hydrogin

Been noticing a rumbling sound coming from the right corner (passenger side) of my 94. It is most noticable when I drive on the freeway for 10 minutes, then pull off. After I stop, I sometimes hear a deep rumble for 3-4 seconds. It sounds like an old steam radiator cooling or heating up. At that point, my ear tunes into the noise and if I get back on the freeway, I can sorta hear that rumbling on top of the regular road noise. I had all kinds of theories ... creaky motor mount or bushings, maybe a bad right-front strut, maybe ABS was going nuts. But couldn't figure out why the rumbling can happen when stopped. Having the clutch in/out when stopping didn't matter. Then yesterday, I noticed water coming out from under the glove compartment! Never seen that before. Long story short ... I can now drive on the freeway for 10 minutes, come to a stop, hear the rumbling start then stop, then go to a parking lot and drive in fast counter-clockwise circles (left-hand doughnuts) and water will come streaming out from under the glove box. I was able to repeat this over and over through 30 miles of test driving last night. During this test driving, I made sure the A/C button and fan slider were in the off position. However, I also turned on the A/C a few times (the button's green light goes on) and verified A/C is operational. Putting the rumbling noise and mysterious water together ... could I have a bad A/C compressor? Or something related to the A/C system that causes it to be on (even with the A/C button off) creating condensation somewhere, and creating the rumbling noise? Wherever the condensation is being pooled, driving in tight circles seems to force the water out from under the glove box. Thanks for listening to my story.

Went back to the shop today and brought a copy of the factory manual's fluids specs. Turns out the mechanic used the correct LSD gear oil. He suspected adding an LSD additive might help. He was right. I tested by driving tight circles in a parking lot, left & right, forward & reverse. No more chatter! Thanks again for everyone's comments.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll post when I get this resolved with my mechanic.

Chattering might be a good word to describe it. The sound seems periodic, as if my tires were shaped like a hexagon instead of being round. Doesn't matter whether I turn left or right. The sound is most noticable when I'm turning around a corner slowly. On fast curves, the sound is less noticable ... might be masked by road noise. I don't know what fluid was used by the shop. They did tell me the Pathy doesn't use the "expensive" LSD gear oils some newer SUV's need. The factory manual says to use API GL-5 80W-90. Could an incorrect LSD gear oil cause this noise/chattering?

I hope the more experienced folks here can help me with a problem that just came up. Yesterday, I took my 94 XE 4x4 (manual transmission) into the shop for routine maintenance & fluids changes. Included was a change of the F and R differential's gear oil. Driving home from the shop, I noticed some low frequency rumbling noises. I thought it was road noise. Today, the rumbling got much louder and I could feel some vibration coming through the floor and maybe through the steering wheel. I noticed it happens during turns while driving forward and in reverse. The thought occured to me this might be related to the LSD oil change! Can anyone think of some reasons why this might be happening? This shop is one of the oldest & most reputable in town ... I hope they remembered to fill the diffs after draining! I believe the manual calls for 80W-90 LSD gear oil. I'll definitely be taking my Pathy back to the shop on Monday (avoiding as many turns as possible). Thanks for any ideas.

Great feedback, much appreciated. Think I'll put on another 20k miles before reconsidering the timing belt & associated maintenance. Good suggestion on the valve covers too. All the screws on the right cover are easily accessible so I'll tighten those down and see if the oil leakage goes away.

I'm the original owner of a 94 WD21 with the VG30E. The timing belt was last changed 65k miles ago, but that was 10 years ago with mostly city driving. I need to take her into my mechanic to have new valve cover seals put in. Even though the timing belt doesn't have 105k miles on it yet, would it be prudent to replace the belt now that 10 years have gone by?