TrumpetTitan

I’m hearing a whining noise kind of like a high-pitched whoop whoop whoop coming from the rear of my car.


I bought the car used with 68K miles on it and it now has 110K miles on it. It is my daily driver, and I have been changing the diff fluid every 15K miles using Mobil 1 75W90 and the tranny fluid every 30K miles using Honda MTF.



I only started hearing the noise this morning, after 20 miles of interstate driving (65-75) MPH with no noise.



The noise appears while gently pressing the gas pedal around 15-25 MPH and 2-3.5K RPM. When lifting off the gas with the car in gear, the noise goes away. I was observing this in traffic leading up to the gate of Aberdeen Proving Ground.



When pushing the clutch in and holding it, the noise goes away, but reappears, although more quietly, as the car nears idle RPM.


Under 50% or more throttle, the noise goes away. It's high pitched enough to hear it over the engine if it were there.



The noise did seem just a tiny bit louder and more high-pitched while making a 90 degree left turn at 25 MPH. This leads me to believe it could be my diff, but I’m not sure.


I've done some searches on this topic and they've led to bad diffs, or bad CV joints or wheel bearings. I know it's difficult to describe sounds through words on the internet. I'll get a video of the sound up tonight (unless it stops making it, one can always dream).


Thanks in advance for any help!

DNDN_S2000

Does it almost sound like a brief high pitched but rather quiet "whistling" noise? I guess it can be considered a whine, or maybe a squeal? I have the same thing in my 05 s2000 that I picked up last week...It has 51,000 miles and I wasn't sure if I should be concerned...It's typically only low RPM and low MPH that I hear it...And it goes away rather quickly...

TrumpetTitan

Here's a video of the noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXvOd2G1wgg

SgtB

That sounds like a wheel bearing. Jack the corner up, release the park brake and try to wiggle the tire top to bottom.

!@#$%

It's your hub assembly.

I had that same noise a while back, and after doing some reading decided to just change the wheel bearing. Got everything put back together and that same noise was there.

I ended up buying this hub assembly from oreillys. http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...3338&ppt=C0337

Try this:

Jack up the rear of the car and spin one of the wheels. The other wheel might not spin...

Or you can take the brake rotor off and try to wiggle the hub at 3 and 9 oclock to see if it moves. Mine felt loose on the passenger side and it wiggled left and right. Took the whole piece up to sears and had them press it all in for ~$50, drove home, bolted it back up and it has been good ever since.

Sucked doing the work twice hoping it was just the bearing, when in fact, the bearing still seemed just fine after the fact.

If you can, have someone drive behind you and stare at your rear tires. One of them might have a very slight wobble to it. That will obviously let you know which side is the culprit. hth

SgtB

When you press it apart look for galling. If it's not galled it's the bearing.