The day finally came where I was going to rip into the car and resolve the rear end clang once and for all. It was driving me insane. The car drove great, but every single time I would start from a stop I would hear a metallic clang from what sounded like the driver side rear wheel area. Not a clunk or a bang but a light metallic clang. Almost like ringing a bell but not as loud. I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I at least found the culprit. However, before we got to this point, I took it into a shop to have them diagnose it. Here is how that went.
I had replaced quite a few parts to try and solve the issue and decided enough was enough, I’m just going to take it into a shop to have them diagnose the issue and from there I will decide if I want to pay them to fix it or do it myself depending on what it is. Some things I can’t do at my house and other things I may just not want to do.
I walked out with the technician to explain to him what I was hearing and from where I felt the sound was coming from. I had only heard the noise from inside the car so I told him that it sounds like the driver side rear wheel area but I don’t know for sure. He got in the car, started it up, released the parking brake and slowly released the clutch. CLANG! Standing outside of the car, directly in front of the rear wheel, it was unmistakable. From there I could clearly hear the noise and it sounded like it was emanating from the brake rotor. Like someone was lightly tapping it with a hammer and it was ringing out. The technician stopped and started multiple times and was able to repeat the sound over and over.
He drove it to the back and a few minutes later called me back. He said the issue was the parking brake cable bracket. He wiggled it and it made a creaking sound. Not the same sound i was hearing, and he had to put a lot of pressure on it to make it creak. My confidence in his diagnosing abilities started to dwindle. I said that’s not the same sound. He replied that it’s the only noise he has been able to find so he said we would need to replace the bracket and the entire parking brake cable before digging in further so we could eliminate that, at a charge of $703. I politely, but firmly, declined and paid my $60 diagnostic fee.
What initially felt like $60 wasted actually still gave me the information I needed. I was finally able to pinpoint exactly the region where the sound was coming from without guessing. A few days later brings us to today and tearing into the driver side wheel area. In addition to finding the noise I was also going to replace the wheel bearing. I had already replaced the passenger side and wanted to replace this one too. It wasn’t grinding but it also had 140k on it so I wanted to make sure it was fresh as well. This is where I hit the proverbial jackpot.
After breaking the lug nuts loose, I lifted the rear corner of the car with a floor jack, set it down on a jack stand and removed the wheel. I made sure the parking brake was set and grabbed my 32mm socket to break the axle nut loose. My largest breaker bar in hand I was ready to muscle it loose. The passenger side was very tight and took a lot more effort to remove than I was anticipating, so I was gearing up for a similar fight with the driver side.
Socket on nut, breaker bar in hand I start to apply pressure and…it breaks loose. Immediately. It broke loose with very little effort. I could have broken it loose with just a normal ratchet and still not had to struggle. That nut was loose!
“That would be my noise then” I said to myself. To be sure I hand tightened it back and with a socket on the nut was able to rock the axle back and forth a bit and make the clang sound I had been hearing. I thought to myself that if I torqued this to spec, I bet the noise would be gone. But I was in there to replace the hub, including a new axle nut so I proceeded with the repair.
New hub on, axle nut cranked down to factory specs, which I believe is 180ft-lbs but I could be wrong, my memory is a bit foggy there. Either way I had the specs in front of me during the install so I know I got it tightened down properly.
I put everything back together and slowly back it out of the garage. No noise. That didn’t mean much though because the noise would rarely happen in reverse, but it would happen nearly every time going forward. So I stop the car in the street in front of my house, slowly release the clutch, apply some gas and…quiet. No noise. I must have repeated the stop/start routine at least 15 times. No noise. Nice and smooth. SUCCESS!!!!!
Was it the wheel bearing? The loose axle nut? Probably a combination of the two. But now both parts are new, as well as the rear brake rotors and pads. The car is quiet and drives very smoothly. With that fixed, it’s time I turn to attention to one of the last issues I need to fix that the previous owner gave me. The spray-painted wheels.
Supergoat Garage 