I may be able to do a crawl under the car this afternoon. I've got a bad scraping noise and I want to check the plastic things that hold the rear torsion bar. Is this part pretty obvious from underneath once the car's been jacked up? Would grabbing onto the torsion bar and trying to move it around show me if the plastic parts are indeed broken? I probably don't have the time to fix it if this is what's broken. If this proves to be the part making the scraping noise, can I still drive safely although I'd guess handling wouldn't be up to spec.

Thanks for any advise.

easy to see if you know where to look or really easy to see with the wheel removed. Easy to replace, cheap too, although before I replaced mine it definitely exhibited more of a clunking noise

As Pete says, when they fail they make a terrible, pronounced rattle noise. You do not have to raise the car to check them or replace them. Reach around the front of each rear tire and you will find them.

If you have a scraping noise you probably will have to raise the rear of the car and rotate everything until you find the scraping noise. It could be wire or something dragging on the driveshaft, a rear half shaft or possibly a sheetmetal shield bent over and dragging against a rotor.

Good luck and Merry Christmas,

Also check to see if someone tied a big chunk of concrete under your car. I did that to someone that kept parking in my spot. I asked the guy to not park in my spot a number of times but he kept on doing it. The dope made a laughing stock out of himself at a gas station when they put his car on a lift and they showed him the cause of the knock. He never parked in my spot again.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

I was unable to get the car to make the noise today even after driving around for 15 miles. The Rear Torsion things are not my noise problem. They are fine. I chacked the flex connectors on the driveshaft and they look smooth and flexable. When I try to move the drive shaft in the center bearing there is a little well-damped play which is probably how it's supposed to work. The exhaust system, though a little rusty outside shows no leakage when firmly blocking the exhaust at the tail-pipe.
The front wheel sounds a little noisy, like caught rocks. Now, the badness. Both half-shafts have their boots in very bad shape. The passenger side is especially bad, the inner boot is fully seperated as is the outer. If the half-shaft were starting to go due to this problem could I get an occasional grinding/rubbing type noise. When the car was making the noise, both my son and wife indicated it seemed to come from under the passenger side seat someplace under the car.
How difficult is half-shaft replacement? Is there a good source for re-built half-shafts or is this something one can do on their own? Can the half-shafts be removed without needing a spring compressor? Even if this isn't the source of the noise, they have to be fixed. Is there a safety problem with driving around with suspect half-shafts, can they just fall out if something gives away? Can bad half-shafts damage the differential?
Sorry for the length of this but I'm sort of desperate.
Thanks.

The halfshafts are likely dead since the boots are torn and missing. Teh good news is that you can continue driving as long as they are not too noisy. They will click/pop some as they wear and then eventually start rumbling/roaring when they get really bad. Never heard of one damaging a rear diff or falling out completely. They are fairly easy to replace and there are many threads on the topic so do a search. Carquest had remanufactured halfshafts for $69.95/each with a lifetime warranty. You will likely have to order them though, takes a few days. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

RT, THANK YOU.
This is a pretty big load off. I betting it is the half-shafts getting ready to go terminal. The strange thing is that to me it sounds like the exhaust system acting up when it gets noisy. Probably just the way my implants are interpreting the sound. If it was the exhaust I would assume it'd be noisy all the time, not just once in a while. The car is going to again be the beater while I wait on the new half shafts. Thanks for your quick reply. Hope it stays nice for us here in RI for the next few days anyway !