Things that go "Whirr whirr" in the night.
 

My Targa is tryiing to sing to me. At least that's how I interpret it.

I have searched on the boards for anything similar, but haven't come up with anything, so I will describe it here.

This noise comes from the rear, mostly from the right rear. It's a high pitched whirr-whirr-whirr sound that goes faster or slower depending on how fast the car is going. Think of a pendulum swinging and the noise fading in and out with the loudest section when the pendulum hits bottom. It doesn't happen all the time, mostly after driving harder than say, your typical Geo could go. It doesn't change pitch when I apply gas or brakes and will stop just before I come to a complete stop.

Mechanically inclined friends have said anything from the brakes, wheel bearings or tranny. It's not the brakes since I would think that the sound would change if the brakes were applied. It's not the bearings since they wouldn't make that kind of a noise, nor do I think (more like hope) it's the tranny. The last thing I can think of is the driveshaft.

Anyone ever have this issue? Need more info?

Danke.

Could be a bent backing plate rubbing on the rotor, or some sort of debris stuck in the caliper rubbing the edge of the rotor.

You might try putting the back up on jackstands and see if you can hear it. Get someone in the car to run it, and listen for it while you stand at the back. Just be sure you are SOLID on the jackstands. (see: Ferris Bueller's Day Off).

Could be could be. I will take off the wheel again and get a bit "dirtier". Thanks for the reply!

Perhaps bearing or CV joint

Try re-adjusting your parking brake pads. Ask me how I know. squeak, squeak, squeak :)

Blow some compressed air into the parking brake drum too, but wear a mask, lots of dust flew outta mine.

I hope it's not your ring and pinion.

Eeeeeek! Please don't say that :D

Now I have it narrowed down to it only happening after left-hand turns. So I am thinking there is something on the inside of the brake.

A ring and pinion should change sounds when loaded and unloaded. Jack up the wheel and spin it, see if you have some broken belts in the tire.

While doing that, check for any rubbing or scraping sounds. Could be a bearing or brakes, as others have said. Grab the tireand see if there is any play side to side or top to bottom.

Now it definitely sounds like a bearing...Pun intended.:D

I've lived with the same exact problem for the past couple of years. My noise goes away altogether on cold October days, most noisy on hot August nights after a hard run.

My brother (much more of a gear head than me) also said it could be a parking brake catching.

I've just adjusted the front height up for a more level pitch, which seemed to make it go away at first or be less obvious as I could heard it faithly again last night.

Tap on your brakes just before you stop, can you get the whine to stop a little earlier? Then we have the same exact issue, please post your solution.

After left hand turns also points towards a wheel bearing. As someone said jack it up and try to move the wheel up/down and right/left. If there is some movement you can try to tighten the bearing nut a quarter turn or so to take out the play, not to much!

If the bearing is going away you will hear it as a harmonic to the engine RPM, kind of a wow wow wow noise that increases and decreases with speed. More noticable in 5th gear when the engine RPM is closer to the wheel RPM.

Good luck. I replaced 5 of them before I found a mechanic who could do it properly.

Kent Olsen
72t upgraded 2.7

Try slightly pulling up your e-brake handle when rolling... see if the noise changes. I had bad parking brake pads that made a noise like that. In my case it was a scrape scrape sound from the drivers side rear wheel... after cleaning, installing new pads, and adjusting them, no more noise. I had chunks of pad material fall out when I removed the rotor...