96 Jeep GC Front End Grinding

If you've replaced all that you did and its not the brake components, have your mechanic seriously look at the CV joints. I've had to have mine replaced on my 96 GCL already to quite that noise (170K). Now, if I could only get rid of that whining noise from the differential...

Over the weekend I was hoping to repair my Jeep so it would no longer make any noise. I was going to change the front wheel bearings, but after starting the tear down I noticed that my front brake pads were severly cracked and there were chunks missing out of them. Theses pads are relatively new and so are the rotors. They were even the Auto Zone "upgrade" pads. Needless to say the pads were junk. I figured this was were the noise was coming from. It was not. Changing the Pads did nothing to quiet any noise. Here are my thoughts about the problem.

-Still could be the wheel bearing, however there is zero play in the wheel when the car is jacked up and everyone I talk to insists that there must be play in the wheel bearing if it is defective.

-Front differential - could be going out or since I put 2 new tires on the car and it is full time four wheel drive, the Jeep may not like the slight difference in tread wear, making the tires slightly different in size. The reason I do not think it is a front diff is because the niose is NOT constant and acceleration has no bearing on the noise, sometimes it makes noise with acceleration, sometimes it doesn't.

This noise has no consistancy, the only thing that is consistant is that if I hit the brakes, every single time the niose goes away. Please offer an advice if you have some, I am getting frustrated and If it is not the wheel bearings or front diff, I have no clue what it could be.

Is there noise in the wheel bearings when you rotate them? Is there any dragging of brake components? (disks, dust shields, wear sensors, calipers, etc)

I'm not a mechanic but it seems it the noise goes away as you apply the brakes then the brakes/wheel/hub has to be involved.

Our Cherokee, which is different but still the 4.0 slightly tore an engine mount rubber a while ago. It started making the strangest grinding noise when we made some turns. It was intermittent and light for a while but got worse.

I checked everywhere and everything I could think of. It was driving me nuts. I don't think it is related, but we also had a right brake pad fall to pieces before the grind got bad.

One day I was looking for a leak in the clutch line and there it was, a shiny spot on the side of the exhaust downpipe that was sometimes hitting on the driveshaft yoke. Looked at the mounts and bingo, one torn about half way through the rubber.

That fixed it.

Mike

I believe I responded to your earlier post. I have a 96 JGC that also had a front intermittent grinding noise. The Jeep dealer inspection determined that one of the front CV (Constant Velocity) joints had dirt in it and it had ground down allowing too much play. It was replaced (I actually had them change BOTH sides AND the rubber boots) and the noise disappeared. That was over 70K ago. I now have 170K+ on it and it runs absolutly great!

So, visit a reputable and jeep knowledgable mechanic and have the CV joints inspected.

Update on My Jeep. I did not think it was my CV joints because both of my axel shafts are brand new. It did turn out to be a CV joint though, however the CV joint in the front Driveshaft. The joint showed no outer signs of problems, the covering was still in tact, and it did not wobbel when the car was in gear on a lift. The noises my car was making baffled a lot of people. It was however defective. I also found out that Jeep Grand Cherokee Driveshafts are a rather large pain to find (because there are multiple kinds for the same vehicles) and a rip off to rebuild, because of the stupid CV joint. I did manage to find one that is remanufactured, being shipped to me for $195. Thanks to everyone for your help. I hope this may help someone else as well.

Thanks for the follow up!

Mike