Good day 928ers,

Got an 87 auto about a month ago with 95000 miles, really good buy, so there are a pretty good list of small things I need to fix but runs great, first time buyer and I am very happy, love the power and the feel of control in the car.

Issue that I wanted to ask today is about the rear of the car, when driving there is a clicking noise that gets faster as the mph's go up, of course hearing it goes away after about 35 as the tire noise takes over.

Could this be just the fact that when I got the car the carpet in the back was rotted so I tossed it, and the spare tire cover was toast too so I tossed it also, so there is no deadening at all back there now???

Thanks guys,

Dan

 

Most likely a rear wheel bearing....OR - a bad CV joint.

 

Heavy click ... light click ... click sensitive to left or right turn ... same in reverse ...etc????
You may start by safely jacking the rear and hand turning each wheel: also, turn each by the halfshaft ..... try to pinpoint the source.
If you start to think that it is a bearing, consider removing the halfshaft to decouple its contribution - then spin the wheel, for it will sit on its bearing alone.

 

5 years ago I "lost" a tooth on the pinion shaft - made a small/ligth clicking noise, couldn't feel it at all.....

 

If you back it onto ramps(so that the suspension is in it's normal position), set the brake and put the car in neutral you can wiggle the halfshafts around pretty easily to see if the clicking is coming from there.

BTW Garth, what you suggest would work on my car, but not an 87, IIRC. Aren't you forgetting about a very large nut? Or are you thinking of holding onto the halfshaft while you spin the wheel, hoping it won't whip around and take out some other nuts?

 

Well, I didn't say that it would be easy . Yes, on all except the earliest cars, the outer stub axle is 'one-piece' with the halfshaft - and is rather tightly bolted to the hub by a 32mm nut ( ~330 ft.lbs). The half-shaft must be removed.
It is not childs play to remove; however, the thought was that if the bearing is suspect, the shaft must come out for its R&R anyway. With the shaft removed, the wheel/hub is fully decoupled from any contribution from the shaft, differential, .. so by then spinning the wheel, one gains a better view of the bearings health. The same applies to the CVs, once the shaft is removed..
The 32mm nut yields quite well to an air wrench, and is far easier than the handful of allan bolts on the inner CV.

 

Heavy click ... light click ... click sensitive to left or right turn ... same in reverse ...etc????
You may start by safely jacking the rear and hand turning each wheel: also, turn each by the halfshaft ..... try to pinpoint the source.
If you start to think that it is a bearing, consider removing the halfshaft to decouple its contribution - then spin the wheel, for it will sit on its bearing alone.

Light click, and there is no feel to it, does not sound like a wheel bearing, not a rubbing or grinding, just a light click....I was thinking it might be the rear end. Only really hear it while going forward, turning does not change anything.

So it is not normal, even without carpet or anything in back.....there is no light click to the rear end normally?

 

I didn't think you could pull the stub axle out without having the inner CV off??

 

Sounds like a CV joint. If that's the case, climb under the car, you should see the boots ripped(check them good because the cracks can be hard to see sometimes). If it turns out that it's your CV boots, you can simply regrease the axles and then put new boots on it.

 

Don't jack the car if you want to check the CV joints. When they wear, they wear in a specific spot -- the spot where they normally ride when the suspension is in it's normal position going down the road. When you jack the car the CVs will no longer be in this "normal" position and the amount of play will be reduced, potentially hiding the problem. Use ramps, or a pit, or a 4-post lift(like at an alignment shop) to check play in the CVs.
It's inevitable that there will be some play in the driveline; some in the gears, some in the CVs... but it should not be "clicking". Try checking the play in the CVs as I described above. Check the CV boots too... if any are split(or recently replaced) then that CV is immediately suspect. A recently replaced boot might indicate a CV that was run dry & dirty for an unknown stretch of time.

 

You can do all that, but it is much easier to just check for tears in the boots. I've never seen a CV joint just go 'bad' with an intact boot in place. Normally, the boot rips, the grease escapes(which actually takes quite a long time), and then you get clicking.

So, if you get under there and have a ripped boot, it's the CV joint. Just re-grease, re-boot, and go.

 

Good idea -- unless the PO had fresh boots put on a flakey CV joint... as I alluded to in my last comment. If it's clicking, fresh grease will only hide the problem temporarily while it gets worse....

 

Definitely true, but IME, a CV joint will start to click long before it goes bad- it only needs to be 'dry'(ie, a brand new unlubed CV joint will still click). They will progressively click worse and worse until they do finally fail, but it takes quite a while really. You would not believe some of the crap you see when you work in the mechanic field. I had one customer that drove with a clicking CV joint in her taurus for almost 2 years before it finally broke into 4 pieces, lol. She didn't want to spend the money to fix the boots, so she'd bring it in about once every three months to get me to regrease it for her when it started clicking again.
I had another guy that decided he didn't need new boots(cant remember the model, but it was some jap car that called for like 6 hours to change the boots- expensive job), and he insisted that i just 'duct tape' the boots back together. Being the accomodating fella that i am, i charged him $30 bucks and duct taped the hell out of it for him....believe it or not, the thing didn't leak anymore after that for almost two years!

LOL....people are nuts.

 

Thank you guys for the info, when i get a chance I will take a look at the boots.

Obviously as stated before in this forum, best money can buy for advice from people who do it and can share the knowledge, awesome.

 

Well, we're both right ... again: what I said in the first post was quote:
"consider removing the halfshaft to decouple its contribution " unquote. .... 'removing' being the key