the sound is really loud when the car is about 25 mph and slowing down, with acceleration it goes away almost, then about 65-70 mph it sounds like a constant cricket chirp, i also have a really bad vibration from underneath the car. carrier bearing or u-joints. this problem has begun over the last few days and has only gotten worse, started with the metal slapping noise at low speeds, now its slapping at low speeds and a cricket chirp at high speeds. tomorrow i am disconnecting the drive shaft to establish if its even the in the drive shaft, any other ideas? the car is a 1998 v70 xc with 213,000 miles

 

driveshaft was bad... thanks to me for the help

 

I was going to suggest checking the driveshaft for paly or rubbing against anything, but it sounds like you got it all sorted out.

 

Somehow I missed this post. Glad you found it though.

 

I'm not familiar with drive shafts, but I had basically the same noises (as well as wheel bearing noise, but that's another issue). I pulled the drive shaft out today and the noise is gone. Is there a way to determine the drive shaft is bad besides the lack of noise without it? There definitely was nothing rubbing against it.

 

The front joint where it connects to the angle gear is what usually goes bad.