the grinding noise in my 93 Aero was the gearbox bearing which then allowed a shaft in the gearbox to move and grind on it's back plate.

It only did it when you lifted off in low gaers though.

Andrew

 

srgammans,

Noise identification at a distance is always a difficult game, but here's my tu'pence worth. Assumming that this noise is a continuous light grinding noise on coasting then I would suspect things like the disc dust covers. These are fairly light construction and on a 13 year old car have been out in the rain and road salt for a long time. Whip of each front wheel in turn and have a look about while turning the disc by hand. You may be able to tie it down to one side or the other by driving slowly with the windows open and either yourself and / or a passenger sticking a head out the window.

Similarly, a small stone lodged in the pad / disc area could give the same symptoms. Your 'clunk' on moving off could be related. If it is the engine mounts, I would expect there to be other problems such as the gear lever jumping about as you accelerate hard or lift off sharply. Odd 'clunks' only on moving off are more likely to be suspension related. Could be the butterfly bushes, anti - roll bar bushes or the front inner wishbone bushes. $200 for all these is a reasonable cost though it is a fairly straightforward job if you can get it safely about a foot off the ground.

Paul @ Kippen.

 

Thanks for the tips. The bushing job was for only one bushing. They said the part was $50 and the rest of the cost was labor. I'll check the disc dust covers first.

 

I actually had the same symptoms with my 94 Saab 9000 aero not even a month ago. After messing around with things for a week or so I finally took my car into my mechanic and he found that the bolts on the torque converter I believe were lose. Very easy fix just jack up your car and get under the transmission. There is an opening in the middle on the passenger side with a large gear (sorry not a mechanic or very car savvy), but there are 4 bolts, he put some red lock tite on the bolts to make sure they wouldnt come back out and my saabs been running like a dream since .

 

I had a horrible grinding noise too which turned out to be metal on metal disc to pad backing but we had just finished the track day!!