Andy's underground economy auto repair had an interesting call today.
An old friend of the family called me due to a problem with her daughters 2002 Buick Rendezvous. It has a disturbingly loud somewhat metalic whine when driving, its directly proportional to road speed. Like I said in the title of the post, it sounds like studded snow tires. Shes taken it to a local garage twice, they thought it was trans related, but haven't been able to diagnose the problem, and have charged her almost $500 between the two visits.
I drove the car today, and within 5 minutes I could tell it was proportional to road speed, not engine related, and probably not trans related either. The noise seemed louder on the passenger side, so I pulled that wheel off to inspect the hub bearing. The bearing and cv boots looked ok, but when I grabbed the axle, it felt like the inner joint wasn't there! And the inner driver cup felt sloppy in its engagement to the trans. I'm not a GM guy, but that loose joint and sloppy cup engagement seems like it cant be normal even by GM standards.
I definitely want to replace that cv axel, but two things are bothering me. First, could the internal splines in the output socket of the trans be worn out? Second, how could the full time auto repair shop miss this twice when it only took me, a dumb technologicly unskilled forklift mechanic*, ten minutes to find it?
inion of an instructor at a German luxury car
. looked ok,
^ never mind the last two incomplete lines...Android malfunction 
ok. I'll go out on a limb and risk sounding like a dumbas$.
Are you 100% sure it's not the tires? Do you have access to another vehicle of this type that you can compare it to? I look for the simple stuff first and it sounds like it is possible that one or more of the tires could be damaged in a way that's not so obvious.
Just sayin...I wouldn't overlook that as step 1
Not 1/3 way through I was thinking CV joint(s) or wheel bearings. Don't rule out that it could be a rear bearing. Sounds can really telegraph sometimes, totally throwing you off the track.
Don49
Reader
8/14/12 7:34 a.m.
A CV joint should have very little to no play. It's possible that if it's been driven a while with the CV so worn that it has caused wear on the output splines. I would replace the axle and see how it is with the new axle, unless when you take things apart you can see visible damage/wear to the splines.
If the joint is loose in the transmission, a new axle is not going to do anything. If the diff is loose in its bearings, there is your noise.
Does the sound change as you turn ?
Wheel bearing.
If not, does the passenger axle have an intermediate bearing.
Differential bearing.
Nothing can sound as bad as a studded snow tire
From your description it sounds like the differential bearings in the transmission may be dead.
Similar sound on my 96 Suburban was loose torque converter bolts. The Buford is FWD, so YMMV.
Pretty sure its not tire noise, but I might try rotating them front to rear. The noise doesn't seem to change with steering input, and there is no carrier bearing.
I sure hope its not the differential bearing, I don't think I can fix that
I'm hoping its just a bad inner cv. I'll find out tomorrow I guess.
And the answer is: failed hub bearing!
Oh, and I did replace the axel, diff bearing felt ok, and the new inner driver was much better fitting, not rock solid, but acceptable. The inner joint was very sloppy, I might pull the boot off for a post mortem before turning the core back over.
The wife's cutlass had a bad hub bearing, sounded horrible. First I thought the trans was going out, then I replaced the wrong side. Finally replaced the right side and all was well. That was going to be my suggestion but you found it first. 
