Drivetrain noise, need some help diagnosing
 

After my swap of all used parts I have an awful buzzing noise/mild vibration coming from the front. It almost sounds like driving on a rumble strip on the side of the road. It increases intensity with speed, not rpm and still makes the noise in neutral or with the clutch in. It gets worse when I make a left on the freeway and lessens when I'm sweeping right. I've triple checked to make sure there are no loose bolts and such. There is no play in the wheels, as I have seen if the bearing is going out. Is it still possible for the bearing to be bad but not have any play? Maybe a cv joint? The boots are still good.
I am stuck :?:
Maybe someone that is good with this stuff would be willing to take it for a spin to see what you think?? I would rather not take it to the dealer but I want to make sure nothing is going to go horribly wrong if I auto X this weekend.
Thanks for any input.

Likely Left wheel bearing. Play is not required.

Possibly CV.

Dust shield rubbing?

Wheel bearings can crap out and start growling without having excessive play. If you have time today, you can swing by Nissan and we'll take a spin around the block!

While you were sleeping I got under your car and attached a playing card behind your wheel with a clothespin.

I'm in Carson until 5pm, would you be willing to spin it around later this evening?

Maybe that will give juice enough time to pull the playing card out and make me look like a fool :lol:

Dean, definitely not the dust shield. How can you tell if it's a wheel bearing vs. cv joint?? I always thought when cvs went bad they would make more noise at low speed and sharp turns (i.e. parking), mine does not. Would there be excessive play in the cv?

It is probably the bearing. Most if not all Impreza 4x100 front hubs I think through 2007 are prone to it. Do your own research, but here is the thread I made with some links to others...

http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4701

Thanks for the link. FYI: I did the 5x114 swap, I thought those were much more robust but I guess they are still not indestructible. And I would imagine they are probably a lot more money to fix, damn it. I just had my alignment done too.
Maybe I can get Cory to do a quick test drive to confirm before I order parts and tear into it.
Think it will make it through a morning of auto X this weekend???

OK, so my link is useless. 5x114 should be much stronger. I don't think I have heard of a 5x114 WB failure.

When did you do the swap? it is possible you hurt something during the swap.

Banging on the end of the end of the axle for example can hurt one or both CV joints.

It is also possible the axle nut slipped. Have you checked the torque on it? Is the dent in the nut still lined up with the gap in the axle?

Check the basic stuff first... is a brake line or ABS sensor cord rubbing the wheel? Are the tires rubbing the fenders or struts?

Good call.

Checked all of that first, wheels/tires have good clearance on everything (the rears rub on the fenders in a hard corner but the fronts are good). I can't find anything rubbing anywhere. It feels more harsh than just a tire rubbing.

I didn't pound on the cvs in any way but that's not to say the idiot I bought them from didn't somehow F them up. How would you check the cv joints? I checked the axle nuts and they haven't moved since the install.

Cory works at nissan, maybe he can be coerced with a beer or two to take it for a quick spin...?

Whatever it is it definitely got worse after AutoX on saturday. If I can't enitce anyone with a 6 pack, hell, I'll kick out a 12 pack even, of beer to take a look at it for me, I may end up taking it to the dealer.
Please help, I hate giving those bastards my money :mad: 2 12 packs if you can successfully diagnose it :) I really don't want it to break and leave me stranded or even worse, screwing up other components during it's failure. I'm leaning towards just replacing the front cvs, starting with the left as you indirectly suggested, before paying the $100+ to have lithia look at it.
Do you think that is a good idea?

Anyone??

Offer IheartSTI's beer to borrow his left front knuckle before it gets swapped on???

He has to tear it apart anyway to replace the rotor and other bits.

I'd try bearing before axle...

Thanks for the advice. I'm supposed to hit him up for the 1/4s off of the shell so I'll see what he says. I pulled the left side cv out of the hub and moved it around. It wasn't chunky and didn't feel dry inside, there was no abnormal play on either end.

Have you figured out which side its coming from?

While driving it feels like it's coming from the driver side, the girlfriend doesn't drive manual so I can't ride in the pass. seat to see what it feels and sounds like from that side. That's why I'm practically begging for some help :) Going to call Iheartsti tonight maybe I could give him a hand in his project for a hand in mine.

John, if you can stop by on Friday or Saturday, we can probably get it figured out. Used halfshafts are only about $40 from the wrecker, and bearing kits are under $100. Before you spend money though, it would be good to pull things apart a bit and see if maybe there's something in the brakes or even a loose fender liner or something that's buzzing at low speed.

Thanks Kevin. The axles are going to be for an 05 STi, so I don't know if the $40 and $100 still apply. The fender liners aren't in right now and it doesn't even start making the noise until you get up to speed, it starts to get more noticable around 35-40mph and get louder and nearly turns into a rumble strip feeling up to around 80+. Any other friday or saturday I would have been available, this friday I have a wedding rehearsal and saturday is the wedding...damn it. Maybe I will hold off taking it to the dealer for a little longer. Are you available any time in the evenings during the week?

Nope, I have class from 5:20-7:30 on weekdays unfortunately. And no, I doubt any of the local wreckers have any STi halfshafts sitting around- but NAPA gives good prices on them, might be under $100 for a reman. Bearings will also be a bit higher, but not crazy as I understand it.

The rumbling thing makes it sound like a wheel/tire issue maybe. Have they recently been balanced, or did they just get pulled off the wreck and slapped on the car? Maybe somebody has a set of 5x114 wheels you can toss on for a test drive and see if that fixes it.

I already tried swapping the wheels/tires and that didn't work. I bought one set from a running sti in cali and one set off of this forum. The ones from cali were a little beat up but the ones off of here are in nearly new condition with the 070 still on them. Iheartsti is going to let me swap out one of the hubs tomorrow, I'm hoping that fixes it, then I know I need a bearing, if not then I pick up some halfshafts.

Well, I just got done swapping the left hub assy and there was no difference whatsoever.

Sucks, Dude. You going to try axles next?

I'm hoping to have Cory look at it if he has some free time. If that doesn't pan out, I'll probably just end up at the dealer. The worst part about that is I'm afraid they might not give me a definite diagnosis and just name off a number of things it could be. That's fine if Cory or someone else were to do it but if I pay the dealer it would be nice to know exactly what it is.
I'm going to check on some axles and maybe try that depending on the price.

As Kevin mentioned, the NAPA axles are a good buy.

Best deal on Axles I found was with http://www.autohausaz.com/

Just over $70 shipped for my '04 STI. Only twice the cost of 1 OE replacement boot!!! Easy choice and now I have the old one as a "track" spare.

Awesome, thanks for the link. I'm picky when it comes to axle boots though, were they the tough factory style or were they made from that cheap rubber that cracks in 10k miles? New or reman?

81.25 shipped, not bad Dean. The site doesn't say new or reman though...

New as far as I know, and rubber appears to be similar in quality, but would not swear by it. They have multiple "brand" choices and I went with the cheapest.

Rubber boots fail because they get heat cycled, contaminate by petroleum products or cut. My headers crisped mine up. Having had a factory boot in my hand, they are nothing special IMHO...

How can you tell a properly reman part from new?

Wow, that's some inexpensive stuff. They sell a radiator for my car for $173.xy, shipped. But yah, no brand names or indication if parts are new, used, or remanufactured?

Email them and ask. They answered a question of mine very quickly. And reman on axles and such are fine IMHO. The CVS and boots are replaced and other components checked to meet factory specs. Actually, they are brand names, just OEM, comercial, domestic, or SEMA brands, not JDM/Reseller brands.

A NAPA axle is likely OEM from those brands.

The guys at NAPA told me that halfshafts are almost always new, somehow it just got really cheap to make them a few years ago.

I had the option of remanufactured or new when I bought mine from NAPA. IIRC, it was like $70 for remanufactured and $110 for new. I went for new. Wagon axles tend to be a touch less expensive though.

So Cory's thinking it is the pass. side bearing. Are those a do it yourself job or do you need a press? (05 STi for reference since my vehicle does not reflect)

Cory, what kind of beer do you drink??

You can do it yourself if you have a press.

Yeah, you need a press to get the new one in. And usually an air hammer to get the inner bearing race off.

NEWCASTLE! :D

sounds like a Half shaft to me as well. I've gone through a half shaft on each side, and wheel bearings, and end links on my L. You feel the half shafts worse than wheel bearing in my experiences . that rumble strip feeling probably = CV. if you disconnect the strut and try to swing the knuckle out a lil bit. the CV joint may just fall apart. often the Clip that holds all that stuff together falls out and then everything has too much play.

I have some spare half shafts if you want to try my dumb test, you'll need one on hand... :lol: (and if you want to keep it just bring me an other pick and pull one) :) but napa should have one for $50 with core charge really your best bargain!

When I swapped out the left knuckle I inspected the cv and didn't find anything that I thought would cause the noise. I'll have to pull apart the right side this weekend and see if there is anything odd on that side. The noise does change depending on which way you are turning as I put in my first post, maybe I'm just looking at the wrong side. I hope the cv just falls apart on the left side so it will be easy. I don't have a press so I couldn't do the bearing on my own. I do have an air hammer though.

Newcastle it is, that's one of my top picks too. Thanks again for looking at it for me.

So I am gonig to just order a cv and start there. Going against Cory's inclination that it's the right wheel bearing as it seems a whole lot easier and cheaper to do the cv. At least I'll have an extra if that's not it. I'm sure one will wear out.
I can't find anyone in town with one, I wanted to buy local for ease of warranty/exchange Napa only listed up to an 04. Just going to order from Dean's autohausaz.
Thanks for the input everyone, I'll post up again once I get it in.

CV Joints aren't commonly available by themselves. Nowadays, you just buy the whole axle.

Are 04 and 05 sti axles the same?? Napa has ones for the 04....
And I was just going to buy the whole thing, I should refer to it as a cv halfshaft I guess.

Nope. There are some minor differences with the ABS tone-wheel location. Plus there are some stub-axle spline differences between early '04 and late '04/'05 axles as well IIRC.

I am pretty sure they changed with the bolt pattern/bearing/spindle change. 5x100 axle is not the same as the 5x114...

Great thanks. I thought they were different too, but was hoping for confirmation. I won't be ordering from autohausaz either then, because they have 04 and 05 listed as the same part #.
They don't list one for an 06 which theoretically should be the same as the 05, they must have just goofed.

Call or email them and ask when/if there was a change. I am thinking there was a change when they changed hubs, but may be wrong. If you did the hub swap, did you have to swap axles, or not?

The guy I got the hubs from gave me the axles too. I'm sure they were different than the 02s I pulled out. There was a male shaft coming out of the tranny and a roll pin holding the axle in place in MY02, currently the tranny has a female end and the axle is held in by a clip on the end of it.

Just got off the phone with Lithia Parts and they have different part #s listed. They can only get reman'd axles up to 04. Should I take the gamble and order one for an 05 online and hope it fits?

They swapped the location of the ABS tone wheel when they swapped hubs. The '04->'05 conversion kits include an offset bushing that moves the tone wheel outboard on the '04 axles to match the '05 hubs.

But there was also a change to the splines on the front diff mid-year '04 IIRC. So early '04 axles won't work on a late '04 tranny and vise-versa. I'm not 100% sure about that, but I remember there being something along those lines... so '05 axles don't work on early '04s even with the hub conversion.

I'd call the guys in AZ. If you know what year the axles you have came from, tell them... I bet they can even count splines or measure stuff if you ask.

I wonder if we are confusing WRX and STIs. I thought all '04 STIs were the same and then everything changed in '05 with the hub conversion. I did not do anything special when I replaced my '04 axle. There was only one choice when I ordered, just different "brands".

I just looked on google and found '04 STI axles and then '05-'06 STI axles...

It does look like the WRX axle was the same '02-04. ????

I just remember all lots of people that were doing the '04->'05 hub conversions bitching about issues getting axles to make the ABS tone wheel line up. I didn't have that issue because I just use the adapter on my existing axles that I got w/ the '04 STi 6MT, so mine worked w/o the issues others seemed to have.