"Clunk" or "Knock" coming from Rear Passenger Side

Hey guys,

I'm making a new thread as a previous thread has recently come up, and I figured rather than hi-jack that one, I'd start my own.

The first portion of this topic is identical to the one in the DeLorean Club of Ohio Sub-folder just FYI.

So who all here has replaced their rear wheel bearings? I ask this because I'm getting a clunking noise from the back passenger side of the car. It dominantly does it when turning left whether you turn left hard, soft, slow or fast. Turning hard and fast makes the noise happen much faster - almost cyclic or rotational. Going slow and turning softly makes the noise happen much slower. It almost sounds like loose metal on metal rubbing against each other.

I called Casey and we diagnoed everything to the best of our ability on the phone including:

1. We checked both inner drive shafts and all the bolts on each side of the drive shafts.

2. We checked both trailing arms - both sides leading to the TABs and the wheel hub carrier. No slack or looseness in either side of both trailing arms.

3. We checked the two 20mm bolts on the sides of the hub carriers that are right next to the wheel side of the inner drive shafts.

4. We checked the two 17mm bolts in the engine bay that attach the fiberglass underbody to the frame. I know there's more that we did but I don't know the proper terminology but to be frank, anywhere that a bolt goes into the frame - we checked it.

5. We checked for slack/looseness in the tires with the lugnuts really tight and the wheels in the air; there's no give in either rear tire. The tires are good; I actually swapped them out today and the noise has been present with both sets of rear tires.

6. The shocks are not leaking any fluid at all.


The noise is nearly IDENTICAL to the noise in this clip from Vacancy. I know it's crazy to compare the sound from a movie to a sound I am really hearing in my car, but at 0:03-0:04, that noise is VERY similar to what I am hearing whenever I turn left in the car. Never happens turning right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUISl...ature=youtu.be

What you guys think - rear wheel bearing replacement time ?

This is just a copy and paste of my post in this thread:
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?43...1926#post61926


I had the exact same thing going on. What's actually happening is that the wheel bearing is shifting just a tiny tiny bit in the hub carrier, but when it happens, the noise radiates through the car and is so loud in the passenger compartment. I had it happening in both my rear wheels. If you turned left, you got *pop* *pop* (from both the right and left rear wheel bearings). Then, as long as you kept turning left, it didn't happen again. As soon as you turned right though *pop* *pop*. The wheel bearings would shift back and forth between 2 positions. Sounds like yours is similar but only on one side, and is moves most when turning left.

Dude, talk to Cliff. Do you have his number? I can give it to you if not. There is always a huge tech session that usually runs the entire 4th of july weekend (just figure out if its the one before or after this year). Do whatever you can to make it because you can definitely get it done there on the lift. Cliff made several special pullers specifically designed so that you can change rear wheel bearings out while the car is on the lift, without having to take the hub carriers off the car. We did mine about a month ago. Whole process took probably 2 hours from beginning to end.

This was the process: Removed tires and half shafts, unbolted calipers and bungeed them out of the way, removed brake disks, used cliff's massive impact gun to remove center hub nut, used a puller on the hubs, gently tapped/pushed out the spindles, used special puller to remove bearings, used other side of special puller as a pusher to install new bearings, tapped spindles back in place careful not to split the inner races (by putting pressure on the outer-inner race), tapped the hubs back on, used large center hub nut to draw hub and spindle together, reinstalled the brake disks, bolted the calipers back on, torqued center hub nut with ebrake pulled, reinstalled the half shafts and tires.

Pics from the job:
Old wheel bearing with spindle inside:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...97421922_n.jpg

New wheelbearing installed without ever having to remove the hub carrier.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...97600594_n.jpg

He has it down to a science. Plus, in a worst case where you actually had to pull the hub carriers, he's got 3 presses.

EDIT: I (originally) forgot the part about removing the big spindle nut. It was cake since cliff has the mother of all impact guns. This nut was also used in the reassembly process to draw the hub and spindle together. It also requires I believe 240ftlbs or so. If you're ebrake works you can just use it to hold the wheel in place, otherwise have someone press the brake pedal while torquing the nut.

Nick, you've been PM'd :).