dual rl

just had my 05 completed with drive shaft replaced and the recall on the master cylinder. the parts alone for the drive shaft was $1800 plus labor. took a few days for the parts to arrive from the south somewhere. good job that i had the extended warranty!!!

socal28

My 05 RL is in the dealer now.
I've complained about the whirreling and whistle. A Tech listened underneath the car and said that my rear differential is loud. They are talking with Acura Tech about this first. After rear diff noise subsides, they will look at the propeller shaft noise.
We'll see what happens. Hope all gets fixed under my extended warranty that is about to expire at the end of this month.

socal28

Finally got my RL back after 2 weeks.
Basically, they repaced the rear diff and the propeller shaft under my extended Acura Care Warranty (which officially expired 1/25/2011). Total cost if not under warranty was a tad over $7k. Yikes! At least these updated parts have another 1-year warranty on them.
This does seem to eliminate the whirreling and whistling noises.
My current mileage is ~92,850.

BluNosr2

Just had my 06 done under standard powertrain warranty - I had the cold weather "howl" at 30mph, with about 50K miles on the odometer.

getakey

Did they tell you what would happen if it fails before replacement?

BluNosr2

Nope. They only remembered doing one other RL for the same issue, an 05, a few yrs ago. There are not many of the cars around here - although this is the only Acura dealer within 200 miles and a city population of around 400K.

sqranks

Is it confirmed that the "only" way to fix this issue is to replace the propeller shaft? Or can the bearing be changed? And what is the life expectancy with the "new" propeller shaft??? Please advise

eVTEC

Hi, I had the 30-40mph whine, which I believe to be the propeller whine. Recently I blew one of my tires due to age. I then switched from 19" Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 to 18" Brodgestone Potenza RE960 AS. Funny thing is that the whine sound is gone now.

I wonder if anyone of you who has the whine uses heavy 19" wheels (or simply aftermarket wheels)? It could also be related to resonance vibration due to different mass, which causes the bearing to whine when cold.

Just a thought.

jmzb1002

Just for documentation, my 07 RL @ 103k mi was just diagnosed with a bad differential as far as the whine. I was getting the whine around 55 to 60 mph, I have a fidelity warranty and it will cover a used differential installed at my local acura dealer 12mo warranty. They diagnosed the issue when I brought it to their attention. Just 2 months ago all struts and the power steering pump and steering rack were replaced under warranty, all oem parts.

daze05rl

my rl makes this same howl noise at 30-35 mph only last till i surpass that speed then goes away only when cold im guessing its the shaft because ive checked everything else on this car from rear end to wheel bearings did all the fluids changed on everything and my car has 190k miles but i have no records of any previous owners replacing the propeler shaft i know i havent but im way past warranty thats for sure lol ill just swap it out myself im an automotive tech and ive done all the work to all my cars myself.

GASKICKER

Why cant this be replaced at by a custom drive shaft? We do custom shafts all the time with our trucks, seems like it would work here....but alas I dont have this problem yet, just thinking ahead.
A custom shaft would be way less money than $2k or whatever the dealer wants.

oo7spy

Anything is possible with the right tools or enough money. There is no reason a custom one would not work, but it would be ideal to keep the weight down as much as possible. The stock shaft is carbon fiber.

GASKICKER

Aluminum maybe, thats a common material for drive shafts....at least for trucks it is.

oo7spy

Aluminum is used to keep the weight down, but it is still heavier than carbon fiber. The more weight the shaft carries, the more power will be lost getting it to spin. The RL drive train loss is on the order of 30% compared to 15-20% of a FWD car like the TL. Like I said, I'm have no doubt a custom one is possible, it's just may not be ideal.

GASKICKER

Here a thread from AZ where custom carbon fiber shafts are being built at what looks like a reasonable price. https://acurazine.com/forums/perform...eshaft-922793/

nickjohnson93

I had the whistle happen to my '07 RL 2 moths ago, but it was about 10-15 out at the time, not in the high 30s like you guys are commenting. It would go away after I hit 40 and it would not come back after I drove a bit. I do have a rubbing/droning noise coming from my car, most audible at 50-60 and is only audible when the suspension is loaded. Going over a hill the noise goes away. Would that also be the drive shaft?

JayRL

My car has the same issue it has 168k miles, I thought about ordering a used shaft off of an 08 model RL and swapping mine out with it. Do you think this would work?

projektvertx

iTrader: (2)

It's honestly hit or miss. Theoretically, the '08 doesn't have that issue but you could end up with a bad unit.

JayRL

I've been trying to find alternatives to spending thousands on a new one which would be crazy for a car this old. I seen on one thread where someone removed the shaft and wrapped the center in sound proofing material.

scrapface

Bringing this thread back from the dead as opposed to creating yet another post on the topic. I purchased a 2007 RL a couple of months ago. Two weeks after the purchase I too had the propeller shaft whistle. It started to make noise after driving for about 10 minutes, and it would begin to whistle over 15mph, and kept whistling no matter how fast I drove. The only way I got a mechanic to diagnose correctly, was to put the car up on the lift, and then hit the gas while the car is in the air. I'm attaching a video the mechanic took when they had my car on the lift.

No way was I going to pay over $3,000 for a new driveshaft, so I purchased a used driveshaft on eBay from a 2010 RL that had 111,000 miles for $100. I had the local Honda dealership install for $95, and now the sound is no longer driving me crazy anymore. Another option to find used driveshafts is car-part.com.

Link to Video: Driveshaft Video

scrapface

Here is a link to the YouTube version of the video if the previous link didn't work:

JayRL

NoobNoob

Good stuff. The whine/squeal comes and goes on my car. Some days I never hear it and some days it just won't stop. For about $200, it's definitely worth it.

Imperial

I have read multiple threads about this whine/howl noise coming in at ~30 mph when cold outside. I have owned my 2010 RL since summer of 2020 and have not heard that noise previous winter, but did this winter. We had a few degrees colder days recently and I drove my car shorter distance than 2020 winter. Don't know if that is enough to make howl appear. User "eVTEC" mentioned something about wheels and tires and it made me think...Last winter I skipped tire rotation. On October 25th of this year, I changed oil and did tire rotation according to manual. Where front tires go back and rear tires do forward cross. Before the rotation my front tires had some ripped threads and this might be because I accelerated from a stop a few times with a steering wheel turned. So these tires are now on the back. I am thinking maybe the surface of the rear tires is not as smooth, having more rolling resistance and it makes diff or propeller shaft work harder. Could it cause the propeller shaft or rear differential make noise?


These are the ripped parts of the thread...