I get a growling sound when accelerating at anywhere above about 50% throttle. I can't tell if it's tied to the transmission or not, but I figured I would ask the community, since you guys know more about the AWD driveline than I do. Could it be the angle gear going out? Mileage is at 180k, and as far as I can recall it's been doing this for the 70k that we've owned it. It doesn't seem to be getting worse or better, so I'm not sure if this is just normal.
As best I can describe it, if I drive gently to normal (think soccer mom) everything seems perfectly normal. When I step on it a little is when I get the growl. What happens is the engine starts to rev and wind up the torque converter, then a half second after you really start accelerating the growl starts, about an octave lower pitch than the engine noise itself. I can still hear the engine, so I don't think it's engine related. It's like a completely separate noise starts, over top of the engine and transmission noises. Once you are no longer accelerating hard the noise stops, about as abruptly as it comes on. It sounds maybe a little rattley or metallic, like there's a hint of something not right about it. Mostly it sounds like a sudden shift in engine tuning, but the fact that it seems more tied to the transmission and how hard the vehicle is accelerating, rather than just throttle position, has me thinking it is more mechanical.
If the noise is normal, fine. If I don't need to worry about it for a while, fine. I guess I just want to know if I'm headed for a big repair bill soon, or if there is maybe a small adjustment or part swap I should do now to prevent a bigger repair bill in the future. My guesses would be angle gear (which I know nothing about), torque converter, transmission, or it's just a normal noise.
As best I can describe it, if I drive gently to normal (think soccer mom) everything seems perfectly normal. When I step on it a little is when I get the growl. What happens is the engine starts to rev and wind up the torque converter, then a half second after you really start accelerating the growl starts, about an octave lower pitch than the engine noise itself. I can still hear the engine, so I don't think it's engine related. It's like a completely separate noise starts, over top of the engine and transmission noises. Once you are no longer accelerating hard the noise stops, about as abruptly as it comes on. It sounds maybe a little rattley or metallic, like there's a hint of something not right about it. Mostly it sounds like a sudden shift in engine tuning, but the fact that it seems more tied to the transmission and how hard the vehicle is accelerating, rather than just throttle position, has me thinking it is more mechanical.
If the noise is normal, fine. If I don't need to worry about it for a while, fine. I guess I just want to know if I'm headed for a big repair bill soon, or if there is maybe a small adjustment or part swap I should do now to prevent a bigger repair bill in the future. My guesses would be angle gear (which I know nothing about), torque converter, transmission, or it's just a normal noise.
