eRock

Vehicle: 1995.5 Urs6 Avant

Whenever I'm in 1st going slow or coming to a stop and I take it out of gear, I can hear a rattling noise. Any ideas? Is this the flywheel? Clutch? If the vehicle is in very cold temperatures (i.e. 10F and below) you can hear the throwout bearing turkey gobble for a few minutes after startup but it goes away when the engine is warm. Could the two symptoms be related?

Thanks!

UrS4boy

First guess it the heat shielding around the downpipe just in front of the catalytic converters. It rusts and loses its grip on the downpipe, causing rattling.

eRock

I will rip that thing off this weekend. I saw some related threads and there seems to be some contention over whether or not you need to replace the heat shield or just leave it off. Suggestions?

UrS4boy

You can't really replace just the heat shield, at least not with OE tin (not a separate part). One of the purposes of the heat shield is to keep heat in the down pipes so the catalytic converters heat up quicker and, therefore, emissions control (hydrocarbons) are kept low sooner. If you are concerned, you could probably wrap the down pipe with exhaust header wrap.

eRock

So i ripped the heat shielding off the down-pipe and before the cats and the noise persists at the same audible level.

You can hear it slightly when its in gear but its exacerbated by putting the clutch in and taking it out of gear but the car is still rolling at about 10-15mph.
Best example is when you are coming off the freeway and coming to a stop and take it out of third and let it coast to a stop you can really hear it but then right as the car comes to a stop the rattling stops and does not happen at idle. Nor does it happen when the vehicle is stationary, out of gear, and you rev the engine.

It really sounds like a ball bearing has come out in one of the trans axles inner joint at the transmission and is rolling around in there. Please tell me that's not possible.

Sorry for the length. Thanks for your help, Dave!

-erik

GoHeels

Just a question and I'm no expert, but does the noise correlate to the speed yur rolling out of gear...ie: does the noise slow down as the car slows down. The only reason I ask is because in the buyers guide, I remember one of the things to listen for was the drivetrain when the car is rolling out of gear, and it said to listen as the car rolls out of gear down the street

...I'll look for that buyers guide again to see what it was.

UrS4boy

Do you mean this one:

http://www.s-cars.org/postnuke/modul...rder=0&thold=0

or this one:

http://s-cars.org/site/archives/630

GoHeels

Yes..thanks Dave. The s-cars.org one. Been a while since I read it, and I was about to go re-register for that site.

Never seen the 2nd one you have there..cool

ETA: oh..thats the new site...with a new updated version...nice

eRock

Awesome resource, thanks for the links. It doesn't really sound like a whining but more of like something rattling around. The faster the car is going does seem to affect the sound however it seems more like the frequency of the rattling is increased with speed rather than the pitch of it.

I'm going to get it on 4 jack stands next weekend and see if I can isolate where to sound is coming from. Any danger in doing this?

eRock

found the problem. The center driveshaft is making the rattling noise, do you think this is just the center support bearing wearing out or is there other common problems with the driv shaft? thanks for the all the help so far guys.

-Erik