Renault Kangoo differential bearing noise.

[henrietta]

Hi Guys,
I Have been trying to track down the source of several noises that have been bothering me of recent months whilst driving my Renault Kangoo. It’s a 1998 Express 1.9d 54hp (FC0/1). There’s about 250000km on the clock. It’s a 5 speed manual gearbox.

The engine knocks a bit on start up and I think that an engine mounting could be worn for that.

There has been a fairly long standing low hum/whine that seemed to increase with speed and continued if on a downhill run if I depressed the clutch and freewheeled. I was thinking that that noise was probably a wheel bearing or two that was wearing out?

However as well as that in more recent times there has been a knocking noise on pulling away especially if i was turning at the same time and when driving over uneven road sufaces I can hear further knocks. This I was guessing could well be the driveshaft cv joints?

But increasingly of late there has been a different horrible grinding/whine noise that comes in from time to time. It seems to kick in if I drive over about 80kph and is very loud. If I slow down it does sometimes continue but will usually diminish. It will make the noise also on occasion at slow speeds, getting worse if I take my foot off the accelerator and slihgtly better when I increase speed (ie between 30-60kmh). I have tried pushing in the clutch and it does make the tone of the noise change but doesn’t remove it completely.

I jacked it up today and rocked the wheels but there doesn’t seem to be lots of play there. I had fitted new ball joints about 18months ago so they looked ok when I tried to wiggle them. There does seem to be a bit of play on the passenger side driveshaft if I give it a pull/push but the thing I did discover is that if I rotate the passenger side wheel slowly while off the floor, there is a metallic grinding noise that seems to come directly from where the drive shaft dissapears into the gearbox housing (It does sound also like there are small metal pieces clinking in there). I’m guessing that this could be the differential bearing but i really don’t know if that’s correct (or even close).
I unscrewed the gearbox oil filler plug and some spilled out so I think there’s enough oil in it.

I’m really just looking for some advice or ideas here if anybody can help please? I think I can handle changing wheel bearings and probably drive shafts but if the differential bearing is shot I’m thinking that that would involve taking out the engine and gearbox maybe? (like I have a clue).

Anyway, I will be happy to listen to any relevant knowledge on the subject!

I have tried to attach a picture of where I’m pretty sure the noise is coming from.

Many thanks, Henrietta.

Attachments:

• noise.jpg

Topic

[Roy French]

One thing you could try would be turning while the noise is present. If the sound changes,you can be fairly certain you have a bad wheel bearing.
The noise you are hearing in your diff. does sound like a bad carrier bearing. You could drain, then strain the transaxle oil through a rag. Look for metal. Although it seems intimidating, a manual transaxle is not very hard to repair. The differential carrier and bearings lift right out when you split the case. I have never worked on a Kangoo, but it can’t be too much different then a Toyota or a Ford.

[henrietta]

Hello roywrench22,
Thanks for the reply. I may well have a go at trying the draining method if I get a chance over the weekend. As for directly trying to access the bearing, do you think it would be needed to lift out the engine to get to the gearbox? It pretty much much looks that way to me with my very limited knowledge. If so, I don’t think that I have the gear to do that. Could it be possible that the cv joint is grinding and the noise is just travelling along the arm to the differential housing? In your opinion, if the differential bearing is shot is it likely to lead to a sudden failure with the transmission completely packing up at any moment?
Thanks, Henrietta.

[Roy French]

Henrietta,
The last Renault I removed a tranny from, was an Alliance. That came out from the bottom fairly easily. Not being familiar with your Kangoo, I couldn’t say for sure. I have never seen a front drive car that needed the engine pulled in order to remove the tranny.
I guess you could have a bad inner cv. If you suspect the cv is bad you might be able to remove the large boot clamp,peel the boot back,and look for metal parts in the grease.
If you can hear bits clinking around,there is going to be some metal in the bad assembly’s lube.
As far as a total failure while driving is concerned, I think the noise would get very loud before that happened. The carrier has tapered roller bearings on both sides. They are very durable.

[henrietta]

Hi,
Thanks for that. I haven’t had a chance to look under the van again yet but having driven it today for a couple of hours I noticed a couple of things.

The wheel bearing whine is just that. As soon as I get up to 40kmh or so and it starts and stays there, even if coasting downhill with the clutch pushed in, and it does alter tone a bit when turning either towards the left or right. I’m fairly sure it’scoming from the front end but maybe also from the back?

The knocking as I pull away and on turning is I’m fairly sure the rattly cv joint on the passenger side drive shaft.

The other noise that I was speaking of did appear several times today. It doesn’t seem to be particularly related to any set speed but I’ve been keeping to a maximum speed of about 80kmh.
It sounds like the rubbing/grinding noise that you get from a sticking brake pad thats jammed on a disk, but it definately stopped when I pressed in the clutch and then started again as I released the clutch. I pressed the brakes at the same time to see if that affected the noise but it didn’t change anything. The noise was lasting for maybe 30seconds to a minute then as I slowed and increased speed a little it seems to ease and stop (till it starts again). I’m wondering if maybe there’s something wrong in the gearbox or clutch? I have heard the noise in both 4th and 5th gears. It is a pretty loud drone when it kicks off.

[college man]

see if this helps.

https://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/diagnosing-noises-in-your-car

[Author]

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