Squeeking while driving....

y2kcrawler

y2kcrawler

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Location
Lake Wylie, SC
Sorry I cant be more descriptive, but lately I have been getting this squeeking like something is rubbing only when I am in gear driving. Besides the newly discovered death wobble I am getting while braking at about 5-10mph. I think the problems may be linked.

The squeeking sounds like it is coming from the front but its hard to tell and it only happens when I am in gear. It seems to go away when I turn. Any ideas before I tear through this thing? I know jeeps like to make strange noises but this wasnt here 2 weeks ago.

2k TJ - 4.0 manual, lifted and whatnot. Tires not rubbing, brakes could do with being changed, havent checked the rotors. Thanks!
 
Turn the radio up and the noise will go away. :D

Sorry...couldn't resist.
 
Jack up 1 wheel at a time and shake it up and down then side to side. This will tell you if it is a wheel bearing ball joints, tierod, etc. Could be the squeelers on the pads. Death wobble at 5mph that indicates something probibly not right especially if it goes away at 10 mph could be in your tires maybe feathered slightly, try rotating and check your brakes, ball joints and steering at the same time.
 
99ncxj said:
Turn the radio up and the noise will go away. :D

Sorry...couldn't resist.
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Ha ha, yeah radio drowns it out just fine. Its the whole loosing a wheel thing while ignoring the noise Im worried about :flipoff2:

Hyperlite said:
Jack up 1 wheel at a time and shake it up and down then side to side. This will tell you if it is a wheel bearing ball joints, tierod, etc. Could be the squeelers on the pads. Death wobble at 5mph that indicates something probibly not right especially if it goes away at 10 mph could be in your tires maybe feathered slightly, try rotating and check your brakes, ball joints and steering at the same time.
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Yeah I plan to take the wheels off this weekend. In fact since I dont have any air tools and the tires are new the shop that put em on will give me a free rotation. So while I am there I will check everything out. I just dont trust the idots at the tire places, they will say whatever to try and get money outta ya. I will give it a throrough once over and see what I can find.

Thanks! :wheel:
 
Ok so rotated the tires, while it was on the lift I got under it and there is some play in the front driveshaft and also on the front passenger side of the D30 where the axle shaft connects to the knuckle. Both the 9" and this D30 are leaking oil, so I will fill em up, the 9" has a slow leak the D30 I think might have failed. I had Galloways bend it straight again for me and it is leaking at the bend which means the weld probably failed. So.....

What do yall suggest? Keep throwing money at this weak Dana 30 or swap out for a waggy 44 or is this an easy inexpensive fix? Is there a reasonably priced and easy swap out there? I wouldnt mind doing a 4 link but have no welding skills for the brackets... Anyone have a weekend avail to help me fix my sh!t ha ha.

.... I know not this weekend due to the holiday, but any help/suggestions would be great. Thanks!
 
Well still got the crazy sound. What I can compare it to is as if a brake is locked up and you are still driving on it. The noise is coming from the front axle. I lifed up the front, rocked the wheel from left to right side to side, it is solid and no noise. No noise when I spinned the wheels. I lifted the rear, started the jeep and spun some tires. No noise. I put gear oil in both axles and have been driving it but the problem persists only while in gear driving. When out of gear you can hear a faint clicking like there is something spinning freely in the axle. If it was a driveshaft issue then the wheel would come off right? The brakes are due for a change but do not beleive it to be the cause.

Any other suggestions to track down what is wrong with my jeep? The noise is annoying, it sounds like some grinding and I know something is going to fail soon. Any help would be appreciated since I dont have the money to throw at it but have the time (both due to the economy). thanks yall.
 
I know this sounds silly but have you checked the dust shields on the front brakes, Had mine do the same thing. Just pull the shield away from the rotor. The wobble most likly a wraped rotor, Which could be the cause of the noise also. Doesn't explain the in gear and out of gear.

If you want and easy / quick small upgrade would be to swap in a HP30. The HP30 is a little better than the LP30. Get one off an 95 xj and It bolts in, You just have to gear to match the rear.
 
Have you checked your u-joints? Sometimes they will squeak. Usually the squeak will increase in pitch the faster you go. They will also cause a clicking noise when going bad. Look for rust at the caps. Put it in neutral with brakes on and wheels chocked. Slide under and try to move the shaft up/down, side/side at the u-joint to see if there is play.
 
burrellsjeep said:
I know this sounds silly but have you checked the dust shields on the front brakes, Had mine do the same thing. Just pull the shield away from the rotor. The wobble most likly a wraped rotor, Which could be the cause of the noise also. Doesn't explain the in gear and out of gear.

If you want and easy / quick small upgrade would be to swap in a HP30. The HP30 is a little better than the LP30. Get one off an 95 xj and It bolts in, You just have to gear to match the rear.
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Actually no I havent checked those. I was thinking the same thing. I was going to check yesterday but once I had the jeep jacked up it started pourin so i said F it. I will check this weekend for that.

And yea I am at that point where I am going to swap it w/ another D30 or possible 44, I just want to find the source of the problem before I do that.

96tacolx said:
Have you checked your u-joints? Sometimes they will squeak. Usually the squeak will increase in pitch the faster you go. They will also cause a clicking noise when going bad. Look for rust at the caps. Put it in neutral with brakes on and wheels chocked. Slide under and try to move the shaft up/down, side/side at the u-joint to see if there is play.
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Yeah, the front driveshaft has some play in it and does look a little rusted and the passenger side U joint has some definate play in it.

Ballbearings - How would I be able to tell if those are bad? Never dealt with those before?
 
y2kcrawler said:
Ballbearings - How would I be able to tell if those are bad? Never dealt with those before?
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Ball Joints I believe is what you mean. The joints at the top and bottom of the inner and outer knuckles. They can go out and cause similar issues.

You might have the needle bearings in a u joint that have ceased up and causing said noise. Put the front axle on jack stands and put the transfer in N and rotate the drive shaft to see if the noise is there.

Unless you have manual hubs the driveshaft turns all the time in the front, So this does not explain the in and out of gear.
 
y2kcrawler said:
Yeah, the front driveshaft has some play in it and does look a little rusted and the passenger side U joint has some definate play in it.
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The U joint on the axle should not have play in them, This is something you should look at.

I guess you would have explain what you mean by play. Does the inner and outer shaft have a wobble type play, Or does the axle shaft roll a little (which is normal)
 
burrellsjeep said:
The U joint on the axle should not have play in them, This is something you should look at.

I guess you would have explain what you mean by play. Does the inner and outer shaft have a wobble type play, Or does the axle shaft roll a little (which is normal)
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No wobble in the innter/outer but the axle shaft has movement. The drivers side doesnt? :confused:
 
Ok so this weekend I jacked it up, turned the wheels, couldnt replicate the noise. When i took the wheels off I noticed the break caliper on the passenger side was missing a lower bajo bolt. The caliper had a little play but nothing bad. The dust sheild was ok and rotor didnt seem to be warped. I have tomorrow off so I will check the ball joints next.

....Gonna look for an HP D30 I guess cause Im tired of messing with this axle!

Thanks for the help Everyone, anymore suggestions keep em comin!
 
I worked on mine this weekend, While under there I tried to roll the front axle shafts at the knuckles and neither would move.

Now I have a locker in the front, so I am not sure have spiders would react.

So did you replace the bolt and drive it to see it the noise was still there?
 
burrellsjeep said:
I worked on mine this weekend, While under there I tried to roll the front axle shafts at the knuckles and neither would move.

Now I have a locker in the front, so I am not sure have spiders would react.

So did you replace the bolt and drive it to see it the noise was still there?
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No locker in mine. Yea the noise is still the same after replacing the bolt so I can rule that out as the culprit. I have the day off tomorrow so I will look into it more. Im thinking its a bad bearing but wont know till tomorrow.

Where the dust cover is I noticed about a month ago I had leaked alot of gear oil out of that and that could have burnt up those bearings.. think that is the case?

I just need a cheap and easy alternative at this point. I know I need breaks, could be a warped rotor but if I have to replace two bearings and brake rotors and pads plus the axle has a leak its probably best to replace it, even with another D30 right?
 
Well the wheel bearing are a self contained unit so the lack of oil would have no affect, You can get the for under a $100 a pair, Replaced mine a few years back, Not too hard once you get the axle nut off.

Seals are pretty cheap.

The only way you would make out on the axle swap is to find one with the same gear ratio. If you go putting in new gears, that would blow your budget.

You can get an HP30 for under a $100. If it has the same ratio, Just bolt it in. If you do as a tip, just pull the calipers and hang them up, then bolt them to the new axle, that way you don't have to bleed them. Just about 100% the axles have the same brakes.

The strongest HP30s are out of 94-96 XJs
 
Thanks for the input Burrell.

The work done on this D30 was all done not even a year ago by No Limit 4x4 in which I had bought and cleaned up a donor D30 w/ same gear ratio. They ended up doing what I didnt want to do and that was sending it to Galloways to have the axle rebent back to straight. I didnt want to do this due to it being a weak axle in the first place and this would make it even weaker. When they did this, they also replaced the bearings and shocks. Needless to say I wasnt happy with all this when I received the bill but the work had been done. So now after helping my roommate work on his K5 I realize putting in axles is not that difficult so I am going to give it a go myself.

I called a few places yesterday, didnt find any axles but got some good info. Daryll at Galloways said if I bring it down there he will take a look with me to see if we can find the problem. I will probably go that route, and if it seems like a costly repair I will just replace it with a HP D30.

I checked on a D44 but that will just be way too much coin to go that route!
 
Well, I isolated the noise to the rear driveshaft... The jeep is runnin a little sluggish now and the noise/vibration has gotten worse. There is play in the rear driveshaft to where I can move it about 1/4". Probably bad bearings. Now my delimma is how hard is this to fix? Its connected to an SYE, so what would I need to fix this? There some tranny fluid on the oil pan.... I have a feeling this Jeep will not be right until im broke.....
 
y2kcrawler said:
Well, I isolated the noise to the rear driveshaft... The jeep is runnin a little sluggish now and the noise/vibration has gotten worse. There is play in the rear driveshaft to where I can move it about 1/4". Probably bad bearings. Now my delimma is how hard is this to fix? Its connected to an SYE, so what would I need to fix this? There some tranny fluid on the oil pan.... I have a feeling this Jeep will not be right until im broke.....
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, I have a SYE rear tail housing with a never used bearing and seal. I got two with mine. You can have it if you want it.
 
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