front bearing or something else?

[eeprete]

When I am driving my Explorer and I enter in a turn, I get a heavy imbalance sound coming from the front end.

First I thought it was my drivers hub, of which I then changed that and the UCA and it didn't help. In the last few months the sound has worsened to the point where driving the vehicle is annoying.

I feel:
- barely any vibration in the steering wheel
- moderate vibration in the drivers front floor board
- slight vibration in the drivers door panel

I've checked:
- all four wheels and hubs by way of shaking top to bottom and left to right. All seems ok (can it still be a bad bearing).. there is no extra movement
- front half-shafts for end play and movement. drivers side had some side to side movement (replaced it)
- front differential (all looked good)
- rear differential (also looked good)
- front driveshaft U-joint seemed slightly stiff

I've replaced:
- front drivers hub
- front drivers upper control arm
- front drivers half-shaft

Here is an audio clip of the noise, pay close attention to about 28 seconds on...

http://www.pretedesign.net/explorer-noise.m4a

 

[Number4]

Most are of the opinion that the bad bearing is on the inside of the turn. So if you turn left and hear the noise worse than turning right, then it's the left.

I think. I just replace them in pairs.

The tolerance on these is too tight to measure the old fashion way of moving the tire.
You have to remove the tire and use an object like a crowbar to move the hub, even then, the movement must be measured and not by means of the eye. Unless it's obviously bad.

Some funky noise there. Never heard it progress like that. I believe the typical noise is that of an off road, deep lugged tire on pavement.

 

[eeprete]

well, I had the noise before, with old tires about a year ago. Tires had 65K miles on them (Michelin). These tires are the same Michelin style replacement (not LTX's, the others) so they do have a M+S rating. They are definitely noisy tires, but not sure if its just tires or the hub too.... I bought the other hub, just hate wasting time I guess.

 

[eeprete]

I can say with certainty, the noise was the front passenger hub/bearing. Replaced it with a Timkin piece and noise appears to be gone.

 

[pjw73nh]

Number4,

I was always under the impression that the "loaded" bearing makes the noise. So in a left turn, the load is on the right side of the vehicle. If the noise was present, it would indicate that the right bearing is the culprit. Is this not the case with the Explorers?

Also, FWIW, I am fighting a similar battle with my 08 LTD. See post #18 here:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409042

Any advice, suggestions welcome.

Tnx

 

[Number4]

Number4,

I was always under the impression that the "loaded" bearing makes the noise. So in a left turn, the load is on the right side of the vehicle. If the noise was present, it would indicate that the right bearing is the culprit. Is this not the case with the Explorers?

Tnx

Turning left with noise indicates right bearing, is what I intended to say

 

[pjw73nh]

#4 ,
Thanks for the clarification.

-W

 

[Hudsonf]

Turning left with noise indicates right bearing, is what I intended to say

I just went through this with my Explorer. I had a humming noise when going around right hand bends. Found out I had two bad bearings on the left hand side.