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stateofidleness: Yes, I hear ya on the embarrassment! I find I'm now "creeping" through my neighborhood at 10mph or less so as to not attract attention and there's nothing I can do about it at stop signs and stop lights. Hopefully, I'll figure this out here and everyone will be able to use this thread if they run across the same issue in the future.
Luccia: I agree the bearings are old but I've run out of "tests" to figure out if it's the bearings. Please share if you or anyone has any other test I can do. I'd hate to start throwing parts at it but I may be getting close to doing that. I apologize if I'm repeating myself but here's what I've done to see if it's the bearings: Grabbing the rear wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and checking for play; grabbing at 12 and 6 o'clock checking for play; rolling the wheel while grasping the suspension spring and feeling for vibration and meanwhile listening to the bearings trying to hear anything rough going on; finally, with the wheel removed, i stuck my head in the aft portion of wheel well while the was in vehicle's in Drive (don't do this at home kids!) and listening for the sound. The squealing sound seems to be coming from my left ear (towards Trans and inner CV) and not from my right ear (outer CV, wheel bearing, brake rotors).
An Update Since my Last post: I took the car down off the jack stands today. To my dismay, that annoying sound is still there. It didn't reappear immediately, and for about 3-5 minutes I thought I'd fixed it, but once things heated up (?), it started squealing above 15mph again. This time, I tried another test, I got the car up to about 25 or 30 mph, put it in Neutral, shut the car off, and coasted. The squealing sound continued until I slowed all the way down again.
Anyway, here's what I did when I had it on stands.
I removed the "drive flange". Nothing looked out of order from what little I could see inside the differential. Wish I had a new seal (986-397-015-00), it would have been a perfect time to replace it. The flange spins and turns the inner CV Joint and so part of me wonders if this is what's squealing. If that seal is starting to go (it's not leaking) could it cause the spinning flange to squeal? Anyway the diff started leaking fluid when I removed the flange and so I figured I'd change the diff fluid and do it the "right way" by removing the diff cover. So, I pulled passenger side transmission mount so I could remove the differential cover (it freaking connects to the trans on the damn diff cover). However, couldn't get access to 2 of the 12 diff cover bolts (the two to the right of the fill plug - the crossmember was in the way). So I got lazy and decided against doing a total drain and refill. I replaced the flange and topped off the differential with new 75w90 fluid. Next, I removed the CV cover on the outer CV joint. Joint looked like it had plenty of grease but I added some more and replaced the cover and put the car back together. Before putting the wheel back on and taking it down off the stands, I removed the brake caliper & rotor and then inspected and shot the both the E-brake shoes and the rotor dust cover with brake clean. Nothing looked out of the ordinary to my novice eyes.
I'll probably put the car on jacks again tomorrow and try to shoot & share a video to see if it gives anyone any additional ideas.
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