2002 CRV - humming noise from rear - not diff or tires

[acmillr1]

Hey Everyone,

I have a humming noise coming from the rear (at least that where is sounds like it is coming from ) on my 2002 CR-V. I dont hear anything until I get up to about 40 mph or above. The noise seems to depend only on speed as it is independent of revs or throttle.

The noise has been around for a couple weeks (I dont use my car for commuting so probably ~150 miles in that time) now and I cant seem to get rid of it even though I have gotten new tires and an alignment as well as changed the rear differential fluid. I changed the diff fluid twice to make sure everything got flushed out of there. I also asked the alignment shop to check out the wheel bearings and they said they check out ok.

So I pretty stumped but I not sure if I want to drive it 600+ miles round trip visiting family for thanksgiving.

This is my first post as I have been browsing the forum for a couple weeks and I finally decided to register. I have already gained some valuable insight from the forum and hope that continues in the futur and maybe I can give a little too:)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[2RedV's]

Welcome to the forum! :)

Wheel bearings would have been my first guess. Does the noise fluctuate based upon coasting, braking or accelerating?

[Carbuff2]

Welcome to the forum! :)

Wheel bearings would have been my first guess. Does the noise fluctuate based upon coasting, braking or accelerating?

BUT BUT

The alignment shop said the wheel bearings were OK?

++++++++++++++++++

Actually, wheel bearings can be difficult to diagnose statically. They usually rumble under some kind of load. (acceleration, curves, etc) I have been able to "hear" bad WBs by jacking up the wheel in question and listening to them spin with a mechanics stethiscope (or a paper-towel tube :rolleyes: ) . But not always....

+++++++++++++++++

PS another possible noise source are the universal joints in the driveshaft (if the V has RT4WD). Again, hard to tell on a lift...

The driveshaft can be removed and the V driven without it, as a test...

[2RedV's]

That's why I said "would have been my first guess" :) Could the shop be wrong?

[Carbuff2]

That's why I said "would have been my first guess" :) Could the shop be wrong?

Of course they could be wrong, especially with noises such as this. :cool: I wasn't trying to be contrary...

Better, I suppose, to have a shop be wrong, than for them to replace ex$pensive parts on a hunch. That's why I suggested some possibilities with methods to try verify the cause.

+++++++++++++++

My sister owned a Toyota Tercel...the wheel bearings GROWLED for more than a year. (Nobody could figure out where the growl was coming from, though.) Suddenly, the noisy one siezed and she couldn't make the car go forward.

All we did was back the car up, the bearing unlocked, and she drove it to the shop...:p Weird but true.

[acmillr1]

Thanks for the replies . . .

I am starting to think more and more that is a wheel bearing issue as well. Im pretty sure the noise is coming from the left rear and the noise seems to maybe get a touch louder when I make right turns at speed but I may be imaging that. Im still debating how much to drive it. I hear stories like the one where the bearing growled for a year but then I imagine it siezing at speed on my way to visit family for thanksgiving. But I dont think I will be able to get it into the shop before we are supposed to leave on Tuesday night . . .

[acmillr1]

Well, I ended up taking it to the dealer this morning and they said the rear wheel bearings are both bad. They also quoted me $950 to fix it! And they said the ABS sensors will probably be bad as well and that would add another $350!

I was expected to maybe pay ~$300 per side ($80 part plus 3 hours labor) but 950 total is insane

Anyone else had this experience?

[2RedV's]

Well, I ended up taking it to the dealer this morning and they said the rear wheel bearings are both bad. They also quoted me $950 to fix it! And they said the ABS sensors will probably be bad as well and that would add another $350!

I was expected to maybe pay ~$300 per side ($80 part plus 3 hours labor) but 950 total is insane

Anyone else had this experience?Call Honda Corporate and open a case. Mention your loyalty to Honda, how many Hondas you have owned over the years and how disturbed you are by this happening on what you consider to be a very reliable vehicle. Be polite.

[Carbuff2]

Remember I said:
Better, I suppose, to have a shop be wrong, than for them to replace ex$pensive parts on a hunch. That's why I suggested some possibilities with methods to try verify the cause.

Sounds as if the Honda dealer is erring on the side of making you happy.

I would [politely] ask the Honda rep how the dealer diagnosed BOTH bearings as bad...and point out that the indie shop thought they were OK.

I suspect the answer lies between...I think you have ONE bad bearing.

+++++++++

And, FWIW, I had a bad wheel bearing take out an ABS sensor on another brand of car...but I got an ABS code because the "loose" bearing allowed the sensor to hit the exciter ring (the "toothed" thing that triggers the sensor pulses). I would suggest that your sensors are presently OK. :cool: And that whoever does the repair exercise caution or be held responsible for errors on their part.

[acmillr1]

Well, the dealer replaced both wheel bearings (they said both were making noise when they put the car on the lift - albeit the left one louder than the right one). The wheel speed sensors made it out ok so they did not need to replace them. So it total $930 - quite a bit but easier to swallow than $1300 if the wheel sensors had been bad.

I thought about just getting the left one replaced but they said the right was was making noise and since they take off the trailing arm they have to realign the car afterwords so in 2 months if they needed to replace the right one then I would have wasted $75 on the alignment.

At least the noise is gone, it concerns me a little bit that both of the rear bearing went bad at the same time, like there was some other factor causing the bearings to go bad. So we will see how this goes . . . .

[cderalow]

how many miles on the car?

[acmillr1]

81k . . . . . which isn't 'low' miles but certainly not a lot either. I have driven much higher miles cars that have never had the wheel bearings go out and they were not Hondas. It does seem like certain cars have wheel bearing problems but not the CRV. I was surprised that both of the rear bearings went at the same time. I hope something else is not going on that is causing the bearings to go bad. Also, I would expect the front bearing to die first do to more load.

[JayB77]

I have a 2002 CR-V that I bought in Jan of 2006. It had 76k on it then, and today stands at 134k. There is a loud moan/grinding coming from the rear wheels. It doesn't seem to be stronger from one side or the other. I am thinking it is to do with the rear differential fluid needing replacement. But I am afraid of dealer costs, etc. I bought it used from my local dealer, but I am well past even the extended warranty, so this will completely be on me. My wife owns a 2005 CRV since we loved the convenience of them and the comparable MPG, so I am assuming all this maintentence will just be slightly further off on hers!
Any suggestions n how to handle this with the dealer? Or, any tips on how else I could diagnose this myself?
Thanks!

[Carbuff2]

I have a 2002 CR-V that I bought in Jan of 2006. It had 76k on it then, and today stands at 134k. There is a loud moan/grinding coming from the rear wheels. It doesn't seem to be stronger from one side or the other. I am thinking it is to do with the rear differential fluid needing replacement. But I am afraid of dealer costs, etc. I bought it used from my local dealer, but I am well past even the extended warranty, so this will completely be on me. My wife owns a 2005 CRV since we loved the convenience of them and the comparable MPG, so I am assuming all this maintentence will just be slightly further off on hers!
Any suggestions n how to handle this with the dealer? Or, any tips on how else I could diagnose this myself?
Thanks!


I would replace the "Dual Pump" rear differential fluid PRONTO. Chances are that would resolve the problem. It is easy to DIY. If DIY is not your thing, a dealer would charge $60 - 90 USD for the service. If you can find an independent Honda specialist they would do it for less and use the correct DP fluid. (That's IMPORTANT!)

Bear in mind that if your fluid is really old, you may be best served by replacing it twice within a week. You don't want to damage your differential. The noise may not go away for a few miles until the new fluid works in.


In the future, get that fluid replaced every 30K miles. BTW your wife's '05 would need rear diff fluid every 15 - 20K miles because changes in the design made the fluid wear out sooner.

[Black Pearl]

If you want to do it yourself, I would recommend doing at least 2 fluid changes with burnishing in between the first refill and second drain. Burnishing is simply going to an empty parking lot and drive in tight circles for about 10 times both to the left and to the right.

So: drain the fluid.

Refill with only Honda Dual Pump Fluid II.

Drive to an empty parking lot.

Do 10 tight circles to left. 10 tight circles to the right.

Drive back home.

Allow the rear differential to cool.

Drain the fluid and refill with new fluid.

Test drive it doing tight circles. If you still have the noise, repeat the burnishing and drain and refill it again.

For 2 drain and refills you will need 3 quarts (1.1 quart per drain/refill on a 2002).


For 3 drain and refills you will need 4 quarts.

You must use Honda Dual Pump Fluid II.

The burnishing removes contaminants from the surface of the clutch plates, and draining the second time flushes the contaminants from the differential. A simple drain and refill may cure your problem for a short while only to have it return.

I did a detailed procedure for the 2007 models in the link below. It won't be exactly the same on a 2002, but it will be close. The procedure is only for normal scheduled maintenance changes, so it does not mention burnishing.

There is a TSB 07-024 on this particular issue and it is basically what I provided above with the exception that the dealer burnishes the clutch plates with the car on the lift.

Here is my procedure for changing rear differential fluid on a 2007 model.

http://www.crvownersclub.com/forums/t3324/

Posts 1 & 2.

Good luck with your repair.

[acmillr1]

I would follow black pearls advice. I changed the rear diff fluid as you can see in my posts above but that turned out not to be my problem. Unfortunately, my guess is that you also have bad wheel bearings and are in for a big repair bill. But changing the rear diff fluid is easy enough and you should do it anyway since it should really be changed every 30k. I am an amatuer mechanic in every sense of the word and this was the first time I had worked on my CRV, but it was easy. I did it without even jacking up the car.

You will also need new crush washer for the rear diff, so when you pick up new pump oil form the dealer make sure to get a couple of those as well.

I would also spend the $5 and get one of those fluid pumps from the auto parts store because it is difficult to get the fluid into the differential. And with the fluid being $10-12 per quart you dont have to spill that much to make up for the cost of the pump.

I also changed my tranny fluid (twice) when I did this since I was already working on the car (and mine was the original tranny fluid at 80+k miles). So if you are going to do it yourself its a good time to change some other fluids as well.

Here is a video of a rear diff fluid change on a CRV: YouTube - crv rear diff change offluids (http://youtube.com/watch?v=q-EEEOkwjFA)

Good luck! And let us know if it fixes your noise!


edit: I had trouble getting the drain plug loose (becuase it is under the car and had never been opened) so be ready for that. (DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU HAVE JACKED UP THE CAR!) I just took a rubber mallet and hit the end of the wrench (and that seemed to work just fine. If you do jack up the car you will want to make sure this plug is loose before it goes up on jacks.

[JayB77]

UPDATE - I ended up having the dealer do the rear diff fluid change. I figured that I would be better off having them do the first one, then I will do the second one in about a month. That way if there were any initial problems from not having it done before 135k miles, they would be dealing with it.
Now that it is done ($95), I still hear the rear grinding noise. It is significantly louder when I turn to the right. There is no doubt about that. So, being a novice, which wheel would that indicate?
I plan to bring it in to my local Sullivan Tire this week to have them look at it. It is a shop I have gone to for routine and non-routine work and I know and trust them.
Any tips would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Jay