Questions and Answers
Astro Van Has The Birds
Q. Hi, my name is Don and I live in the Phoenix, Arizona area. We have a 1995 Chevy Astro-LT, AWD Mini-Van. The van has 94,000 miles on it but is in very good shape. It is a V-6, has an automatic transmission and I believe it is Fuel Injected. It has ABS brakes, PS, A/C, Cruise. Basically, it is fully loaded.
About a month ago, a new noise appeared. This noise sounds like two different birds chirping in a very rhythmical fashion, HIGH-LOW-HIGH-LOW. The sounds is there at any speed other then zero. It speeds up and slows down with your speed. The brakes are new and applying the brakes makes absolutely no change to the noise.
A local Chevy dealer looked at it and said it was the front drive shaft ($1,300.00). I just find it hard to believe and since we are trying to sell the car, I don't want to sink another $1,300.00 into it if I'm not 110% sure that this is the problem. I've put the car on jacks and put it in gear but other then saying the sound is coming from the area of the front drive shaft, I could not pinpoint the sound.
However, without the car in gear (neutral), I could manually turn the drive shaft and the sound is there. This makes me think it is not in the transmission, but what do I know. Have you heard of this type of sound? Seems the Chevy dealer or their mechanics had no clue. I'm taking it to a friends tomorrow (Tuesday 4/23) where he will put it up on the rack (he has his own auto repair shop) so we can try and pinpoint it.
I'm not against spending the money as long as it fixes the problem. This sound is so loud, people look at us when we drive by. I've tried turning the radio up higher, but you can only listen to music that loud for so long. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
DonA. I would think the noise is coming from one, or both, of the universal joints. That drive shaft is easy enough to remove and check the U joints. I'll bet you find that at least one is bad.
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