OrthoDoc

Yeah -- when I found myself draining a little bit of the gear oil to fit in the additive, I thought to myself how I was stupid to not just change all the gear oil out. That'll be my next option if this fails before I bust open the rear diff...

So, you'd probably be right if I was better in my explanation/ my attention to detail. I guess I assumed the wheels were spinning in opposite directions. They do spin the same direction when both are off the ground, hence the LSD. After reading on this and other forums about a few different folks having similar problems, I decided the LSD was a highly likely culprit. I picked up some LSD additive from AutoZone, drained out ~7oz of fluid in the rear diff, then added the 7oz of additive. This seems to have fixed the issue (and for only $9!!). If it comes back, I'll update the post, but the problem seems to have been solved at this point.

So, after lots of searching for this problem and listening, I was finally able to re-create the sound in my garage with the Q on jack stands. It is coming from the rear end somewhere. To make the sound happen, I can jack up one rear tire at a time and spin it to make the sound. If I jack up both tires and allow them to spin freely (in opposite directions), the sound goes away. I think the reason it was making the sound only when I turn was because the tires were turning at different speeds. Both rear tires make the same noise when spun. It almost sounds like the brakes are slightly engaged, but that wouldn't make sense because the sound wouldn't go away when both tires were jacked up if that were the cause. The diff is full to the fill hole with clear-ish benign looking gear oil. Could this be an LSD issue? I do have the "cold weather" package that came with the LSD in the rear. The sound seems like it's coming from the hub I am spinning when doing so, but I don't know... I've got an appointment with a mechanic Friday. This is my wife's DD currently, and she's getting impatient with me! Thanks again for all the suggestions given above and any more advice someone may have.

Funny that 2 of you mention squeal on startup -- I've got a belt that squeaks usually in the mornings that I'm planning to change. It'd be great if that fixed both of my problems! I went ahead and flushed out the power steering fluid with new fluid. I'm still getting the groan. One thing that makes me think that it's not the PS pump is that it the noise is completely quiet when turning the wheels side to side when the Q is stopped. It has to be rolling to make the noise, but only when the wheel is turned in some way, not when going straight.

Aight -- I'll give that a try and see if it doesn't help. Guess that's the obvious first place to start anyway!

First post here, but not my first foray into forums or off road vehicles. I'm a Jeep guy (yikes!), but I've always liked the R50 QX4's and Pathy's. I found a one-owner 2003 with only 77K miles in excellent shape several months ago and decided it was time for me to own one! I plan on turning my rig into an overland type vehicle. Thanks in advance for any expertise you can offer me on this topic, as I haven't been able to find much on it. My Q makes some serious groaning noises when steering intermittently. It only does it when the engine is warmed up, and even then not every time. I hear it most at slow speeds, but I think it may be happening at speed, too -- just can't hear it over road noise. It's certainly not the typical "hydraulic pump low on fluid sound" of power steering pump woes I've dealt with in other vehicles. Anyone else experience similar issues and know what this may be? I tried to get a (non-helpful) picture of the Q on here, but couldn't figure out how to upload. It's in my profile pic.