Hello everyone,
Recently I've noticed some noise (sound like metal rattle) from the front of my H3 (2007).

I looked yesterday under my truck and everything looks O.K, except for one thing:

I noticed that the drive-shaft is a little free and I can turn it for about 0.5cm in each direction using my hand. When I do this, it makes some rattle noises.

Is this O.K? Should I hurry to my dealer or can I wait until the next service time?

Thanks in advance for your help

Haim

 

If you can move/shake the front drive shaft and you can duplicate the sound, you may have a bad u-joint. Happened to me once, here's my thread on it. https://www.hummerforums.com/m_81694/tm.htm

The other rattle I get from underneath is loose bolts on the skidplates.
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Does it do it around 50MPH and also is it only when you let go of the gas??

 

Check out this tread, might be the same issue: https://www.hummerforums.com/m_67824/tm.htm

The tread is the very first one atthe top of the H3 page of this forum.

 

Where is the u-joint located? is it the part the driveshaft goes into?
If there is somethning wrong with it, can I see it ?

Thanks again for your advice

Haim

 

I'm not trying to be rude but if you don't know what or where the U-Joints are or what they do then you should just take it to the shop. As for being able toturn the drive shaft...that's normal, drivelines always have some slop in them depending on many factors. The H3 seems to have more slop than most.

 

The one thing I like regarding this forum is that you always get answers to questions that may seem stupid to others.

From my experience it's better to go to the shop when you can pinpoint the problem, rather then having them try and look for it themselves, especially in these kind of "general rattling noises".

So if you can just tell me where arethe U-joints (I probably know what they are, but Iprobably know the only by their localHebrew name only)located, it could help me pinpoint the problem at the shop.

Kind regards for your help

Haim

 

I've never looked at the front drive train, but the U-Joint or Universal joint is what connects the driveshaft to the pinion shaft of the axle. Looks like a +. The driveshaft will have some movement in it, the key is that you don't want that movement in the joint. If the pinion shaft and driveshaft are moving together, it is probably not the u-joint. When a u-joint starts to go out it typically is associated with a vibration at speeds between 20- 40 MPH (depends on the vehicle) but it won't vibrate at low or high speeds typically.

 

Thanks Steve,
Ill go under my truck and look exactly where you have pointed me to.

The vibrations fo occur arounf the MPH speed you mentioned.

Thanks again for your help

Haim