My rear growls - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

rickg · #1 06-18-2002, 12:48 AM

If I'm just kinda slowly cruising along at about 25mph in my '84 SD, I can hear a kind of a low growl coming from the rear. It's not real loud, and after putting about 15,000 miles on the car since I bought it, it doesn't seem to be getting any louder. When I took the car into a repair shop a couple months ago to have the cruise control fixed, I asked them to check it out. I thought maybe it was a wheel bearing. It seems to be coming from the left rear , but that may be just where the sound is able to resonate up thru all the seats, insulation and carpets. Anyhow, they said everything checked out fine.
Is this just a normal sound coming from all the CV joints ect, or from a third member that has over 300,000 miles on it? Any ideas out there?

#2 06-18-2002, 05:44 AM

It could be differential side bearings, although these cars do have rear wheel bearing problems....I think, mine did. I changed both my rear wheel bearings at 191,000, I had the car on my hoist and both rear wheels had play in them pulling and pushing on the bottom of the wheel....is that what they checked for?? At 300K, has the diff ever been serviced?? You may want to pull the drain plug (14mm allen socket) to see how much metal is stuck to the magnet. Or you could jack the rear of the car up onto jack stands, block the front tires good and run the car in drive around the same speed, crawl behind the car and listen for the noise to see if it is the diff, or wheel bearings.

rickg · #3 06-18-2002, 10:26 AM

I'm not sure what or how they checked things. But what you are saying makes sense. I did jack the car up myself and check for wheel play and couldn't detect anything. But I didn't think of the diff bearings. It looks like the PO had the diff serviced, as there is a fresh gasket under the cover, whatever that may mean. I'll jack it up again when I get the chance and run the car in drive. I need to do that anyway to check my rear tires. They are fairly new, but I get a shake above 60mph. I've had out of round tires before, & want to see for myself before I take it back to the tire store.
Thanks for the response

leathermang · #4 06-18-2002, 10:52 AM

I do NOT EVEN want to discuss this... but I used the slick 50 gear treatment on a toyato and some other car another time that was getting noisier and noisier... within 300 miles it was gone... I did nothing else to it. Chance,, perhaps... I do not know.