Growling, grinding noise from front end

[Kyle0614]

hmm...can't help much but sounds similar too my problem as is with the girl i'm sleeping with right now lol growling, grinding with her finger nails man that hurts IMO oh well hope you get the problem fixed...

 

[Kyle0614]

oh yea but check your upper and lower control arms and ball joints and tie rods this is all i know...

 

[G-96XLT]

yes hokie the inner bearing , I don't know the official name but it would be the bearing on the other side of the shaft.. I pulled the CV shaft and the area it pops out of rotates in some way so there must be a bearing in there.. its probably worn just like the wheel bearings get after 200k

 

[G-96XLT]

kyle this is not a ball joint issue , it happens only when the car is moving.. its only happens when the wheels move.

if it was the BJ you could tell by standing still and turning the wheel and listening for grinding and cracks..

 

[Hokie]

yes hokie the inner bearing , I don't know the official name but it would be the bearing on the other side of the shaft.. I pulled the CV shaft and the area it pops out of rotates in some way so there must be a bearing in there.. its probably worn just like the wheel bearings get after 200k

I originally suspected that bearing, but everyone on here said that they had never heard of it failing... maybe we're all seeing them starting to fail

 

[G-96XLT]

I bet this is a 98 and up issue and probably more found on AWD because my 96 which I beat the hell out of is running fine.

 

[Kyle0614]

95' and up do not have coil springs they have torsion bars

 

[Kyle0614]

gen 1 91-94 however does have twin traction beam with coils/d35

 

[G-96XLT]

WTF ? is that the meth talking or did you miss your post.

 

[1998explodersprt]

ok a little update.

1) checked my tires that i had installed and i noticed that i have a little too much positive camber. its not huge, as i had to take a second glance in order to notice the wear (ie, since the backside under the wheel well is a little shaded i didnt notice at first).

2) my friend is a no go because he's been "busy" . but i forgot i have a spare tire, which came with the truck and was not replaced when i got the others done. so i swapped it onto the left front (the side that was making the most noise) and then i started the car up and took it out of the apt parking lot. as soon as i go to make a little bit sharper right turn, i hear a chirp come from the left tire (like when someone is speeding and they take a turn to fast). it was a chirp chirp chirp on and on though. it was just a quick little chirp and thats it. i was going probably less than 5mph though. as i took it onto the street i immediately noticed the noise was not gone, but was there to a much smaller extent.

so i dont know if its my tires that are causing the noise, but maybe my alignment. i would think that excessive toe in could cause a growling like im hearing because i would assume the tires would kind of be sliding as i make the turns instead of rolling perfectly. but then again, i dont really notice any unusual wear on the tires besides the positive camber wear on the outside corner of the tire.

advice, tips, correction to my theory, or anything else is welcome

 

[G-96XLT]

interesting.. but on mine with the 96 which has no noise and is held together with tape and the aligment is horrible and my front rattles but still there is no noise at all like the 2000 , cruising on the highway is silent but the 2000 can't even get off the sidestreets , so I don't think for me its a tire issue or aligment issue, I've put all kinds of tires and dummy tires on the 96 and it still never made the growl like the 2000.


I was planning monday as the day to swap the bearings so I'll report back soon.

 

[Hokie]

It is NOT the bearings that support the CV's in the diff...

I just swapped the diff in my Mounty for the 3rd time (4.10s, 4.10s, 3.73) and the noise persists

 

[G-96XLT]

well that is a hard blow as I was just about to do that job but it is still possible that we don't all have the same noise.

how hard was it to change the diff, I have already changed the CV shaft once and that was fairly easy but how much harder is it to get to that next bearing ? can I just pop it out or do I have to do much more work after getting the shaft out ?

Also I'm just thinking elimination here , my problem only occurs when driving , I have tried to steer and rev in one place and everything is ok.. but once the front wheels turn there is a serious swooshing sound and it is definitely not tires , I know the CV shaft is good, I know the wheel bearings are good, everything is tight under there so WTF is left ?

 

[Hokie]

how hard was it to change the diff

I swapped the diff and did a front brake job, by myself, in 2.5~3 hours yesterday

how much harder is it to get to that next bearing ? can I just pop it out or do I have to do much more work after getting the shaft out ?

You'll probably have to pull the diff to replace those bearings. There are only 3 bolts that hold the diff in, its not that hard to pull the diff once the CV's are free.

 

[G-96XLT]

Thanks.. I'm really distraught now. I don't know where else to look but I'm still going to take a shot at the transfer case and those bearings..

 

[captspeedy]

Have the same problem in my 98 xlt 4wd. same swooshing sound that sounds like a bad wheelbearing but it isn't. It starts around 25 mph and then the frequency goes up with the speed till 40 when i think starts to sound more like a continious grind.

I first noticed this 6 months ago and slowly started checking and changing brakes, also checked the bearings, they feel fine when i turn them by hand. it seems like it got slightly worse. now its starting to bug me alot more (speed limit here is mostly 30).

a friend of mine (ex mechanic) told me to regrease all the cv joints, will do that in the next few weeks. it seems like a fairly common problem, you'd say someone has figured it out.

 

[G-96XLT]

hey speedy it is unlikely the CV joints ... I thought for sure this was the problem but I changed the CV shaft from my 96 to the 2000 and it didn't go away , the CV was silent in the 96 before I changed it over and the noise was just the same , also I then put the 2000 CV in the 96 and it was silent , so for sure it isn't the CV..

 

[Surfcop]

I'm having the same problem with a 98 Mounty. The extremely loud rumble is only when the vehicle is rolling on the ground. I'm unable to hear a thing when it's running on jack stands. When I drive the vehicle, I can get the noise to diminish sharply when I make a quick right turn and unload the weight off the right side of the truck. Now for the fun part:

It's NOT: Wheels, Tires, Front axles, CV Joints (new), hubs (new), ball joints, control arms, half shaft ( removed the front shaft, test drove and it still rumbled like crazy) It's also not rear axles (new) bearings or universal joints (new).

The noise is deafening and begins at 15-20 mph and increases with speed. The noise is the same in drive or neutral and engine on or off.

The rumble appears to be coming from the front differential, but the oil looks remarkably clean with no metal. I also changed the transfer case fluid. There is no play in the pinion bearing and I imagine my next step will be changing out the front (Dana) differential. Before I do the pumkinectomy, I'm asking you experts for ideas.

I also tried sharp left and right slow speed turns to eliminate steering rack issues. I'm beginning to suspect inner bearings in the front pumpkin axle tube, but see no evidence of metal.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

 

[RiderX]

Add 1 more to the list.
My '00 EB has been making the "I thought it was the front wheel bearing noise" for about 2 years. Started out low but has progressed into a dull roar.
I've had mechanics, friends, etc. try to find out the problem. Most think it's a front diff or trans case problem, but same as everybody else I cannot isolate where it's coming from.

 

[Surfcop]

Bump!!

I bought another new hub just in case one of the ones on the truck failed prematurely. It's worth a try. I'm out of ideas...