wierd noise from rear of car...

[SJTrance]

When I'm above 20 mph, I hear a loud droning noise come from the rear of the car and a vibration is even felt.I feel that it is coming from the right side of the rear, but it sometimes sounds diffused through the rear of the car. One mechanic told me that it is the wheel bearing that is out. Another told me that it couldn't be the wheel bearing, but my differential, or the drive shaft joint. I drag race occasionally, and have recently put a new paeco industries performance clutch in. This new clutch has much more grip, but is also relatively user friendly. Moreover, I just drove from Houston to Florida where I took the car to Active Autowerkes. There they noticed that one side of my car was lower than the other. They placed some sort of rubber pad at the shock mount to even the height out. I know that this is kinda long, but I'm just giving you the history of what is going on. I have no idea where the problem is, but i just want to fix it without spending money on 3 different things without seeing positive results. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Mike325i]

When was the last time you changed your rear shock mounts?? Have you looked at this being the possible source of the noise. They do wear out quite often.

Mike

[540Rob]

Could it be the dead body in the trunk?

[SJTrance]

I just replaced the rear shock mounts; after the noise started. That just leaves one thing...and no, there isn't any dead body in the trunk. Common, anybody with the answer! Please help!!

[eurospeed]

Hmm...a wheel bearing would be my first guess so far, but the drive shaft joint could be a possibility as well. Just curious, but what tires are you using (some treads tend to resonate at speed)? Also, could you possibly describe the noise/vibration a bit more in detail....e.g., how loud, does it change in pitch at different speeds, does it ever go away at a speed higher than 20, is it worse when you turn, worse when loading the car left or right, etc.

[SJTrance]

About the nature of the sound, it is similar to a bad tire, but I have rotated the tires after the noise started. The same noise from the same was still present. It is really pronounced when I decelerate. In other words, on a strong acceleration, it is not that loud. When I let off the accelerator, it is very pronounced. It is mostly heard on the right side. When I lean the car on the left, it decreases significantly. It does get more high pitched as the speed increases. The tires I'm using are the Khumo Ecstas with about 4000 miles on them. Hope this info sheds some light onto the subject.

[ChrisFL]

I was surfing the archives of bimmer.org for Alpina stuff and found this link. The guy sounds like he had a similar problem - turned out it was a mid-berring on his driveshaft (cheap fix).
I don't know if this will help, but I figured any leads would be helpful. Check it out:
http://forums.roadfly.com/e36/messag...w06/33544.html

By the way, i love your car!

[Breyton E36]

That looks like the parking lot of AA where that black bimmer is.

[ChrisFL]

it is. He had his car the recently

[The Tick]

I had a similar noise, it turned out to be my diff. Dead bodies usually don't make any noise from the trunk. You usually have to have them tied to the bottom of the car to really hear any type of grinding noise.

[ms318is]

The symptoms sure sound like a bad u-joint/cv joint to me (60% confidence).

[Cock318]

droning when u slow down...i had that same shit with my front wheels
after a long winded search by the BMW fools and they blaming the tyres, a lowly mechanic discovered the bearings were worn out...

went back to BMW...fools changed bearing...no more noise...

[SJTrance]

I checked it out with a very highly recomended mechanic at Bavarian Machine Specialties here in Houston. He said that he's sure it is the bearing, and that it must be changed out. It will cost me $320 to repair it. The actual bearing costs $89, and the rest is labor. I have an appointment Tuesday (the 27th) of this month to get it fixed. I guess that I don't race till then. Tommorow is the BMW CCA meet at the race track, and I was gonna go there and join. Oh well.

As about the pic at Active Autowerke, I drove my car down to Florida and stayed for the second half of February. Besides being one of the funnest cities I've ever been in, I also enjoyed my three visits to AA during my stay. I got rides in two of their turbo cars; one M3, and one 325. The 325 has been in some magazines. It is a white 4 dr with blue jack covers on the sideskirts, and a blue adjustable wing. Everybody was supernice too. I have their exhaust, intake, and strut bar.

I really want to thank you all for your help, though. You all are truly awesome.