand Cherokee Limited in May of 2005. It was a bank repo, so I do not know any of the history on this truck. After I purchased it I noticed a "clunk, clunk, clunk" coming from my drivers front tire when turning a corner. To my surprise I looked under the car and found the CV Joint boot to be total gone from the joint. I immediately bought two brand new axles from partsamerica.com, and replaced both front axles. This fixed the clunking noise however a new noise later developed.
After replacing the axles, there was a whine that would hum at about 55 to 60 mph. When replacing the axles my hub assemblies were rusted on, so STUPID me beat on them with a hammer (without even thinking.) So I decided that maybe it was a bad wheel bearing, due to my ignorance. I changed both left and right wheel bearings and yet I still had the noice. Then I thought maybe I had been givin a bad axle, one that wasnt "totaly" straight so I decided to replace them both again(lifetime warranty here.) To my surprise once the new ones were in place the noise was still there, and was getting worse by the miles.
I drive a lot for work, and this noise was getting irritating so I decided to take my car to several shops to get advice/estimates. The first place I took it to was a local, very notable, transmission shop. The owner told me himself, that he "did not work on 4wheel drives." So I left and took it to an auto shop. This guy said sure, "I can fix it." So I setup a time for him to look at it. He looks at it and after 3 days of looking at it he concludes that it was the bearings in the front differential. He said that he could not fix it, because he had tried to fix "jeeps" with this problem before with no success. He reffered me to another place, and so then I took it there. They looked at it for a day and said that my left front axle was too loose in the differential and they could not fix it. So they reffered me to another auto shop. This auto shop is the one I had originally thought about going to, however they charge the most out of anyone in my city and I relucted to. I setup an appointment with this guy, and he seemed very knowledgeable. He practically made a promise to me that he would fix it. This guy had it for 8 days before his final resolution was that it was the bearings in the Transfer case, and he quoted me $900 just for an outside transmission shop to rebuild it. During the 8 days this guy had the truck, he tried many, many different things. He first thought that it was the bearings in the transfer case too. He said that he took them out and physically inspected them and found them to be in "perfect running order." However during this inspection he found that the axle seals were leaking, so he replaced them thinking that was the problem. He put it all back together and drove it and still sound was there. He then took it back apart and claimed the drivers side wheel bearing was bad. He was sure it was that, so I had him change that again. Put it all back together and the noise was still there.
I think he was finally mystified with this problem, and so he called in two transmission mechanics he knew, and asked them to test drive it. The first claimed it sounded like the "tires were ridding on the rim" So he inflated my tires to 50psi and still the noise was there. He had the other mechanic test drive it and this is the one who told him it was "deffinetly bearings in the transfer case." I am now over $700 spent on this problem, and now have 4 tires that dont hold air and have yet to have the problem fixed. I would be more than happy to have them rebuild the TC however, how am I supposed to know whether this is the fix or just another joke!
After reading on here it sounds almost as if it is the pinion bearing in the front differential. What happends is I hear a load whining noise starting at about 40mph and is only present when stepping on accelerator. Once you let off the accelerator it goes away. But as soon as you accelerate it comes back, and is very annoying.
On a side note could the VC do this sort of thing?
When turning a corner sharply to the left, I hear a BAD grinding noise, but only when I turn sharply to the left and never to the right. I have also noticed that when I turn corners sharply to the left or to the right, as if in a figure eight, I notice my tires act as if the slide, or hop.
Any help would be GREATLY appriciated!
Oh yeah on another side note! What would cause the left front speaker not to work. I can ALWAYS get it to work as long as I have the car on, the radio on and then open and close my drivers door, then it will come back and work as normal?
I'm a newbie here and just wanted to thank everyone in advance for the quick replies.
To give you the quick little scoop on my jeep. I bought my 1995 Grand Cherokee Limited in May of 2005. It was a bank repo, so I do not know any of the history on this truck. After I purchased it I noticed a "clunk, clunk, clunk" coming from my drivers front tire when turning a corner. To my surprise I looked under the car and found the CV Joint boot to be total gone from the joint. I immediately bought two brand new axles from partsamerica.com, and replaced both front axles. This fixed the clunking noise however a new noise later developed.
After replacing the axles, there was a whine that would hum at about 55 to 60 mph. When replacing the axles my hub assemblies were rusted on, so STUPID me beat on them with a hammer (without even thinking.) So I decided that maybe it was a bad wheel bearing, due to my ignorance. I changed both left and right wheel bearings and yet I still had the noice. Then I thought maybe I had been givin a bad axle, one that wasnt "totaly" straight so I decided to replace them both again(lifetime warranty here.) To my surprise once the new ones were in place the noise was still there, and was getting worse by the miles.
I drive a lot for work, and this noise was getting irritating so I decided to take my car to several shops to get advice/estimates. The first place I took it to was a local, very notable, transmission shop. The owner told me himself, that he "did not work on 4wheel drives." So I left and took it to an auto shop. This guy said sure, "I can fix it." So I setup a time for him to look at it. He looks at it and after 3 days of looking at it he concludes that it was the bearings in the front differential. He said that he could not fix it, because he had tried to fix "jeeps" with this problem before with no success. He reffered me to another place, and so then I took it there. They looked at it for a day and said that my left front axle was too loose in the differential and they could not fix it. So they reffered me to another auto shop. This auto shop is the one I had originally thought about going to, however they charge the most out of anyone in my city and I relucted to. I setup an appointment with this guy, and he seemed very knowledgeable. He practically made a promise to me that he would fix it. This guy had it for 8 days before his final resolution was that it was the bearings in the Transfer case, and he quoted me $900 just for an outside transmission shop to rebuild it. During the 8 days this guy had the truck, he tried many, many different things. He first thought that it was the bearings in the transfer case too. He said that he took them out and physically inspected them and found them to be in "perfect running order." However during this inspection he found that the axle seals were leaking, so he replaced them thinking that was the problem. He put it all back together and drove it and still sound was there. He then took it back apart and claimed the drivers side wheel bearing was bad. He was sure it was that, so I had him change that again. Put it all back together and the noise was still there.
I think he was finally mystified with this problem, and so he called in two transmission mechanics he knew, and asked them to test drive it. The first claimed it sounded like the "tires were ridding on the rim" So he inflated my tires to 50psi and still the noise was there. He had the other mechanic test drive it and this is the one who told him it was "deffinetly bearings in the transfer case." I am now over $700 spent on this problem, and now have 4 tires that dont hold air and have yet to have the problem fixed. I would be more than happy to have them rebuild the TC however, how am I supposed to know whether this is the fix or just another joke!
After reading on here it sounds almost as if it is the pinion bearing in the front differential. What happends is I hear a load whining noise starting at about 40mph and is only present when stepping on accelerator. Once you let off the accelerator it goes away. But as soon as you accelerate it comes back, and is very annoying.
On a side note could the VC do this sort of thing?
When turning a corner sharply to the left, I hear a BAD grinding noise, but only when I turn sharply to the left and never to the right. I have also noticed that when I turn corners sharply to the left or to the right, as if in a figure eight, I notice my tires act as if the slide, or hop.
Any help would be GREATLY appriciated!
Oh yeah on another side note! What would cause the left front speaker not to work. I can ALWAYS get it to work as long as I have the car on, the radio on and then open and close my drivers door, then it will come back and work as normal?
dksob81
01-09-2006, 07:27 AM
The speaker issue is prolly a bad wire in the door jam on the driverside, these wires get fatigued a break easily.
The whinning is deffinately the differential, It is your REAR PINION BEARING that is the cause, this bearing has load when you apply the gas, the FRONT PINION BEARING has load when coasting.
I just had this problem on my 94, except I had it in the front and rear axles, but the front was really bad. So I tore it apart to rebuild it, well when I got it apart, I was expecting to find the bearing and races in real bad condition, but that they were fine, I mean they were in damn near perfect condition. So at this point I was confused I knew the noise was coming from the front diff, but there was nothing wrong with the bearing. The front pinion shaft did have some play in it, so I tightened it up some to remove the lil bit of side to side play, at first my impact wrench did nothing, it wouldn't crush the sleeve any further. but after trying a couple days later at work I got the sleeve crushed some more and to away the play, I decided to do it to the rear pinion nut as well. tightened it up a hair and now the noise is gone. The noise will prolly return soon and I will finish rebuilding the axles the right way because there is prolly excessive preload on the pinion bearings but for now I have no noise.
The whinning is deffinately the differential, It is your REAR PINION BEARING that is the cause, this bearing has load when you apply the gas, the FRONT PINION BEARING has load when coasting.
I just had this problem on my 94, except I had it in the front and rear axles, but the front was really bad. So I tore it apart to rebuild it, well when I got it apart, I was expecting to find the bearing and races in real bad condition, but that they were fine, I mean they were in damn near perfect condition. So at this point I was confused I knew the noise was coming from the front diff, but there was nothing wrong with the bearing. The front pinion shaft did have some play in it, so I tightened it up some to remove the lil bit of side to side play, at first my impact wrench did nothing, it wouldn't crush the sleeve any further. but after trying a couple days later at work I got the sleeve crushed some more and to away the play, I decided to do it to the rear pinion nut as well. tightened it up a hair and now the noise is gone. The noise will prolly return soon and I will finish rebuilding the axles the right way because there is prolly excessive preload on the pinion bearings but for now I have no noise.
Reefman419
01-09-2006, 11:21 PM
Thanks, dksob81
I have been working on cars for a few years now. I would call myself more of a "backyard" mechanic rather than a real one, mainly since I only fix my car whenever something is wrong with it. I dont ever work on anyone elses car. I must say that this problem has boggled my mind for quite some time, because I think I fix something and its going to fix the problem and then it does not. It gets very frustrating FAST!
I will have to look into what you are saying. I think I will take it to the Dealer tommarow and ask the service manager to take it for a test drive. I will hope that they can give me an estimate stating this is the cause, the pinion bearing. If they state that as the cause, I will take it back to the last autoshop and demand them to fix it. I do not think that I should pay double or even triple the amount of labor, especially since they had it apart once already. They never even asked me before putting it back together. I probably would have had them change all the bearings and be done with it, if they had asked me first.
I will keep you and everyone else posted once something changes.
-Kevin
P.S. I dont think the speaker is what you refer to as being the problem, but thanks anyway on that. I had already checked those wires thinking that would be the culprit. After tearing my car half apart, I decided to think through it logically. The left front speakers would never work unless I had the radio on first, before opening and closing the door. If I would just open and close the door and then turn the radio on the speaker still would not work. I thought of another thing, if a wire had been broken the left speaker should work intermittenly. I mean intermittenly as in once the speaker came on, then it going out if and when you hit a bump or etc.
I have been working on cars for a few years now. I would call myself more of a "backyard" mechanic rather than a real one, mainly since I only fix my car whenever something is wrong with it. I dont ever work on anyone elses car. I must say that this problem has boggled my mind for quite some time, because I think I fix something and its going to fix the problem and then it does not. It gets very frustrating FAST!
I will have to look into what you are saying. I think I will take it to the Dealer tommarow and ask the service manager to take it for a test drive. I will hope that they can give me an estimate stating this is the cause, the pinion bearing. If they state that as the cause, I will take it back to the last autoshop and demand them to fix it. I do not think that I should pay double or even triple the amount of labor, especially since they had it apart once already. They never even asked me before putting it back together. I probably would have had them change all the bearings and be done with it, if they had asked me first.
I will keep you and everyone else posted once something changes.
-Kevin
P.S. I dont think the speaker is what you refer to as being the problem, but thanks anyway on that. I had already checked those wires thinking that would be the culprit. After tearing my car half apart, I decided to think through it logically. The left front speakers would never work unless I had the radio on first, before opening and closing the door. If I would just open and close the door and then turn the radio on the speaker still would not work. I thought of another thing, if a wire had been broken the left speaker should work intermittenly. I mean intermittenly as in once the speaker came on, then it going out if and when you hit a bump or etc.
Ron68
01-09-2006, 11:57 PM
Had a noise just like that on my 97. I replaced the left front wheel hub assy thinking it was a bad bearing. No help. It was the carrier bearings in the front differential. Took it to a shop that specializes in rear ends. They said they see this all the time on Jeep GC's. $529 and one day and the noise was gone.
Automotive Network, Inc., Copyright ©2025