:question. Although my 1998 2.0 CDX auto estate runs smoothly and quietly most of the time it has recently developed a loud scraping noise that only happens when I climb a particularly steep hill with a right hand bend with adverse camber ( Winchester Street/Mapperley Rise for all you Nottingham Omega owners). The scraping starts as soon as I take the bend and continues until I reach my house a further 200 yds. away. I know you will say " Don't drive up that hill" but it is the only way I can get home without a four mile detour. It sounds like brake pads ( recent MOT found no problems in that area) but could it be something more serious like the diff. or prop shaft?. It doesn't happen if i go up a straight hill.

Couple of things.....

Handbrake properly releasing or perhaps causing the handbrake shoes to rub?

I get an occassional scraping on tight roundabouts and have discovered its the tyre rubbing the mudflap at the front drivers side.

I would also be thinking of a stone caught in the brake disc.

Worth removing at least the wheel from the offending corner and having a clean around...

My car made a scraping noise when turning right when I first drove it home after buying it.  Turns out the tyres were scraping the front mudflaps when turned to the side, mostly because of the 225 tyres.

Thanks for the tip but this is coming from the rear. It doesn't happen at roundabouts or sharp right or left corners on the flat or even straight hills. It only happens on this particular hill. It has me baffled as it is quite a loud and alarming noise ( turns heads!).

Check engine and exhaust mounts for condition and security.
Check the propshaft and exhaust for any 'shiny' bits that would
indicate rubbing.

I had exactly the same problem on a RWD Merc. One of the front
engine mount bolts had come loose and one of the exhaust mounting
rubbers had perished.

When powering up a hill and going round a bend, the engine mount
allowed the extra torque from the engine to twist the drivetrain
out of line and meet the exhaust system which also moved because
of the perished rubber mounting, and the two rubbed together.

Not saying this is your problem, but the combination of putting extra
twist on the engine due to increasing the torque by powering up a hill,
and putting centrifugal forces at work by taking an adverse camber
bend at the same time, would indicate that a rotating mass is being
brought into contact with a part that it normally isn't when these
forces aren't at work.

Do you have any other unrelated symptoms such as vibration, steering
wander, or brake related problems that would indicate a problem in
suspension or steering bushes?

Is the noise from the front or rear? If its the rear then you may have a broken rear sping, when mine broke it made some awful noises when cornering uphill.

:)It is coming from the rear. Thanks everybody, I will take a good look around all the bits mentioned. Just to confuse matters I went up that hill twice today but stopped at my lock-ups half way up ( slight deviation from the hill which cuts out the bend) and it doesn't happen when I do that!. It appears to be something to do with G-forces then. I am even more baffled. The only way I could replicate it is to put the car at about ten degrees tilt to the left in a centrifuge and sit underneath and watch what happens. :-?