Bevy of problems; possibly related?

[hillkitler]

Hey guys, you've helped me quite a bit in the past with issues that seemed obvious at the time, but now I'm kind of stumped as to what is wrong with my Ex (1993 XLT, Automatic)

Firstly, I've been hearing a chirping/squeaking sound that seems to be coming from my front, driver's side wheel well. The frequency/volume of the sound is directly related to how fast I'm going and seems to be present at all speeds. The sound sometimes disappears but often reappears if I turn the wheel to the left at all, even if it's just a soft turn, road arching to the left, etc. On top of this, since this morning, I've been hearing a low-pitched, creaking sort of noise from the right (passenger) side of the engine bay when I'm making left turns.

Next-ly, yesterday I was sitting at a drive thru window and could hear an odd ticking sound that I had never heard before (probably because it was reverberating off of the wall of the building). The noise seemed like it was coming from right underneath me, but I didn't really pay it much mind. After this, as I was turning out of the parking lot, into traffic, I had an ALMOST total loss of power (as if I was running out of gas). I let off of the pedal and depressed it again, after which things seemed to "catch" and I resumed driving. I made it about 3 miles, before going up a fairly steep hill, whereupon the car completely died. I threw on the parking brake and let it sit (on the hill) for a minute, before attempting a restart. Everything turned over and I made it the rest of the way home (less than 1/4 mile). I tossed some gas in it and it's been driving since. It seems that I simply ran out of fuel, but it's odd to me that I could drive that far after the initial loss of power AND make it up a hill. Given, it died going up the hill, but it also managed to restart on an incline. Is this something I should be worried about or did I just run out of gas?

Overall, since my little incident yesterday it seems like something is "off" when I'm driving. Everything is kind of stiff and precarious feeling; the vehicle has a really 'not-smooth, machine-like feeling'. Maybe it's just that I'm tending to drive really carefully because I'm afraid of something going wrong. Anyway, I really need to get all of this sorted out because this is my only vehicle, which I rely on to get to work, etc. I'm a pretty busy person and I drive around quite a bit, so having my sole form of transportation out of commission for more than a day or two is really not an option.

TL;DR: Car makes bad noises, I'm afraid to drive it but I have no other choice.

Also, thanks a lot everyone. I know if anyone can help me out, it's you guys.

 

[wantdeath]

for the chirping noise, check your brakes. if they have alot of life left on them, rub some sand paper on the pads, to ruff them up a bit and get rid of the glazing that happens and can cause chirping. also, when you jack it up, check for play in the wheel indicating a wheel bearing issue. is your X four wheel drive? you could also check the front half shafts for wear. a bad bearing in the cv joint could cause a noise similar to what your hearing. actually any metal on metal can chirp. and the "machine feeling" you said could also point to a bad wheel bearing, because the truck will have to work harder to move from the added friction, and any bumps you hit will cause the wheels to "wiggle" and it just wont feel right. when i did mine it was a 100% difference in power, ride quality and handling. it also quit pulling to the left. and for the stalling, check fuel pressure. if you had less than 1/4 tank when it stalled, the fuel pump could have over heated and ceased to pump from lack of nice cool gas around it. that would indicate a failing fuel pump and you should replace it. if you frequently run low on fuel, you can burn your pump out much faster than some one that keeps a full tank. gas is the lube for the pump. basically you would either cut a hole in the floor (search this forum, there is a post with pictures) or drop the tank and give it a once over. my money is on the pump.

 

[hillkitler]

Thanks a lot wantdeath! I've been thinking that it's probably the wheel bearing or brakes. It IS four-wheel drive, but I've used that feature once in the last year. As for the stalling, I think you're probably right. I tend to only fill a few gallons at a time and I rarely fill up the tank. Had I known that it could cause such serious issues with the fuel pump, I definitely would have been filling it up past a quarter tank or so. I'll look in to everything you mentioned and try to post another update.