So the wife's 2002 x-type with 135K has begun making a light metallic grinding noise after being driven for about a mile. Thought it was the dreaded t-fer case but up on the lift, running in gear, the noise is gone and the transfer case is dead silent.

Noise kinda sounded like it is from the RF but hard to say for sure. I was gonna throw a wheel bearing at it but the RF CV has some strange play in it. The large housing next to the output seal seems to move around on the stationary side (or side that comes out of the trans and does not pivot.) That is a long shaft and I was thinking maybe the movement is normal.

Rocking the CV in the traditional way doesn't show any rotational slop.

The car doesn't make the traditional Pop or clunk I'd expect with a bad CV.

CV is only about 80 bucks and doesn't look too hard to do.

Ever hear of a CV making a wheel bearing kinda noise? Is that movement on the fixed side of the axle normal? Should I just do the wheel bearing since that is the noise I think I hear?

Thanks for any experience.

 

wesmc2, take the car out for a drive and what you want to do is to make a controlled high speed lane change in a rapid manner. What you are looking to do is to get the body of the car to move just a little bit, unloading a tire some. Make the lane change back to the lane that you started in. Did the noise go away when you went one way and not the other? If so, the direction that the noise went away is the side with a bad wheel bearing. if the noise is there all the time, then odds are, you are looking at a CV shaft. Granted, should be able to do a hard acceleration to make the noise worse and then at speed, let off the gas and it should make the noise quiet down. That would help confirm the CV joint is bad.

 

Do some searching in this X-type forum on changing the right half shaft if it comes down to a CV joint. You have to be careful not to extract the shaft (intermediate shaft) that comes out of the transfer case on the right side. I have a post probably leaning on a year ago that tells how I did it. It was not especially fun. The left half shaft is no big deal.

 

Thanks guys. I will look for the CV write up and try loading/unloading the front bearings.