hey guys, first time poster here. I think my rear end is getting bad. The car seems to have lost some torque and there is a grinding in the rear of car when there is more than one person in the car. there is 160,000 on the car and nothing has really been replaced. its my car i had in high school and i am hanging on to it for life. any other suggestions on what i might need to replace soon would be helpful. yes, i have done regular maintenance on it.

 

Is it an automatic or manual? Have you changed any oils in the trany or the rear diff? How's your rear suspension? Could be the tires rubbing if the rear suspension is in need of replacement. Also would cause the feel of lack of power.

 

Also does it do it under acceleration or just cruising? On flat ground or over bumps?

 

could be the carrier bearing. rearend would do it under excelleration or pressure situations where stress is put on failing spider gears. im trying to figure out how or why it would only do it when more than one is in the car.

 

I haven't flushed the tranny since about 100k. The car is an automatic. I know need to replace the rear suspension because the car pops when I hit a big bump in the road. It usually does it on acceleration or when I go down an a hill and then quickly go back up the hill. The sound def could be the tires rubbing on something.

 

OK what year? Older V6 cars had a 2 piece driveline that had a miserable carrier bearing in them. 98+ V6's didnt have the carrier since they went to a 1 piece driveline. Have you lowered your car? IF you did, did you get an adjustable panhard bar? You need to do that if you lower the car since the rear will shift to the left when compressed. Rear ends usually make a growling or howling noise when they are going bad. A posi can thunk as well, usually while cornering. Bearings can make a grinding sound and the added weight may make the bearing noise more noticable.

Massey

 

its a 95 and i have not lowered the car.

 

Sounds like it's your tires rubbing.

 

Sounds like you need the rear track bar, suspension bar, and maybe some sway bar links and possibly a sway bar. The shocks could be bad too. Best thing is to look underneath and check for broken sway bar links, sway bar, and if your shocks are leaking.

As for the popping, I'm thinking U-joints.

 

Ok I will prob replace the shocks this weekend. Are there any decent shocks I can get at autozone, pep boys, napa, Advanced auto parts? So the springs are ok as long as the car doesnt ride lower than it should, correct?