Little puzzler for y'all. Sorry for the length. This is weird. Have fun!

First, if this needs to be model specific, well... ok, but I think it'd cover more than 2005-2009s... But go ahead, mods, move it 'round, won't hurt my feelin's.

Second, if I'm voicing something that's been asked/dealt with before 'round here, well, dang. I did a search, guess I (siphon with a large amount of negative pressure) at that... Point me? Thanks!

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Ok, on to it: My '06 GT (modified a little, see below) has decided to make a new noise. I can't quite put my finger on it.

It's sort of a scraping noise. It almost, but not quite(?), sounds metal on metal. It also sounds rotational. As if a brake metal part is contacting the rotor, or something is scraping the inside of the wheel.

It seems to be coming from the right front from where I drive in my left front seat. I move my head to 'over' the center console and it seems to stay right front.

At first, it was faint. Sort of a "do I hear something?" sort of noise. And it was intermittent. Still is, but less so. I finally pinned it down to only at higher speeds (40+MPH) and only when curving/lane change/weave to the left. Doing these to the right makes it go away completely.

Also, it's more intense on acceleration, a tighter curve/more violent shifting to the left. Deceleration during the turn will lessen it (at first it'd also go away) or braking during the maneuver will make it go away completely. That was 'before.' Now, it's fairly prevalent but faint straight line and louder with the left turn thing. Right turn still makes it go away. Decel makes it less loud but still slightly there on the left turning, brakes on makes it go away in all modes. Rear brake via the hand brake handle does not change the noise if it's present. The deceleration does that if the handle is pulled too hard. It does not appear to be coming from the rear anyway.

Physical evidence is lacking. I tonight jacked up the right front corner, and tested the hub with the wheel/tire still on. No play whatsoever, perfectly fine. Wheel rotated as it should, no extra forces needed. Lug nuts were tight as they should be. Proceeded to remove the right front wheel to inspect suspension and brakes.

There is no scraping indicated on the wheel or tire anywhere. There is no scraping indicated on any surface in the wheel well anywhere. All parts are secure and tight, all bolts as should be. No rattling, no shifting. Hammer was employed to check on all pieces of suspension. Rotor is smooth on both sides. Brake pads are practically new, having been redone a very few months ago, wear indicators do not seem to be in play.

Believe me, all is well as near as I can tell.

There were a couple of plastic panels (fender well covers, undertray) that may have been flapping/air moved them somewhere they shouldn't be, loose for whatever reason, however, they *still* do not show any wear that's symptomatic of the noise.

I also looked extensively at the other side while it was up in the air, no scraping or weirdness on that wheel. All accessory drive (a/c compressor, etc) show no signs of scraping on any surface.

The car seems to be sound in every way in every area I inspected up front. I will drive her until something else manifests, I suppose, she doesn't seem to care about the noise... MPG didn't change, there's no funny wear or pull or anything untowards whatsoever. Exceptin' the weird semi-faint semi-there noise, she's as fine as a fiddle.

I am somewhat befuddled.

So I turn to the collective. Perhaps y'all have had similar or have ideas fer me.

If after my inspection this goes away... um, ok, I'll let ya know. Until then, if y'all have ideas, I'm all ears... well, unless you soundcloud or youtube anyway, I'm all eyes, really.

Thanks in advance!

 

I do love those sounds where you just can't quite find the cause. I'm gonna take a SWAG here my friend. I had a '77 Corvette, the thing would make a sound similar to yours in different instances, and those instances were also similar. After much searching all under, and around the car I found a spring on the park brakes had broken. That may not be the cause of yours, but you never know. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, you'd think this thing would leave some evidence behind... Sure would help.

I'm confident it's not the rear brakes at all. It might be somewhere else, though. I'mma have to see if I can get it on a rack or something, but like I says.. it's not bad, and it's not seemingly bothering the car, so...

If/when it breaks, I'll know then, right?

 

The only thing that comes to mind for me is the front wheel bearings. They can make noise at speed even if they don't when you turn the tire by hand. Or when you pull or push on the tire to see if bad. Water could have gotten in there after all these years. I realize it's a totally different vehicle and setup but my bronco did this until I replaced them. Sure it's four wheel drive and completely different but the principle is the same.

 

Wheel bearing was the first thing I thought too. Have seen them have some weird symptoms under load, but not show the usual obvious signs of being bad when checking.

 

Yeah, I'm sorta leaning that way too, but.. weird.

Until it blows up I'm not gonna worry about it much. Radio is still louder, so I'm good.

 

I had a car years ago that had a sound like you have. It was the front brake 'dust shield'. It was bent, just enough to rub the rotor ever once in a while. Like others are saying, could be a wheel bearing also. Let us know what you find

 

I had one of those dust shields get loose on my ol' Mark VIII (POS that it was, man I'm glad it got stolen (excepting the whole 'potential for being wounded/dead' part of that incident)) and it actually etched the right front wheel up a little inside, sad to say. Car was that kind of really quiet, so I didn't notice it until it was *really* bad...

The thing had cracked around the upper mount hole for the bolt, and there were only two bolts to it... so I just removed it and didn't bother with another one. Whatevers and such. Just another in a long line of 'what the entire heck' that car gave me before it was forcibly removed from my service, thank goodness.

Anyway, definitely checked for that, not it. Tight as can be. First thing I looked at really.

Thanks for the reply! Will definitely circle around if it ever decides to show itself/I figure it out.

 

your sound i had the same in my 2007 GT/CS & it turned out that my rear control arm bushings were shot & as a result the new shocks I put in 3 months prior were rubbing , my noise from the rear but sounded in front, Alonso with 2005-2014 out emergency break cables run through our control arms & are not secured also rubbing. New control arms tied down & added extra shield around break cable , problems went away , handle way better

 

Update:

Well, I got it up on a rack and had a look see. All four wheels were fine. No shields out of place. No grooves in any rotors, all brakes looked fine... everything looks... fine. No worn bushings (They're upgraded from stock, and they're stout and good) no untied cables (the replacement LCAs have the brake cable tied to 'em already.) Nothing out of place/out of ordinary/wrong in any way (car's fairly clean under there by the way, I do the underbody spray at the car wash for this reason, so nothing's hiding.) All shake tests indicate everything is fine and dandy...

Except... there's a 'sling ring' of grease where the front universal joint of the driveshaft is (right under the remote shifter) in the transmission hump. As if the ujoint was slinging it...

Hm.

Got a trusted mechanic to drive the car while I sat in the right seat, and do the testing... whereupon I noticed that the sound has now shifted to my *left*. So the real source is in the center of the car... right at the shifter. Or more correctly, the universal joint.

It proceeded to make the noise as indicated in the first post, just as described.
Thankfully, the mechanic also seemed puzzled by the result. He agreed with me that there's nothing in the chassis, wheels, brakes, etc, that would cause it, and since the pinpointing along with the sling ring of grease indicates the universal joint... seems the correct thing to do is to replace the universal joint.

Whereupon I'm seeming to learn some things:

1: They aren't maintenance-able in the first place? So it sounds like if it goes bad you're entirely (word that means to use spirally cut metal devices to hold things together)?

2: If not snapringed, new driveshaft, period? Not serviceable, not maintenance... just too dang bad?!

3: if snapringed, then you can replace it, but it needs a tool in a vise, and a new u-joint which no parts store has...? And also, this seems messed the heck up on how it's made to be dis-reassembled...

Does... is... I mean, does any of this sound like it's plausible or even correct?

Doesn't sound like a bad u-joint, except the grease slinging as described, as I understand bad u-joints to generally express themselves... But hey, what do I know.

If it's not that, then everyone's still stumped/hasn't figured it out/? and poor Awesome is gonna be laid up for a bit. The noise got more prevalent, and then some weird clicking started to happen in a straight line/bouncing over pavement heaves/cracks, so... all centered around that same area of that front u-joint.

Ugh. I love my car, but there's some weird design stuff Ford did.

 

Sorry for the late answer my friend, and I hope it's fixed by now. But, yes the u-joint can make some weird noises. I had one go out on a old Ford years back. Heck, it's been so long I didn't even think about the u-joints.

 

As mostly an armchair mechanic my opinion is worth exactly what you've paid for it. But here goes:

1. Common for factory u-joints to not be serviceable
2. Common for aftermarket u-joints to be serviceable but not easy to service
3. I'd be surprised that the u-joint is non removable and permanently a part of the driveshaft.
4. I'm not surprised that removing a u-joint would take special tools or clever uses of standard tools. There are many "force vectors"at work there when the vehicle is in operation and I'd expect the design considerations to reflect this.

Please keep us posted! By the way, have you seen this:

http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=81&f=Drivesha...20Type.pdf&p=4

 

Howdy folks.

An update to this conundrum, as recent events have sort of happened regarding it.

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So this noise? It just went away.

It wasn't the U-Joint on the front of the driveshaft as suspected. I pulled that driveshaft when I was doing the clutch, and had acquired a replacement u-joint for it (as my joint is replaceable with the clips and such... it's a Moog 231... or supposed to be anyway, you guys know how hard it it to find that info? It's like they don't want to even suggest that you could replace the things)... but the joint is *perfectly fine*. Moves all directions as it should, no crunchiness, no catching... so I left it alone, and parked the new u-joint for later whenever it's needed. So yay, it wasn't that.

I now suspect it maybe... *maybe*... was the two-piece clutch disc... which didn't used to be a two piece.

Why it was directional, I don't know.

She just quit doing it. Nothing else broke, nothing else shows leaks... I suspect maybe it was a splash shield somewhere. Whatever, she's happy, I'm happy, that's that.

Oh, and after seeing many videos of the area for transmission removal? The sling ring of grease at the u-joint is normal. Lil' ugly/messy, but normal.

For what any of that is all worth, just wanted to update y'all on this one.

 

Had something similar on an old Fox body based ford LTD wagon. Metal on metal scraping noise that came on in turns (yes those things can turn, just not like our cars). It ended up it was a rear axle bearing, which was surprising to me as the turning part made me believe it was up front. I doubt this is the case here, but anecdotally it's relevant being the cars are distant cousins.