Trying to nail down the source of this funky metallic grinding noise that comes from the front driver's side while accelerating quickly. If I ease away from a stop no noise. But if I accelerate harshly, it grinds until a specific rotational speed is achieved.

I'm leaning towards Cv joint, Hub, or Motor/Trans mounts. What else is there? I haven't had a chance to lift the wheels and check. My one year old daughter and constant work travels have sidelined my Rover obsession (insert sad face).

Collecting my thoughts before I set time aside and test my theories and as part of the planning I figured I'd poll the community on where to focus my attention.

In my experience, CV's click while turning and hubs would trigger (not all the time) amigos.

Thoughts?

 

Maybe the front differential is worn? You could try draining the fluid and see how it looks. If it is going bad, the fluid will be full of metal. It may not have metal shavings that come out of the drain hole, though I have seen them that bad. Sometimes the fluid will just look gray because of fine metal shavings in it.
Even if you find no metal in it, it can't hurt to change the oil. It's cheap enough and often gets neglected.

 

Diff was my first thought, too.

 

I'm guessing driveshaft.

 

My guesses, pure gusses, driveshaft, then front diff or possibly even a wheel bearing.

 

Driveshaft is new. And the echoing of the "noise" does not draw your ear's attention to the propshaft. Your ear is drawn to the driver' side outter most axis.

Diff: valid assumption, but I find it highly unlikely to be at fault. I think unwanted Diff noise would continue through the entire rev range. Changing harmonics as R's increase and decrease.
The unwanted "noise" is most prevalent at the furthermost point of the center of the diff ruling out worn pumpkin internals.

I'm still leaning towards CV joint or hub.

Optimistically, Saturday morning looks like I'll be able to finally dedicate some much needed love to Rover.

 

This is definitely a grinding noise? The reason I ask, we've had people describe noises all kinds of ways. We've had a few cars come into the shop with "grinding" sounds that ended up being rattles. Usually the problem is nothing more than a loose heat shield or something rubbing when the engine torque is just right.

 

True. My description of "grinding" could be interpreted as marbles rasping around in a tin can or rattle.

There is definitely a failure on the driver's side axle.

 

Don't catalytic converters rattle when they've failed or are failing?

 

Yes, they do. The catalyst will sometimes separate from the body of the shell and rattle as exhaust gases flow through. You can hear it at idle.