I drove 70 mi. the other day and was on the way home and all of a sudden there was a noise eminating from what sounded like the drivers side rear. The noise sounded like someone was under there banging on a piece of steel, bang bang bang. I pulled over into a parking lot parked, shut the engine off and knelt down and looked under the car. I had replaced the rubber boots about 500 miles before but everything looked OK. I got back in the car started it and continued my drive home with the car still making the noise. 35mph was what I drove at all the way home. Backed it into the garage, jacked it up by the differential, put jack stands at the jacking points and crawled under on a creeper jeepers. Turned the wheels, shook the wheels top to bottom, front to back no movement. Played with the axel shafts no movement, played with the drive shaft, checked the carrier bearing as best I could with the shield installed. It all checked out OK. Started the car with the front wheels chocked and put it in gear D then R then D ran the revs up with the tires spinning = no noise. I also checked the wimpy anti sway bar in the back to see if the bushings were bad.

Jacked it back up pulled the jack stands, tire chocks and took it for a spin no noise. Does anyone have any suggestions? I will drive it locally and see what happens.

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Gary
OBK #37

Easy! You have a Dodge Neon stuck under your MB!

Scrape it off.

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1972 W115 220D/8 SLS, Coffman Starter "Ümläüt"

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Ha Ha! Looks like somebody got some "splainin" to do!

Bluebird,

Does the sound increase with speed?

What happens when you go over a bump?

What car?

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82 240D Manual 277K and still rolling!
02 Volvo S60 AWD For Sale

Sounds like a dry CV joint to me. Did you add any grease/oil/whatever to the joint when you had the boots off?

Car is 1984 300 SD with 214K mi.
Yes I added 2 packets of grease per CVJ so 4 per axel shaft.
Noise seemed to smooth out at higher speeds, with no change going over bumps.
The carrier bearing on the SD is under a cover. I did not take the cover off because we were pressed for time. We both grabbed the drive shaft from opposite ends and shook and pulled and could not discern any sloppiness.
I am leaning towards the CVJ as that is what it sounded like. Someone hitting a sturdy metal can with a hammer. However there was no distortion on the can and the rubber boots look fine. Maybe I'll grab the boot in my hand and sqeeze it to see if I feel grease.

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Gary
OBK #37