Hi all,
Original owner of a 2002 GMC Envoy 4.2 4-wheel drive with a G80 locker with about 120,000 miles on it. The past 6 months, I've been going through taking care of "deferred maintenance" so I can hand the keys over to my son who goes to school in upstate NY. One of the issues I've been dealing with is a clunking from what sounds like the rear axle area. Here's what I've done and where I am:
- Sound occurs mostly randomly - driving straight, turning, tends to do it more at low speed, and perhaps more during initial accel/decel.
- Originally I thought sway bar end links, the originals were shot and I replaced them. Sound persists.
- I could somewhat reproduce the sound pushing the either side tire in or out when jacked up. Almost like endplay on the axles and the spider gears - but very hard to isolate the nosie.
- I changed the rear diff fluid with synthetic 75w90 oil, which I believe had the LSD additives. The noise went almost completely away, but over the course of several days it started to come back -- then I noticed small puddles at the end of either axles of gear oil - leaking axle seals.
- Pull the rear diff-cover, pull the axles, replaced the bearings and seals. Refilled with new 75w90, through the breather tube. This time no leaks - BUT the clunk seems to be back, and it seems to worsen with the longer you drive (and the warmer the gear oil gets).
So before I surrender and take it to a shop, any ideas on what to try/test next? Maybe LSD additive package? Maybe the G80 is grabbing?
Thank you!
PS -- I used
Original owner of a 2002 GMC Envoy 4.2 4-wheel drive with a G80 locker with about 120,000 miles on it. The past 6 months, I've been going through taking care of "deferred maintenance" so I can hand the keys over to my son who goes to school in upstate NY. One of the issues I've been dealing with is a clunking from what sounds like the rear axle area. Here's what I've done and where I am:
- Sound occurs mostly randomly - driving straight, turning, tends to do it more at low speed, and perhaps more during initial accel/decel.
- Originally I thought sway bar end links, the originals were shot and I replaced them. Sound persists.
- I could somewhat reproduce the sound pushing the either side tire in or out when jacked up. Almost like endplay on the axles and the spider gears - but very hard to isolate the nosie.
- I changed the rear diff fluid with synthetic 75w90 oil, which I believe had the LSD additives. The noise went almost completely away, but over the course of several days it started to come back -- then I noticed small puddles at the end of either axles of gear oil - leaking axle seals.
- Pull the rear diff-cover, pull the axles, replaced the bearings and seals. Refilled with new 75w90, through the breather tube. This time no leaks - BUT the clunk seems to be back, and it seems to worsen with the longer you drive (and the warmer the gear oil gets).
So before I surrender and take it to a shop, any ideas on what to try/test next? Maybe LSD additive package? Maybe the G80 is grabbing?
Thank you!
PS -- I used