Rear whining noise. Pinion bearing?

[Robert M.]

I have a whine in the rear. What is indicative of the noise under load vs the noise when off the gas. Regardsless of what the noise is, the car gets driven only about 150 miles a year. Is it worth the time and money to find the cause? In other words is there potential for serious damage? I checked the gear lube level, and added the posi additive. Thanks in advance.

[Gary R.]

Re: Rear whining noise. Pinion bearing?

gear whine is usually in the R&P and would require rebuilding. Are these the original or replacement gears? Some after market gears do have a whine at certain MPH ranges but usually it is slight. A lot of what I have seen is improper gear setup. A lot depends on the lash and where the pattern is.

[Dan P.]

Re: Rear whining noise. Pinion bearing?

A bearing noise will be constant . A pinion bearing will start whining almost when the car starts to move. The side bearings will start to whine about 15MPH because they turn about 3 times less than the pinion bearings because of the gear ratio. Gear noise usually comes in at 30 60 and 90 MPH and you can change the pitch of the noise with the gas pedal. Usually it will be at light throttle. You can tell if it a wheel bearing by turning the steering wheel side to side to see if the noise gets worse or better depending on which way the car is leaning.