2000 SIlverado Driveline Squeak

caison123 · February 12, 2015

Yes, i know this has been covered a few times but i have not been able to find anything.

Anyway, 2000 Silverado ECSB

6 inch lift, 35s, 241,000miles

Developed a squeak when taking off in the driveline. I greased the U joints and it helped so I went ahead and replaced them. That fixed it for about 2 weeks. It now squeaks again. Could they go bad this fast? They are the Moog U joints and I replaced the grease in them with synthetic grease as well.

Another problem. The front right wheel makes a whining, whirring, rattling noise that is not related to speed, it does get slightly louder if you go faster but is not directly related to speed. Any ideas?

sahls01gmc · February 12, 2015

Which U-joint was squeaking?

I imagine the angle of the driveline changed after your lift, causing irregular wear on the U-joints. Someone more familiar with lift kits will chime in on this one.

As far as the front, could be a CV joint gone bad. Or wheel bearing (have you replaced this ever on this truck?). Is there adequate grease in the bearing, CV joint, ball joints, tie-rod ends, etc? That many miles, it's likely something needs to be replaced. I'm at the same mileage with mine....

caison123 · February 12, 2015

I replaced both of the rear driveshaft U joints.

For the front, cv joints seem fine, thinking about replacing wheel bearings but i think theyve been done before. Everything else has been greased. It only started after the lift though.

sahls01gmc · February 12, 2015

There ya go. I bet the lift is the cause of all of these problems. Everything now moves and pivots at different angles than it used to. Center of gravity is different, suspension travel is different, so it's not out of line to think the lift has now created some squeaks. Go back over everything on the lift to make sure it was installed correctly. Then I would start looking at replacing the other end of your suspension parts (ball joints, wheel bearings, tie-rod ends, control arm bushings.......)

caison123 · February 12, 2015

The kit does not change many angles though. It is a bracket kit so it dropped most of the stock components by at least 4 inches.

caison123 · February 12, 2015

Another thing though, any reason why the new u joints would already be squeaking? What else could be doing this? My other thought would be leaf springs because theyre now on blocks

ifixedit · February 12, 2015

I had the exact same problem and it drove me nuts trying to figure out what the hell was making that annoying squeak for months! The only time it would do it was from just beginning to move from a dead stop up to about maybe 20 MPH and then it would quit. At first I was thinking something serious internal with the transmission, bad bearing on a the input shaft and so on. I mostly noticed the squeak in the summer when I had the windows down or moving in slow rush hour traffic.

Here's what it was: There's a rubber seal on the end of the tail of the transmission, the one that fits tightly (or is at least supposed to) around the shaft of yoke on the drive shaft when you slip it into the end of the transmission. The seal was dry and when you first take off the dry rubber makes a squeaking / squealing noise when it rubs against the dry outer surface of the yoke shaft. I pulled the drive shaft out, put some white grease around the inside lip of the seal, put a little extra on the yoke shaft surface, put it back together, and viola, squeak is gone! I also noticed when I worked on mine that this seal does have a small hole in it, looks to be for the purpose of lubricating it in some fashion. I did hit it with WD40 once, squirting it into the hole in the seal, but that only lasted a couple days and the squeak was back. Seems it wants more than just a light oil and needs grease instead. Back in the day I was taught that seals should always have some grease on the inner portion of the rubber lip before being put into service or they will run dry and will fail.

As for your other noise in the front, you have a front wheel hub bearing going out. My truck has 210,000 on it and I'm on hub #2 on the drivers side and hub #3 on the passenger side. It's a crap design and they're notorious for lasting about 80K and it's like a freaken timer goes off and they fail! I've tried both the better quality (read that as more expensive) and the so called lesser quality "made overseas" hubs and both last about the same, so save yourself about $100 and go with the cheaper ones.

sahls01gmc · February 12, 2015

+1

I'm about due for my 3rd rounds on wheel hub/bearings.....

gmtech4 · February 13, 2015

I had the exact same problem and it drove me nuts trying to figure out what the hell was making that annoying squeak for months! The only time it would do it was from just beginning to move from a dead stop up to about maybe 20 MPH and then it would quit. At first I was thinking something serious internal with the transmission, bad bearing on a the input shaft and so on. I mostly noticed the squeak in the summer when I had the windows down or moving in slow rush hour traffic.

Here's what it was: There's a rubber seal on the end of the tail of the transmission, the one that fits tightly (or is at least supposed to) around the shaft of yoke on the drive shaft when you slip it into the end of the transmission. The seal was dry and when you first take off the dry rubber makes a squeaking / squealing noise when it rubs against the dry outer surface of the yoke shaft. I pulled the drive shaft out, put some white grease around the inside lip of the seal, put a little extra on the yoke shaft surface, put it back together, and viola, squeak is gone! I also noticed when I worked on mine that this seal does have a small hole in it, looks to be for the purpose of lubricating it in some fashion. I did hit it with WD40 once, squirting it into the hole in the seal, but that only lasted a couple days and the squeak was back. Seems it wants more than just a light oil and needs grease instead. Back in the day I was taught that seals should always have some grease on the inner portion of the rubber lip before being put into service or they will run dry and will fail.

As for your other noise in the front, you have a front wheel hub bearing going out. My truck has 210,000 on it and I'm on hub #2 on the drivers side and hub #3 on the passenger side. It's a crap design and they're notorious for lasting about 80K and it's like a freaken timer goes off and they fail! I've tried both the better quality (read that as more expensive) and the so called lesser quality "made overseas" hubs and both last about the same, so save yourself about $100 and go with the cheaper ones.

The hole in these all dust portion is for you to know when the seal leaks , not for lubricating it , that hole needs to be on the bottom

caison123 · February 13, 2015

The front wheel doesnt make that much noise, at least audibly, until i get to 20 + then it stays constantly. maybe getting slightly louder with more speed but it does not seem directly related. So what do I do about the slip yoke? it only squeaks when I take off and after that makes no more noise. lube it? I was looking into that but it seems like most people recommend a special grease. Would synthetic Valvoline grease do the job? Even if I have to do it over and over for now. Thats cheaper than a tube of $30 grase.

chris.roubo · February 13, 2015

Guys drill and tap grease fittings in the tail of the transmission. Gets rid of that squeek, gets rid of the dry "clunk" between reverse and drive, and stops the binding you sometimes get during slow stop and go driving. I loaded thebcrap out of mine with antisieze, hasnt come back yet

ifixedit · February 13, 2015

The front wheel doesnt make that much noise, at least audibly, until i get to 20 + then it stays constantly. maybe getting slightly louder with more speed but it does not seem directly related. So what do I do about the slip yoke? it only squeaks when I take off and after that makes no more noise. lube it? I was looking into that but it seems like most people recommend a special grease. Would synthetic Valvoline grease do the job? Even if I have to do it over and over for now. Thats cheaper than a tube of $30 grase.

Just pull the drive shaft out, apply some grease to the inner lip on the seal, a little on the yoke surface and put it back together. Just about any grease will work, I used some white grease I had in one of those little tub containers, that was last spring and it hasn't squeaked since.

When the hub bearings get bad they will make noise for awhile going slow or fast, then they won't, they'll rumble, make squealing noises going around corners and so on. If there's over 80K on them it's time for a new one or two.

ifixedit · February 13, 2015

The hole in these all dust portion is for you to know when the seal leaks , not for lubricating it , that hole needs to be on the bottom

How convenient, they provide a hole to let you know your tranny is leaking, I think it would be pretty obvious without it. Maybe they can provide me with a flat tire to let me know my tire is flat.

gmtech4 · February 14, 2015

How convenient, they provide a hole to let you know your tranny is leaking, I think it would be pretty obvious without it. Maybe they can provide me with a flat tire to let me know my tire is flat.

Haaa? Lol