Slight clunk/rattle in my (car's) rear end

"You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much" (youcantellafinn) 06/09/2015 at 14:28 • Filed to: None

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How concerned do I need to be? I got the car up on stands last week and checked everything out. The only play I can find is in the halfshafts, and it feels like straight up end to end play which they should have some of. It is just loud enough to be annoying at low speeds and sounds kind of like a super ball bouncing around in a box. My first thought was suspension bushings, but there was no play in any of the suspension bits that I could find.

Jedidiah > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 14:33

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Has the fluid in the diff been changed? Someone might have forgot to add posi additive

Could be the shocks or shock bolts, I’ve heard of them clunking around before

Bad wheel bearing is another possibility.

Hard to diagnose without actually hearing it, but just check everything

bryan40oop > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 14:41

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WAT DID YOU DO!!!!

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > bryan40oop 06/09/2015 at 14:42

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Snow packed in the wheels will do that.

uofime-2 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 14:54

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how is the end to end play, does it always want to stay pushed to one side if you don’t mess with it?

sony1492 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 15:05

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There could be sway bar damage.

Or the hub/s are going like jedidiah said

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Jedidiah 06/09/2015 at 16:48

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Had the 60k service done at the Subaru dealer last fall. I believe the diff fluid was part of that service, but this started long before that and is one of those things that is slightly annoying but not bad enough sounding to be too much of a concern. The tech who does the work is pretty thorough judging from how he goes through everything with you after doing the service. I would also have to RTFM to see what they spec for diff fluid. I don’t recall there being any additives required.

No play in the shocks or their mounts that I noticed, but I will check the bolts.

Not a grinding sound at all, so probably not wheel bearing. No play in the spindles even when leaning on things trying to jerk them around. Volume is not speed dependent, it is roughly the same volume so tends to get drowned out as speed increases above parking lot speeds.

When I had it up I shook all the suspension bits and nothing. I do that every time swapping tires, but do that from the wheel wells. This time I got it up on stands and crawled under to make sure I could get at the inboard ends of the control arms too. Everything seems solid and nothing looks broken. After a thorough shaking of everything underneath the only things with play are the halfshafts and that didn’t seem too far out of line to me.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > sony1492 06/09/2015 at 16:49

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Sway bar, bushings, end links and end link bushings all seemed solid.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > uofime-2 06/09/2015 at 16:50

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I didn’t really notice things wanting to stay to one side or the other. They definitely moved freely back and forth, I didn’t notice anything hanging up at all.

sony1492 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 16:56

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If the noise isnt sharp or particularly disturbing I would drive on it, and check regularly that nothing obvious is about to go wrong.

uofime-2 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 17:12

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Many CV half shafts have spring loaded plungers in them to keep them from knocking back and forth, if those have gone bad that may be the source of your noise. I’m not sure how fatal that problem is or if it’s just going to be mildly annoying. I suspect just mildly annoying.

Jedidiah > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 17:22

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The CV joints might need to be repacked or replaced. They have little spring things that keep them from moving about on the end of the half shaft, which could explain the movement and noise

MM54 > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 06/09/2015 at 18:20

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A rubber ball in a steel bowl is exactly how I would describe the sound my right front shock made after all the, well, everything had leaked out.