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Recently my Grand Caravan started to make noise from the front right. It has two BRAND NEW front wheel bearings. I recently got stuck in my driveway when it turned into a mud hole and the noise is a very loud humming sound comming from the right front wheel. Mind you the noise only occours when the wheel has no traction. Driving down the road it’s fine and is quiet. Could this be a CV shaft issue or transmission??
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You’re going to have to try to find where the noise is coming from. Try these:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=scFbb43fwqk[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cdRpnK5MGQ8[/video]
What do you mean by noise only occurs when the wheel has no traction?
What transmission is in the van?[quote=”moparfan7008″ post=52471]You’re going to have to try to find where the noise is coming from. Try these:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=scFbb43fwqk[/video]
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cdRpnK5MGQ8[/video]
What do you mean by noise only occurs when the wheel has no traction?
What transmission is in the van?[/quote]It has the 41TE transmission in it and like I said it only happens when you lose traction like in the snow it’s coming from the right side It sounds closer to the transmission and I know it’s not a wheel bearing because they’re brand new.
So I tried doing what Eric did in the video and I got nothing at all. It only does it when the full weight of the van is on the wheels. I did however, manage to get the noise to happen by applying the parking brake and hitting the gas on a patch of snow/mud. I was also able to record it. I do apologize for the poor quality as it was on my phone. But you can hear the noise it sounds like loud humming noise that is in sequence with wheel rotation. But what has me worried at this point is it may be the differential making the noise as I do have a humming as I’m driving that’s also in sequence with my speed. But like I said it’s not the wheel bearings because they’re new and there’s zero play in them.
The only thing I can think of is a problem in the differential. Does it make the noise when both wheels spin or only the right one? Try jacking up the right side only and spinning the wheel.
Do you have traction control? If you do, what you are hearing is brakes pulsing very rapidly on the wheel that is spinning which is what it is to do.
It doesn’t have traction control. It humms also when going down the road and when I jack the front end up the noise isn’t audible. But you can even feel it in the gas pedal. But it has TWO NEW FRONT WHEEL BEARINGS so I know it’s not them either. And it’s only the right wheel that makes the noise. I’m starting to believe it’s the differential.
Next time it’s nice out I’m going to look under it and thuroughly inspect the CV Shaft and look for any play. Now can a CV shaft have any in and out play or up and down? And is there any way to inspect the differential without removing the transmission or draining the fluid?
Did you try just jacking up just the right wheel, not both, and spinning the wheels? That will make the diff run. If there’s trouble in the diff, you should hear it loaded or not.
I already did that. I’m going to try it again because it seems like when I want it to make the noise it doesn’t. But even if it is the differential that means I’ll be doing a whole transmission which I don’t want to do.
If you have a bad diff. I guess your right, but that’s really uncommon. The only way they usually go bad is if you have two different diameter tires on the drive axle. The parts are only supposed to run when you go around a corner, so they don’t usually wear out.
How do I properly diagnose this? I want to know what’s wrong so I can fix it. I already know what it’s not but I don’t want to go spending $1500 on a transmission for that not to be the problem. Could the CV axle be making the noise? I know they click but to they ever hum?
You need to get the following equipment. It’s the best way to resolve your problem. It will direct you to where the noise is coming from.
If you don’t have the noise until you spin the tires, and you don’t have traction control, I can’t think of anything but a problem with the spider gears in the differential. You would think a cv shaft would make the noise under other driving conditions also. It is always running with the tires. I have never heard one make a humming sound. You could try running the van in a tight circle to see if you can get the noise. In a tight turn the differential runs. A diff problem would most likely show up as substantial metal in the tranny pan. Again, the spider gear section only wears out if someone puts two different size tires on the drive axle. Under normal driving, it sees little use.
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