Rear End Noise 01 Gt (Help)

Could be a rear wheel bearing go bad.

Look for a flowchart that gives a diagnoses of rear end noise because you can pretty well pin it down by documenting under what conditions the noise occurs (ie:coasting, under load, turning etc)

Here is one example:

FWIW running the car with the wheels off the ground isn't really an accurate test (unless the differential sounds like a meat grinder!!) because you are unloading the gears and there is always some minor slop and noise in there that will quiet down when the wheels are on the ground.

Wheel bearings, U-joints and of course tires are the most common cause of noise/vibration coming from the rear ends. Check your fluid level as well. Is it a limited slip differential? If so (I don't know about Ford??) it may require an additive.

Don't discount a bad tire because a shifted belt will cause an awful sound that is hard to localize and it can happen even on a brand new tire.

Rear ends are pretty reliable and when they fail pinion/ring gear/spider gears, most, not all, but most times it is catastrophic, meaning you will have parts all over the place !

Try the obvious first, move tires around or better yet cycle the spare into the loop for testing purposes.

Was the car loaded down with luggage? Sometimes U-joints only fail(make noise) when the car is loaded in the back (passengers, luggage etc) because the angle of the shaft changes and aggravates the joints because if the car is normally driven with one person at a time, the joints kind of get *happy* in that position. Usually you'll get a vibration though. My Impala SS is classic for that problem.

Good luck

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well found out what the problem was anyway. sorta anyway. got a guy who works on rear ends to come out yesterday and look at the car and after going over it. (samething I did) and came to same conclusion that I did gears are fine axel bearings are fine and (hopefully) pinion bearings are ok. that its the carrier bearings that are bad and he's going to start work on it Monday sometime. Charles