I just finished replacing both rear wheel bearings and hubs on my 2005 G35x. The job went smoothly, had to maneuver the left axle a bit to get it past the exhaust and suspension components but no serious bending of the joints needed. I took the G out for a test drive and it sounds great; no more vibrating on the highway or noise coming from the rear. However, I have a new noise...

When I shift from reverse to drive, there is a very cringe-worthy grinding coming from the rear. No noise when shifting from drive to reverse, or park to reverse; only when shifting from reverse to drive and the rear differential gets engaged initially. It sounds awful, and you can almost feel the slight grind coming from the rear. I torqued every single bolt to the specs in the service manual.

It almost sounds like the rear axle is slightly "shifting forward into place" upon putting it into drive, but it is not a nice slow noise.

Any ideas from anyone who has replaced their bearings and experienced something similar? Or possibly someone who has had issues after greasing their rear axles and installing them?

Anything helps people. Thank you!

 

Also, I did apply moly grease to the metal flange right by the axle splines (although I wasn't experiencing the famous axle click) and I made sure not to bend or mark up the metal flange, so I'm quite sure it's not the metal piece grinding on anything. It sounds like its coming from the differential.

 

If this is something new that started since you worked on the car, check the exhaust system and make sure nothing was bend and is out of place. Shifting from reverse to forward causes the entire drive train to torque in the opposite direction. There is movement of the engine and transmission assembly that may be extensive if an engine or transmission mount has been damaged, so you may want to check them also.

 

Jack up the rear of the vehicle and support on jackstands, turn the tires. Does it sound normal?

Also for the future you should remove the exhaust section between the y-pipe and the muffler, it's a LOT easier to get the diff out because it drops straight down.

I suspect what you're hearing is movement from the rear differential bushing, likely the act of removing/installing the diff caused what was left of the bushing to move around and it's probably causing a horrible sqeaking sound from what remains of the OEM rubber bushing, it's the bushing in the subframe that the metal stud in the diff goes through when reinstalling. The OEM bushing has a very short life expectancy of roughly 60k miles and most folks replace it with a urethane one. Spray a bunch of WD-40 or something into the bushing and see if the sound goes away, if so then you definitely found the culprit.

 

Cleric, I didn't remove the diff for this job. I jacked the car up on the diff and removed the rear axles from the differential.

I doubt what I am hearing is due to a dry/squeaky bushing. Considering the entire job went smoothly, and the noise only comes when the vehicle is put into gear, I am suspecting that the original cv axles could not take the bending they experienced, although in my opinion it was quite minor. Driving on the highway is fine, but if I remember correcly, when making a sharp U-turn I did hear some clicking from the rear, meaning the cv joints. Also, when shifting through the gears with the vehicle supported on jack stands, the noise is far less apparent. I suspect that the initial grind/clunk when putting the vehicle into gear is the damaged axles in motion. Looks like I'll have to replace the axles, which is no biggie for me. Hopefully the current ones are okay to drive on for a while.

 

Ahhhh my bad I completely misunderstood what you were removing, still, you should be able to just jack up the rear and spin it by hand a few times to find the problem.

 

 

Good luck. That's really unfortunate there. I've had a wheel bearing issue but not an axle related one yet.

 

For anyone that does a rear bearing job themselves (although this isn't a bearing thread) I highly advise to remove the stabilizer connecting rod as it says in the rear axle section of the FSM. Many threads I read said no suspension removal was required, some said exhaust only, some advised to drop the radius rod or bucket spring, etc. IMHO the exhaust wasn't in the way at all; the axle drops right past it. But the connecting rod is the reason for all the bending of the CV joints.

 

Update:

I (FINALLY) received my axle yesterday. I ordered the GSP NCV53500 off amazon. Taxes in it was 97.14 and fit like a glove, and I'm happy to say that the G is back up and running with no mystery noises. No more driving the old Honda Civic that's collecting dust at the acreage.