PeteD
New Member
- Joined
- January 28, 2015
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Long Island, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2006 Explorer 4.0 XLT 4x4
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.
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.