Noise in rear wheel area

What I originally thought was clutch noise turns out to be a noise coming from the passenger side rear wheel area. It is a squeaky noise that happens when accelerating in reverse or decelerating (by lifting my foot off of the accelerator pedal) going forward. The outside rear brake pads still have about an eight of an inch left, and the noise doesn't happen when I decelerate by taking the car out of gear, so I am thinking it is drivetrain related, possibly wheel bearings or something like that.

Before I start taking the car apart on Saturday, does anyone have any wisdom or advice on how to proceed, or what I should check?

Thanks.

When the passenger side rear bearing went out in my 94 it made a constant RRRrrrrRRRRrrrrRRR noise while the car was moving. The RRRrrrrRRRRrrrrRRR noise would speed up and slow down with the speed of the car.

Check the squeekers on the pads and the dust shield for a rock or bend.

Thanks for the suggestion, Rogue.

I replaced the rear pads and rotors. It didn't solve the problem, but I found out that I had a cracked and bent pad that I otherwise would not have known about.

I saw some references on the pointy board suggesting u-joints or pinion seal, but I don't know why it would sound like the right rear to someone standing outside of the car if it were the pinion seal or u-joints. I guess I'll put the car on jacks this weekend and turn the wheels to try to duplicate the noise.

Thanks for the help.

When the front u-joint went out on my truck, the symptom was a squeek noise. The rollers got rusty, hence the type of noise. If you can see the u-joints, you might check for rust stains.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shortshift

When the front u-joint went out on my truck, the symptom was a squeek noise. The rollers got rusty, hence the type of noise. If you can see the u-joints, you might check for rust stains.

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...And we have a winner. I crawled out from under the car about an hour ago. My front u-joints are not in good shape; the rubber seals are gone, and rust is everywhere. Rear seals aren't much better. Rotating the wheels in one direction produces a squeak from the front u-joint, and there is a barely noticeable amount of play (less than a millimeter). I guess the life-expectancy of a driveshaft is a bit over 250,000 miles.

Thanks for all of the help.