Moaning Car?!

[Kneale Brownson]

Extra weight in the trunk or lift/pushdown resulting from the roof rack at 
45 mph causing exhaust system or shield or something similar to rub on the 
driveshaft?  Oh, wait, you don't have a driveshaft in back, do you?  Maybe 
springs get compressed enough to transmit some vibration?


At 01:45 AM 05/25/2001 -0400, Alexander van Gerbig wrote:

>     Of course this starts up the night before a 5 hour drive and a few days
>before the turbo conversion starts.
>
>     I'm driving downtown to support my roommate at a guitar competition (of
>which he came in second) and I hear this odd whining/moaning from the car.
>I've definitely never heard this type of whine from a car before.  It is
>almost like a tuning fork is in the trunk of the car.
>
>     I just recently discovered I have a bent stub axle in the rear of the
>car.  I had the wheel bearings replaced two months ago in the rear, and
>within a month and a half the right rear started vibrating in turns above
>75mph, which it still does now.  Though this noise has only one component,
>45mph, it doesn't matter if I turn right or left, the car whines.  It
>doesn't matter if I'm in gear or not, the car whines.  I am totally baffled,
>the car feels very smooth and sweet, no odd handling behaviors, but it has
>this horrid humming from the rear at 45mph, and if I change speed by 2mph up
>or down the noise disappears.
>
>     The only difference between yesterday and today is a full trunk and a
>Thule rack went up top.  I thought it was the rack, but this the whole car
>humming.  Then I thought it was the bad wheel bearing/stub axle, but no
>difference when I turn left or right.  No association to RPM at all, just
>45mph on the dot.  The trans shifts smoothly, so hopefully not a whining
>trans or diff, plus it runs Redline.  Everything runs normally, but just the
>whining in the rear, or so it seems to be from the rear, very ambiguous
>noise.  Anyone have a clue?
>
>TIA!
>
>Alexander van Gerbig -- '88 80
>
>The Audi  80 Pages-----------------
>http://surf.to/the80pages.com
>
>North Ferrisburg, VT 05473
>
>
>