Rear End Vibrations
 

2002 v70 XC. I'm getting a wired rear end vibration. It almost sounds like a flat tire. Doesn't happen until you get to about 20mph. Then it goes "thud thud thud thud thud"... and yes, you can feel it.

The tires are fine, wheels look good. I just pulled the rear right wheel off, everything looks fine from what I can tell. Any ideas?

Also, this just happened overnight. The car has been sitting in my driveway since yesterday, after a 2000mile trip from colorado to Massachusetts. It was pretty heavily loaded and now its empty. That's the only thing that changed. Any ideas?

Adding some more data, the "thud thud" gets faster as you go faster... and it is worst at about 25mph. As you get to 30+ it gets lighter (its still there, but not as prominent and doesn't shake the car as much).

Kind of weird. You checked both rear tires good to make sure a belt did not come loose?

Just pulled the right rear and it looked good, checking the others now, though the two fronts are almost brand new and the two rears aren't much older. Checking for any bulges, missing weights, etc now...

Ok, just checked all 4 wheels. All lugs are tight, all tires are in good shape, clean and bulge free. All weights appear to still be attached. Anything else obvious to check?

Not really the rest would be more into it. Also a little early for it to happen. On the older cars the e-brake shoe material comes loose. You would have to pull the calipers and rotors to check though.

well, more into it is where I'm at now I suppose. Any suggestions on where to start? Should I start with the ebrake shoe? ...any tips on identifying exactly where the noise is coming from?

If you have all available tool I would pull the caliper and rotors and check the shoes.
I have hear of people having the rear wheel lock up while driving from the shoes coming loose.

What tools do I need? I haven't done brake work in a while; last think I did was replacing the bushings on a 1999 vw passat. I have screwdrivers, wrenches (including a torque wrench), sockets and split ring pliers... what else do I need?

If you have metric allens and a normal socket set that should cover it.
The Allen I believe is a 7mm.(Sorry I just grab the special socket I have.I know it by looks) Then the caliper bracket bolt are a 13mm or 15mm.

I have a feeling it might be a loose dust shield on the rear right rubbing on the back of the disc. it rattles when I hit the wheel and/or the shield, only on that side. other side is on solid. Would this be indicative of something else, or just some loose screws or something?

(Still waiting on finding some time to pull the rear brake assembly apart; I might not be able to get to it before I leave for australia on tuesday :/)

...I pulled both rear wheels and put the spare on just to make sure it wasn't them too.

If it was the dust shield you should have seen it when the wheels were off.