I started to get a whining noise coming out of the rear end area this past weekend. I've only got about 300 miles on the BMR stuff shown in my sig. It sounds like gears meshing to me and gets higher pitched the faster I go; its definately coming from the back passenger side. I torqued all the suspension bolts/nuts to the prescribed torques. The tires are brand new Firehawks that were balanced prior to installation. I have a polyeurathane torque arm bushing but put at least 300 miles on the car with no whining present; now all of a sudden I have this whining noise. Any suggestions???

 

did you do any welding on the axle tubes? if you did then you could have put to much heat into the metal and when it cools the tubes will bend, and you could have put a load on the carrier bearings or the axle bearings.

 

I didn't do any welding on the axle tubes due to not lowering the car.

 

Typically a whining noise from the back is a bearing in the rearend, but not always. How many miles are on your car.
Bearings can start going at any time, it doesn't necessarily mean it was something you did to the car.

 

The car has 40k miles on it.
How many different bearings are there in the rear end?

 

Axle bearings at the end of each axle tube, a bearing on either side of the carrier and a bearing at eaither end of the pinion shaft. So 6 bearings.

 

did you do any gear swaps what size gear do you have now?

 

No gear swaps; currently 3:42

 

Well, it's been over a week now and I've railed on the car at least a dozen or more times and the whining isn't getting any worse. It sounds like it's coming from the passenger side; I don't think it's a rear wheel bearing because I've made wide turns while braking in a mall parking lot and the sound doesn't get better or worse.
My ABS/INOP light comes on also (when I shut the car off and restart it doesn't come back on until I drive for awhile). I'm wondering if the rear wheel speed sensor reluctance wheel is somehow mucked up (my car doesn't have traction control) and is causing the whine and the ABS/INOP light to come on.....????

 

The reluctor wheel has nothing to do with gear whine (or any noise) since it doesn't come into contact with anything .

The noise is either the gears, or bearings (hard to identify while everything is together though ). You said that the noise doesn't change when you're doing tight turns, so that may eliminate either of the outer axle bearings, but it could be one of the carrier bearings, or the pinion? OR, it could be the gears, although it doesn't make sense that after ~40k miles the gears would start to whine? Chances are you've got carrier and/or pinion bearing(s) issues.