F-Body Europe

Hey all, just got my WS6 in August and so far have been loving it. Yesterday, I was driving home from work. I was doing around 85mph on the autobahn. I was coming up behind a truck and had someone overtaking me in the left lane so I downshifted to help slow down. When I did this, the car started making this horrible griding/scraping sound. I pulled over as fast as I could. I coasted to a stop in neutral and the noise stopped, so I figured maybe I ran over something or there was a rumblestrip on the side of the road I may have gone over. So I shifted into first and started driving away, and the sound was there again. I limped it home, and made it thank goodness. Whenever I gave it some gas the noise got worse, it seemed to depend on RPMs. When I shifted into neutral and revved the engine, it stopped making the sound and was normal; only when I was in gear did it make this sound, and only then when the motor was under load. The noise sounds like it's coming from the center or rear of the car. I am thinking maybe something in the diff or the transmission. I checked the oil level on the diff yesterday. It was a bit overfilled and had a burnt smell to it. Any ideas?

Can you get a high quality video tape of the sound and post It?

I will try, yes. Should have it up this evening if I can get it done.

UPDATE: I took the car around the block, very slowly, to check the noise out some more. It does happen in neutral also, and it changes with the speed the tires are going. Maybe a bad bearing?

If you could put it on a lift and run it, you should be able to locate the source a bit better ...

Here's the link for the video. The first bit is me revving the engine, which sounds fine. The bad noise starts about 53 seconds into the video. This was done in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears, hitting a speed of about 35mph.

Crap, says I have to have 5 posts to post a url.

Let's try it now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2bFrXWOtS0

wow, that does sound awful ...

THat is a definite axle problem . Too be more exact the pinion bearings on the drive pinion.

Sounds pretty scary! What does that involve, and is it super expensive to fix? Furthermore, does it require rebuilding the whole differential (gears and such)?

Its hard to tell what is all going to be needed until disassembled, but bearings for sure. And its expensive over to repair. 500 to 2500 Euros depending om what is needed.

Wow, I sure could've done without hearing that last part. Looks like the car is going to be sitting for awhile. What a b**ch, since I just bought the stupid thing!! Anyway, thanks for the info.

UPDATE: Yep, you were right: pinion bearings are bad. Now it's down to finding someone in the local area that will fix this stuff. I have friends at work that have done this kind of stuff, but finding the time can be a chore. Wish me luck!

Here is some luck.

Man thoose things go bad so quick in the LS1 6-speed f-bodys. Two of my buddies up here in stuttgart have to replace them to. The one just waited till he got back to the states.(which his car just got on the ship a week ago).

Its a common problem. The stock rear sucks especially when you install deeper ratios. Your issue scares me I should have brought my tools with me when I pcs'd. I'd do gears for people back when I was in Offutt AFB. Deal was that they had to be there to watch and what was involved. But if you need some scanned images or whatever I have the factory manuals for that "He said POOP".

Sounds like the pinion nut came loose. It is a common problem for our cars. I bet the pinion is rubbing the diff.

Update: I took the car to Kramer's auto in Speicher (near Spang). He had the diff torn apart within an hour, and showed me the bad parts, which I thought was pretty cool. Some mechanics will just tell you and assume you trust them when they tell you what's wrong. The pinion bearings were chewed up big time, but he had the pinion gear out also, and it looked fine. So he told me to order the pinion bearing, the side bearings (I think the axle bearings) and some little metal sleeve-looking thing. It's round and about an inch wide. Anyone have any idea what part that might be? Anyway, when changing the pinion bearings what parts should I replace, for preventative measures? And don't say get a 9" or 12 bolt, cuz I am going to do that when I get back from the sandbox.

Its called a crush sleeve
Replace everything you mentioned bearing wise , plus the crush sleeve , and pinion.
You should be able to get a complete kit from summit for around a hundred dollars or so.

Roy, you're saying to get a new pinion gear?