Rear end noise, 1999 Subaru Impreza Outback

[Husker]

I've got a 1999 Impreza Outback with what sounds to be a road noise from a tire on the rear end. The tires are only about 1 year old and I've had them rotated and balanced since the noise started and it didn't help. I've had wheel bearings go out on cars before and this doesn't sound quite like that (not really the typical grinding noise from a bearing on it's way out). The CV boots look pretty good (no rips, cracks, etc). The only other culprit I can't quite rule out would be the drive shaft universal joint.

 

The noise sounds just like a tire going over a rough asphalt road, but it does it on all types of pavement at roughly anything over 35-40mph.

 

I was thinking about having the tired rotated again, and this time getting the front tires brought to the rear and vice-versa.

[Martinjmpr]

I don't know if this will help but last month I had a kind of funny problem with my car. I was driving along and all of a sudden I started to get this vibrating, chattering noise that varied with the speed of the car. It would come and go, but finally it got so loud I had to take it in. One thing I did before taking it in, though, was that I disabled the AWD with the fuse and sure enough, the noise went away.

 

So, here I was thinking maybe my tranny or rear end were going bad, or maybe I had a bad CV joint on the back (do they even have CV joints on the back or just the front?) or that the U-joint in the driveshaft was bad. Either way I was anticipating major $$$ to get it repaired.

 

So, took it to the dealer and it turns out that when I was driving on muddy roads back in October, I packed a bunch of mud into the tunnel that holds the rear driveshaft. That's all it was. Then they charged me $60 to clean it out. Actually, they should have charged me $5 to clean it out and $55 for being a *********************.

 

Anyway, I'd say before you contemplate major work, make sure it's actually the rear end making the noise and not the driveshaft. Could save you some money.

[johnceggleston]

I've got a 1999 Impreza Outback with what sounds to be a road noise from a tire on the rear end. The tires are only about 1 year old and I've had them rotated and balanced since the noise started and it didn't help. I've had wheel bearings go out on cars before and this doesn't sound quite like that (not really the typical grinding noise from a bearing on it's way out). The CV boots look pretty good (no rips, cracks, etc). The only other culprit I can't quite rule out would be the drive shaft universal joint.

 

The noise sounds just like a tire going over a rough asphalt road, but it does it on all types of pavement at roughly anything over 35-40mph.

 

I was thinking about having the tired rotated again, and this time getting the front tires brought to the rear and vice-versa.

 

definitely move the rear tires to the front. i bought a legacy one time with a similar problem and my mechanic said it was cheap tires and nothing would fix it. so i bought 4 new. (not from him.) problem solved. but until you have moved the suspect tires to the front , you won't know.

 

it's probably not the differential. cv joints usually click. try jacking the car up and turning the tire by hadn. it should spin freely. compare the right to the left. you can do this when rotating the tires. if one of them has more resistance or stops quicker it could be a wheel bearing. listen and feel.

 

check you brake calipers.

[nipper]

Rear ends roar when they go bad, and the non SVX's rarely have a bad rear end.

Inspect your rear tires, and look for broken belts. Rotate one at a time and see if it moves.

 

nipper

[clubSubaru^x3m]

Here's my situation.

I have a 97 subaru outback limited 2.5L and just put 4 new tires all around.

Right after I installed the tires, I lift up the car so we can spin the wheels to hear if there are any bearings bad. The moment I hit the gas(I guess I pushed it too hard), grinding noise came on from the rear. The noise was just like the one in that post. I thought it was the LSD-limited slip dif. but I checked and subaru did not put any LSDs until 2000 and up(at least not on the regular non turbo vehicles). While still on the lift, I got closer to the place where the noise was coming from and heard that the noise is coming from the front of the differential. Diagnose: broken piece inside the differential. I just got another diffy for 150$ and everything's fine.

Cheers

Jeff