Differential whine

**Clark** · 07-04-2006, 05:13 PM

I have a stock 98 Z28 6-speed with 150K miles. A noise that sounds like a gear whine has just started in the rear end. About 500 miles ago it was very faint and I could only hear it below 20 mph. Now it is louder and I can hear it up to 40 mph. It does not change at all during acceleration or deceleration. I took it to a local shop and they said it might be the pinion or ring gears and said it would be about $900 to fix unless they found something else once they opened it up. They would not guarantee that the noise would be gone after they were done.

I looked in the archives, and most of the posts referred to noises that changed under accel or decel. A dealer once messed up my spline bearings when replacing a front seal and not torqueing the bolts correctly. That happened around 85K miles and they fixed it free (after some arm twisting). This has a different, more constant sound with pitch increasing with speed.

Any hints from the experts here?? Any recommendation of a good Camaro shop in South Jersey (Atlantic City area)?

Thanks for any help. I have been lurking for the last year or so and this is my first post.

**NinerSevenTango** · 07-09-2006, 08:33 PM

Might be a bearing, too.

"Local Shop" -- go to someone that specializes in gears - a 4 wheel drive shop might be a place to start. Beware that even gear shops can exist for a long time doing hack jobs -- ask around.

--97T--

**1959ls1** · 07-09-2006, 08:47 PM

Your getting raped at that price. I had the timkin bearing going out in my 99 formula and had the a shop specializing in rear ends replace the axle bearings, a complete hd bearing rebuild kit(gauranteed to last,American made)Yukon 4.11 gears(American made)installed for $585