Bad Bearing/ Hub Situation, Need advice- Will Disconnecting Driveshaft help for now?

My first post here but I have been reading this forum for years and am very happy and grateful to see the Ford Explorer community is in fact so large and resourceful. I am in a bad situation and could use some advice from anyone who might have experienced what I am.

My front hubs/CV joints need to be replaced, and I am hearing sounds of bearing issues- I am worried my bearing might lockup or hub might break, and I have to wait until next week before I can begin repairs- my questions are:

1) If I were to disconnect my front driveshaft, would it considerably decrease wear to the bearings/ make things safer for now, and:
2) If I may have overtightened my front 2 wheels about 6 months/3k miles ago, would it be a bad idea to loosen those lugs, and swap the 2 wheels? (I am worried I may have warped a hub and now loosening things/switching wheels will cause more of a chance for something to break under different stress)

I know this is lengthy, but Here is a little background, and where my bearing and axle issues began, I hope nothing like what happened to me happens to another Explorer owner:

3k miles ago (65k on ODO) I had a severe axle failure while I was driving on the highway- drivers rear hub broke off spindle, or axle broke off at hub and wheel was tilted at a 45 degree angle. All this occurred on my return trip home from 120 miles upstate NY. On the way up, i noticed steering issues, thought it needed an alignment, or a tire was low- i kept stopping and checking but didnt hear any telling sound until turning into driveway at my destination- i heard a loud clang sound almost like change rattling, which I believe turned out to be my drivers rear bearing.

On the way home, before getting on highway, I tightened lug nuts all around because I thought maybe some could be loose, (I hope I didnt overtighten but may have, was using a 4way) and then about halfway through the trip things were getting noticeably worse, I pulled into a rest stop up In Brewster, NY because I wanted to get under and take a look, and upon shifting into reverse I blew my rear differential.

Truck would not move forwards or back, so I put it in 4x4, didnt disconnect driveshaft, and continued home. From that point I had cruise control set at 40 mph right before entering the first curve on the Hutchinson River Parkway I lightly tapped my breaks, mainly to disable cruise control, and the rear drivers wheel broke off, at this point apparently my bearing had locked up. The end of the CV joint output shaft broke clean off. I had to put it in 4low and 1st gear and was barely able to drag myself out of that blind curve with just my front receiving power, but thank God it was 2am and nobody was near me.

I never found any bearings but a race was one of the pieces that fell off on the flatbed, and it was almost beyond recognition, razor sharp, destroyed from heat. Anyway, I had the rear end rebuilt- 1 junkyard cv joint, diff and hub/spindle assembly and when I got the car back, $1700 later I had severe vibration, immediately took back and found bushing to transfer case was extremely loose.

Mechanic fixed (tightened bolt), but denied there should be any other issue. Upon inspecting my front end, I noticed diff fluid leaking (more so "sweating"- not slinging fluid or dripping) on front drivers side CV input shaft (where it goes into diff) and was able to move axle side to side (from diff to hub, by at least half inch or so). I also started noticing a humming sound, and a loud clunk while getting off the gas. Also a whooshing and wining sound while accelerating. One member described this as the "axle jumping the wheel" and this is exaclty how I could describe it, so im positve my front hubs are now shot, especially after seeing what happened to my rear.

All this is progressively getting much worse and now I am concerned my front is on its way to bearing failure as well, and I can just barely afford ordering the parts now, will have to do the job myself, but to stay running until next week, I want to see about disconnecting my front drive shaft, If there is any benefit to it? These past few days, a sound of like a stick hitting spokes on a wheel and a clanging sound like change rattling has been frequent, and I dont feel good about it, am 99.9% sure bearing is about to fail. I have been limping around town and can not safely go on the highway for months now anyway.

I feel if I decrease the torque supplied to my front end, which I heard can be up to 40% under acceleration, it will be way easier on my hubs/ bearings, which are toast for sure. My other question, is I haven't touched my front 2 wheels since tightening (possibly overtightening) them 6 monts ago the night I had the break down- I am wondering if it would be wise to swap those 2 wheels around, or if it would be a bad idea because if I did overtighten the hub, would taking the wheel off and putting it back on looser make a hub/bearing lockup/failure more likely? basically I am trying to do everything I can to keep my truck running safely for the next week or so, until I can take it up to the schools autoshop, put it on the lift and have it looked at by my old autotech teacher. I am scheduled to go in there to replace my radiator, most likely I wont be able to do my axle work there but at least I will get an honest assessment.

Thanks to anybody with any imput- I appreciate it greatly.

It sounds to me like you are going to need to do a full rebuild on the front differential. At this point you do not want to loosen the hub bearings at all since the best thing that you can do sometimes to hubs with excess play is to tighten the bearings up some to get a little more life out of them. The best way to see if your hubs are over tightened is to jack one side up and spin it in the air, it should spin freely and not have much drag. You can also check it for play while it is up in the air. Usually the ABS sensors act up well before the bearings give it up so the noise you hear may all be in the front differential.

Flag Gibby said:

It sounds to me like you are going to need to do a full rebuild on the front differential. At this point you do not want to loosen the hub bearings at all since the best thing that you can do sometimes to hubs with excess play is to tighten the bearings up some to get a little more life out of them. The best way to see if your hubs are over tightened is to jack one side up and spin it in the air, it should spin freely and not have much drag. You can also check it for play while it is up in the air. Usually the ABS sensors act up well before the bearings give it up so the noise you hear may all be in the front differential.

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Thank you for replying, Flag Gibby, I actually haven't even thought about tightening/loosening the hub (would this be done by turning the (I believe 3/4") nut on end of cv joint?)

What I was concerned is maybe I overtightened my lug nuts a while back, which could have warped my rotors/messed up hubs? Could over tightening lug nuts cause bearing failure?

Well one thing that can cause the hub failure like you had is HUGE EVIL POT HOLES lol
I spent two months working down in LI and the 5 Burrows. and WOW some pretty bad pot holes down there. If you hit those all the time or if you have hit some pretty bad ones also if you hit one while going around a turn, yea that can make a hub fail pretty fast even a brand new one.

PeteD said:

What I was concerned is maybe I overtightened my lug nuts a while back, which could have warped my rotors/messed up hubs? Could over tightening lug nuts cause bearing failure?

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Sorry, I didn't realize you meant the lug nuts. Very tight lug nuts have no impact at all on the rotors or the hubs, they are mainly there to just keep the rim/tire on the vehicle. I would check the hubs for play like I mentioned previously before even considering tightening up the hub bearing. With all the sounds that you mention I really think that your ABS sensors would be freaking out if it was the hubs that were making all the noise.

are you still running the oem stock rim... if you swap a rim with different offset your sealed hubs can die quickly... my dad thought his old 95 EB rims looked better than his 04 xlt rims and swapped them and just under 4,000 miles 3 of the 4 sealed hubs blew out... if you use the stock parts the rim is hub centric and the lugs simply hold the face to the hub but if you run spacers or improper rims/adapters the weight is pushed off on the lugs and hub bearing face causing more problems

MotorCityFats13 said:

are you still running the oem stock rim... if you swap a rim with different offset your sealed hubs can die quickly... my dad thought his old 95 EB rims looked better than his 04 xlt rims and swapped them and just under 4,000 miles 3 of the 4 sealed hubs blew out... if you use the stock parts the rim is hub centric and the lugs simply hold the face to the hub but if you run spacers or improper rims/adapters the weight is pushed off on the lugs and hub bearing face causing more problems

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While I agree that increasing/decreasing the offset on the rims from factory specifications can cause premature failure I am not in agreement that the rims on your father's vehicle is the sole source of bearing failure. I just don't see how going from a 30mm offset on a rim (2004 oem spec.) down to a 17mm offset (1995 oem spec.) could have done it when that is the only difference between the two rims (center bore, thread size, rim width, and bolt pattern are all the same). I agree that it is a small change in suspension geometry, thus increasing the stresses on the bearing but they had to already have been pretty worn out beforehand in order to go that fast. I guess the best thing in that situation would have been to put a +12 mm spacer on also to get the geometry back where it was designed on the 2004.
This little exercise makes me wonder if they were running a different(more robust) style of bearing back in 95 in order to not have the relatively fast rate of hub bearing failures that the 4th gens do because my experience says that a 17mm offset is harder on a bearing than a 30mm but I guess that it all comes down to how the mechanical engineers laid everything out with regards to the suspension geometry for that model.

Interesting topic MotorCityFats13 (something that I regularly don't think about) and definitely a possibility in this case especially if the road conditions are as bad as indicated by banditxp and the OP is running an aftermarket setup with a different rim width/offset.

Hey everyone, its been a while since I came back here, because I have been dealing with more Explorer issues- but the good news is I BELIEVE I may have gotten to the issue I have originally posted regarding.

2 weeks ago, my water pump, which was already leaking, locked up on me during a cold start, (coincidentally I have it all on video, decided to record a cold start to add to my youtube channel) and I brought (really had her towed) back to the mechanic who installed that pump only 6 months earlier, who agreed to replace the pump at no cost- after I let all hell break loose after seeing how badly stripped out my fan clutch bolt was from his previous repairs. Basically, I was about to do the job myself until I saw his guy's workmanship, and it didnt sit well with me.

Anyway, she was in need of an inspection, which I knew would be problematic due to my CEL being on due to faulty fuel level sensor (exactly what is addressed in this ford service bulliten: TSB
06-17-10
MIL ON WITH DTC P0463 OR ERRATIC FUEL GAUGE OPERATION
Code PO463)

and, anyway, I wanted the noise I have previously posted about to be diagnosed, so I left him the truck for the past 2 weeks. Today, she passed inspection, and he concluded after a good amount of drive time and mileage what the noise and symptoms are, from his experience.

He says its the transfer case, although he is noticing more noise coming from the drivers front- maybe a bad CV joint or hub bearing, however he feels the transfer case is for sure causing the woosing sound. This makes sense to me, because I know the exploder does send 40% power to the front and 60% to the rear under stop and go acceleration. After I let off the gas, or set it on cruise control, the noise and vibration does cease, or fade out.

Now, is where this gets more interesting to me. I already looked into the BWM- or "Brown wire mod", which basically consists of cutting (or in my case, adding a relay and switch) to disable the full time (or AUTO 4x4) feature on my '06 explorer. I looked into the mod with the hopes of decreasing wear and tear to my front end- IF my CV joints/hubs were in fact failing. I figured decreasing the amount of torque to the front end by somehow disabling the auto 4x4, thus making her a true 4x2/4x4 would allow me to buy some time and allow me to replace the joints and hubs by myself come springtime.

Anyway, when I discussed this with my mechanic earlier, he said in order to determine this, he would disconnect the front drive shaft, but he recommended waiting until there is no more chance of any additional snowfall, if I need to engage 4x4. I already know this would require removing 6 T30 locktite bolts, but could be just as easily accomplished with the BWM.

Tomorrow, I will be picking up the Explorer, and I am going to go forward with disabling the full time 4x4 and instituting a system with a relay with a switch to give me the option of 2 high/low, 4x4 part time, and 4x4 hi/lo.

If this silences the noise, I will know its my transfer case. However, my mechanic and I both feel it could still be a bad hub/ CV joint, most likely on the drivers side. It really does feel as though the CV joint is "jumping the hub" (wheel) as I previously described, but for all I know it could be a failing transfer case- I am yet to have definitively experienced either of which, so from the noise itself I can not personally conclude what the issue may be.

I will see if the BWM works, and I will keep everyone posted. I appreciate all the help and input.

if you do the BWM, resist all urges to do brake torques / high rpm ice driving / drifting ect.... I hear it only stops power from transferring to the front wheels and you will burn up the clutches in the transfer case quickly... ive read lots of horror threads about people doing this in expos and things going bad

I personally think that it would be a lot easier to just pull the fuse to disable 4x4 for testing purposes instead of going the route of rewiring things. If I remember correctly your vehicle is 2wd in auto 4x4 until it notices a tire slipping and then it automatically engages the transfer case. Only if you had an AWD badge on the vehicle would you have the front driveline active all the time and then you would only have 4wd high as a locking option. Two completely different transfer cases for the 4.0 AWD version and 4x4 version.

nope. the auto 4x4 is always sending 5% to the front wheels.
and in pretty much all newer 4x4 trucks and suvs the whole 4x4 drive train is always moving now.
if you dont have auto or manual locking hubs on the front then the drivetrain is always moving.

Spent 3 hours over the past two days searching and searching for exactly where the noise was coming from. Front diff, no question about it. When you disconnect the abs and get the speedometer up to about 30mph on the lift. Once you let off the gas you hear the whooshing loud and clear, put the stethoscope on the rear diff to get a baseline and then listen to the front and the noise is sooo apparent.

Problem is the dealership thinks it is a wheel bearing so hopefully they will re diagnose and find the real issue. All the wheel assemblies sound fine.

previous owners drug this behind a motorhome and apparently did a number on it....

I would say open up the cover on the front differential and have a look at the fluid for large metal shavings. Then fill back with a good full synthetic 75-90 gear oil (they filled with conventional 80-90 at the factory). The 4x4 versions of this generation were only designed to be towed four wheels down with the dealer installed neutral tow kit. So if it never had the tow kit then that is the reason for the damage/noise that you are hearing. You should be able to see signs of the tow kit if it ever had one installed. If it had a tow kit, then it is possible that it is bearings since they will be doing all the spinning while it gets pulled down the road, but like you said, no noise, so it must be the latter.

Flag Gibby said:

I would say open up the cover on the front differential and have a look at the fluid for large metal shavings. Then fill back with a good full synthetic 75-90 gear oil (they filled with conventional 80-90 at the factory). The 4x4 versions of this generation were only designed to be towed four wheels down with the dealer installed neutral tow kit. So if it never had the tow kit then that is the reason for the damage/noise that you are hearing. You should be able to see signs of the tow kit if it ever had one installed. If it had a tow kit, then it is possible that it is bearings since they will be doing all the spinning while it gets pulled down the road.

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It has a tow kit installed. My theory is that the original owners did not initially install the kit (towing it as they had some previous vehicle). Once realizing something was wrong, they had a kit installed. I obviously can't confirm this theory, but how else do you explain needing a new tranny, and this terrible noise coming from front diff with 70k on the vehicle.

My mech and I checked the front diff fluid. It's color is decent, but there is a lot of metal in it. Leading me to believe that at some point the fluid was changed (and likely a heavier gear oil was used) but it may have been too little too late.

I would argue that it was probably still the original fluid in the front diff. since it was a conventional in it from the factory and it sounds like it was just the usual metallic look to it but no large flakes (mine was like that with only 30k miles on it when I drained and refilled). I have seen the neutral tow kits not installed correctly by the dealership shops before since they rarely install them and look at you confused when you try to order a kit and have it installed by them. None the less, definitely sounds like damage due to improper four wheel down towing at some point. And when you say 70k on the vehicle, the question is how many miles are really on the vehicle since there could be another 20k or more of towing on it.

Yes, how many towing miles were on the tranny and Diff's is another good question.

In any case, the dealership covering the warranty wants to do a wheel bearing first, once that doesn't work I'm hoping they realize through careful diagnosis that the front diff is the issue and unfortunately needs to be rebuilt or replaced. I'll certainly never buy a "newer" car again that has been towed. Its going to work out okay since the car has a short warranty on it, but had I purchased it without a warranty.... I'd be so broke.