Driveline noise - help troubleshooting

[jboothe]

I have a 2004 Mercury Mountaineer with about 150,000 miles. It has started making driveline noise that sounds and feels like it is coming from the front of the vehicle. I rotated the the tires and it still feels like it is coming from the front. Also tried increasing the pressure on the ones in the front tires to see if that made any difference. no help

The buzz or hum appears at low speed (=/- 10mph) and increases with vehicle speed to about 40-50 mph. If I maintain speed and switch to neutral it makes no difference in the noise with the vehicle coasting. On deceleration it is very apparent.

I jacked up the front and I don't see any play in the front hub to indicate a bearing and both front axles and CV joints seem ok. I am really irritated now since I can't seem to find what is causing this and I don't want to start throwing parts at it.

I uploaded a video that I tried to capture the noise. Any help is GREATLY APPRECIATED! :

 

[Thub]

that sound is very similar to rear differential whine I have on my truck, so maybe its your front differential, probably not the best news since I don't think these trucks usually suffer from normal front diff whine.

 

[M1911A1]

Wheel bearings?

Sounds somewhat similar to the noise produced by bad bearings, but on steroids! Much louder though. Perhaps something to think about...

 

[jboothe]

Update!

After much deliberation I decided to just take it up the dealer and let them give me their opinion. They had a senior tech drive it and he came back to tell me it was either the front differential or the transfer case. They wanted to keep it to further investigate it. Not wanting a very large bill I brought it home.

Started with the taking the cover off the front axle and draining the fluid. Everything looked fine with no burnt smell or metal particles or weird wear patterns. So I drained the transfer case and it had no burnt smells or metal either. This wouldn't completely rule them out but I decided to try the driver side wheel bearing. Took a while and much cussing but I got it changed and amazingly...it fixed it!

Thanks for the help.

 

[FordFool2]

On my 04 EB with 103K, I was feeling that tiny bit of buzz or vibration when turning the wheel slightly at highway speed. Driving straight, nothing.

While parked, I grabbed the driver tire and could feel just a teeny bit of play compared to anything others. Changed out the drivers front hub/bearing and it's fixed. Same as you.

I followed up with the passenger side replacement since both hubs were exposed to the same service conditions.

 

[xr600man]

check front axle bearings . front right in particular. i replaced all parts that rotate from differential outward.new hub bearings,new rotors and pads,new cv axles. right side axle bearing is bad. ford part #f57z5c123aa. makes constant hum gets loudest around 45 to 50 m.p.h.