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Strange noise
Okay, before you say "ask a mechanic," let me start out by saying that I'm on a trip with the car. The noise started today, about 60 miles from my home, noticed at highway speeds. It's intermittent, speed-related, and doesn't fit anything I can figure out. Not a chirp, more like a click or clunk. It SOUNDS like something is loose in the right rear wheel, or at least that quadrant. Sort of like a rock in a hubcap. Lug nuts were checked all around, all wheels feel same in temperature, center hub crests are tight, handling is fine. My drive here involved lots of twisties and hills, and the only thing I THINK I could figure was that it seemed to be louder, or at least more noticeable, was going uphill. I had the impression, not necessarily correct, that downshifting helped. At speeds about 20 mph I hear a distinct noise, but as the speed increases, the noise becomes more like a steady tone, if you can understand what I mean. In other words, speed related. Tires look okay. Slipping the car in neutral doesn't stop the noise, which I think is important.
Every time I think I'm on to a pattern, or have someone else drive it (hubby, for example), the noise stops. We are in 2 cars, and we switched out for a while, with no luck. He could hear it, though, when I drove by him as he stood by the roadside. Also he heard it briefly when he drove it. He's stumped, too.
The car is up to date on maintenance, had new shifter cables installed a couple of weeks ago (and is shifting fine). Earlier in the fall my mechanic thought I needed a new motor mount, but when I brought it in for the cables, he said he didn't think so after all.
So--what should I do to troubleshoot? What information should I try to gather? 2002 986 S 6 speed, 85,000 miles.
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