Hey guys, I'm getting a metal grinding/rubbing/whirring noise coming from my rear end. It sounds exactly like bad bearings. So much so that Nissan and 2 other independent mechanics told me it was the bearings. After replacing both rear bearings the noise persists. What sounds like bad bearings but isn't?

Some info:
There is no play at all when I put the car on stands and work the tire. Everything feels tight. I recently got all new tires, the noise happened before and after. It seems like the sound is worse when coming to a stop. The sound seems louder if I come to a stop in neutral. If I come to a stop in gear I can barely hear it, if at all. The sound appears to be getting louder/worse. Sometimes my parking break 'sticks' so when I give it a little gas there is a breaking noise in the back, a mechanic said this had nothing to do with the whirring noise, just thought I'd mention it. I'm at a loss, even if I start pulling **** off I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I have a friend at Tire Kingdom, he suggested looking at the gears. Is there anything I should check?

 

Turning into this guy trying to figure this out!

 

best to post a video of the sound..

 

I had a noise that sounded like I was dragging a stick behind the car. I thought sure it was a bearing, but just wouldn't accept that it would go out with less than 10K miles on the car. I could hear a slight ticking noise if I pulled up or pressed down on the fender.

It turned out to be the rubber bushings at the top of the left shock absorber. I disassembled the bushings from the top mounting bracket, applied liberal amount of silicon grease, and reassembled things. The noise was gone.

 

Here's a noise my rear end was making because the ring gear came loose

 

Definitely not that high pitched. I'll try to get a video of it, just bought a house so not a lot of time for anything else..

 

bump