Questions and Answers

Groaning Caravan Q. My Dodge Caravan has been making a groaning noise from the rear at 55 miles an hour for a month and now it is sometimes at 35 miles an hour. I have been to garages 5 times on it. They have told me tires, rear wheel bearings, and differential. The tires were given an excellent rating by the tire dealer.

The dealer says it is the rear wheel bearings because the sound is coming from the rear and that wouldn't be the case with the transmission. The local garage says it isn't the wheel bearings because the noise happens mainly when accelerating and is intermittent. In both cases, they said if I paid for work on the other thing I would be wasting my money. Help!

1995 Dodge Caravan SE
3.0 liter MPI V-6
4 speed automatic transmission
Mileage 91,000
Electronic Fuel Injection
ABS brakes
P/S - A/C - Cruise control
Rack and pinion steering

A. Chrysler has reported this type of noise (howl/drone/moan/humming) to be coming from one of two areas. The tires and/or roof rack. If you don't have a roof rack, that narrows it down quite a bit. If you do, remove the cross bows from the rack and drive it. If the noise disappears, then you have a problem with the rack. Chrysler has a fix for this and I'll send it to you is it is indeed the problem.

The tire noise applies to vehicles with 16" tires. if you don't have 16" tires on your vehicle, then it's not the tires. The only way to check this is to switch tires with another brand (not Michelins) and try it. If the noise goes away, then it's the tires.

If this fails, then I'm at a loss to suggest a possible cause. It would be something I have to drive and hear before I can make any kind of guess, educated or otherwise.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA