Excessive Road Noise and it isnt Tires | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Excessive Road Noise and it isnt Tires

BrentW

Member
Joined
September 1, 2013
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
City, State
Tulsa, Ok
Year, Model & Trim Level
2002 Explorer XLS 4.0 4x4
Ok. yes I did some searching around but that just got me a little more confused so I wanted to get some opinions. I just bought a 2002 XLS 4x4. Has 185k miles on it and it definitely needs some TLC. I got it cheap because I am sure it scared a few buyers off. It needed tires and I assumed them to be the road noise I was hearing. One had steel belting showing and all four tires were wore on the inside edge not the outsides. Odd.. But anyway, I had tires put on it today and it drives much better but I still have road noise. It starts around 20-30mph and just gets worse as you go faster to where it is just damn loud around 70mph. I was reading where some people have had problems with the rear diff on these and I read the tutorial on changing the wheel bearings but my confusion is that this isnt a howl or a whine, it really sounds like road noise like I am running off road tires. Is this typical on these to where someone can confirm which direction I am headed on this?
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year or try it out for $5 a month.

Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





What type of tires did you replace with? Aggressive tread on off road tires can certainly cause road noise as speed increases. I have aggressive tread and complained to my mechanic about noise. Looked at drive line and no issues (excluding the well known noisy rear differential) Even though the tires were balanced, they needed a Road Force Balance. Turned out a road force balance of the new tires helped quite things down, but granted still noisy at 65-70 mph but not as bad as before. Even if you used street tires, go back to your installer and ask for a road force balance. 3 or my 4 tires were out of road force spec, yet balanced by traditional standards. Because I complained about tire defect they did the road force balance for free. Typically only $5.00 more per tire. Definitely worth the extra cost. Hunter Road Force Balance.
 






My bad wheel bearings sounded like I had heavy lug tires on.
 






Usually, wheel bearings first sign is the sound equivalent of having large, off-road tires on the vehicle. I have had 2 go bad and they are the exact sound symptom that you describe. Does the noise get louder when you turn one direction?
 






I just put some Michelin Touring tires on. Should be no road noise from those. Give me a little credit.. lol..

Thanks guys, that confirmed what I suspected. I will probably get the bearings tomorrow and start doing both rears just to be safe. I think its the passenger side but I assume both are factory and both are the same age so might as well get both at the same time.
 






I did all four in a couple of months. One on each axle was bad. Didn't want to do just one side. Parts were expensive, but still cheaper than a car payment in the long run.
 






Yea.. I figured if I am renting the puller and taking the hub to have the race pressed out and a new bearing pressed in I may as well do both rears at once and save the time. Will see how the fronts sound after the rears are done. Cant tell much right now with all of the current noise but I think the fronts are quiet. So may do those later.
 






Yea.. I figured if I am renting the puller and taking the hub to have the race pressed out and a new bearing pressed in I may as well do both rears at once and save the time. Will see how the fronts sound after the rears are done. Cant tell much right now with all of the current noise but I think the fronts are quiet. So may do those later.

If the machine shop will give you the time, it's a lot easier to replace the parking brake shoes when the hub is separated from the knuckle.

If not, it can still be done hub on knuckle. But would definitely do before putting assembly back on the Ex.

Also, you may want to take a 1" hole saw and drill out the "knock-out" for the rear shoe adjustment, before taking it in. They don't knock out. If you try, you'll mangle the backing plate. Call it personal experience.
 






Thanks.. i will see what I can do. I think the E brake is dead so probably not a bad idea.
 






I would bet it is a wheel bearing. I've gone through 3 on mine and they all had a loud hum/rumble sound, never a howl or whine.
 






Replaced both rear wheel bearings over the weekend and all is well now. I bought just the bearings and not the hub and believe it or not i had a heck of a time finding anyone in town that would mess with it. One guy told me $250 to press out and put in the new so I called some more and the best prices were at the tire shops. Hesselbein tire in Tulsa did it for $150 and was able to re use the hub even though he said his book told him to discard the hub. I still did not expect the hefty price tag on the labor to press out the old and put in the new bearing. But its done and the thing drives quiet now and all is well. Thanks for the help. Now on to the check engine light and what I think to be a vacuum leak. lol..
 






It's typically $50 a hub.

The dealer used to require the hub be replaced with the bearing, but has since modified this to the bearing alone being okay.
The issue you'll run into reusing the old hub, is it becoming out of round during the pressing process (not my experience but others.)
 






I've seen the hub actually bend to a point of not being usable.
 






The hardest part of this job is finding a competent person to get the old bearings out without damaging your hub/spindle assembly. I paid someone $65 per side to cut them out. This guy knew what he was doing as he had done it many times before. Oddly, you find all kinds of shops who think they know what they are talking about but have never really dealt with Ford Explorer rear bearings. You can read about my pain-in-the-ass attempt at finding a competent shop HERE.
 






As you found out, the rear bearings are a pain. The shop that did mine actually had to go somewhere else to press the old ones out, as they were getting nowhere on their 10-ton press.

You should also go over the rest of the suspension, especially the ball joints and bushings. If the old tires were worn only on the inside edge, the alignment is off. This could just be from the vehicle getting out of alignment, or it could be the result of worn suspension parts. Either way you will want to get it remedied before you end up ruining your new tires in a very short amount of time.
 






Back
Top