Grinding from rear only when coasting

[steve6534]

She's done. Picked her back up yesterday morning. $720 later, im back in business.

It in fact was just the rear bearing(s). I am going to go and say they were both bad, and HAD been bad since I bought the Explorer about 8 months ago. I replaced my fronts shortly after ownership. Still sometimes had noise, but just brushed it off, it was so minor.

After getting it back, it seriously is like driving a new car. Not necesarily new lol, but theres no drag now, it accelerates better, coasts better. When I pulled out of the lot, I was amazed at how easy it just went. Even before the bearing actually was shot and broke, they were causing so much resistance.

He told me that I better be glad I didnt try working on these, as it took their huge 60 ton press to barely press the old bearings out. He said the 60 ton was starting to flex.

And to think I was looking at buying a 6 ton for home use...was gonna buy it and try the job myself. LOL.

Thanks for the followup and glad to hear you're back in business ! Did you pay $720 for both sides ? Did they replace or just re-use the old hubs ?

 

[BrianDye]

No problem, I hate reading a thread with an issue i'm having and they don't ever follow it up. It was for both bearings, and new hubs as well.

 

[BrianDye]

So I actually paid less, I had mobile deposited a check into my account which takes 2 business days. When I had got there to pay, I had a notification saying "deposit accepted blah blah" so I went to pay and he said my card was declined. I had $80 cash, and the machine charged my card for what it had on it at the moment which was $133, so I had paid $213.00 out of a $723.XX bill, and he was writing random numbers and the math didn't seem right. When I went back this morning to pay the balance, he had said/wrote down $459 when it was actually over $500. I mentioned the mistake and he was trying to do the math, and then ended up saying he appreciated the nice review I left on their Facebook page, so called it even with the $459 he had wrote down, so I ended up paying less than the original $680 quote.

 

[BrianDye]

Reviving this thread since its related to the work that was done (I'm assuming)

So I noticed that when I'm hitting bumps, it felt like my shocks are going south, fast. (No biggie, I'm waiting on my tax return to order shocks and brakes).

Then I thought, it's weird because there were no signs. No leaking shocks, no stiffness, no bouncing and wobbling, etc. so to all of the sudden have a horrible ride is odd. So one day it's raining, and the road I take to get on the highway has a lot of that rubber tar crap all over it to cover the cracks. It was like I was driving on ice. At the time I was like WTF! But after it happened again, it's my rear end wanting to slide around as if it's out of alignment.

Then I noticed when I'm on the highway and the symptoms I was feeling thinking my shocks were bad, is my rear end hopping around over bumps.

Definitely a bad alignment. I'm just assuming that the bearing replacement threw it off somehow.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[#1 On Race Day]

Hello Explorer owners. I Had the same loud humming noises, spoken of on this topic. As for my 2002 Explorer, I had a lesson learned experience. Here's a suggestion for Explorer owners whose pinpointed the correct side of the noise, Which can be tricky to pinpoint alone... When ready to Replace, replacing the "HUB AND BEARING" as a SET, seems to be a must, Extreme temperatures produced by Resistance of a Bad Bearing indeed Damages the Hub(s). If not replaced in a set, Expect the bearing and or the Hub to fail shortly thereafter replacing only one.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Since I said it few times in the past and it may be boring for long time members, but it may help some new ones.

With 225k miles on my 06, I have done the front and rear bearings more time than I care to remember. To the point that when I have my car up for something else on my driveway, my neighbor laughs and says "another bearing" ?
But I drive close to 100 miles a day, so they just go. Towing trailers and plowing does not help either I am sure.

The fronts are super easy, on a good day with proper tools, you can do it in 45-60 minutes.

The rear ones are more tricky. This is what I do now:

Option 1: when you hear them making noise or the wheel wobbles, remove the rear knuckle assembly, buy a Timken bearing and find a shop that will press it out and press new one in. I get my done for $ 50 plus about $ 65 for the bearing. That requires another car to drive the knuckle to the shop, wait for it and come back.

Option 2: I bought from a salvage yard left and right knuckle assembly. You can get them for $ 75, some yards want 150, forget those. Then you can have them repacked with a new bearings and on stand by. This way, you just jack up the car, and swap the whole assembly.

2 tricks I learnt over the years: assemble the parking brake on the bench before you install the knuckle, otherwise, it's a headache.

Get new axle nuts when you replace them and use the old nut with locktite as a locking nut. It will help to keep the hub in the bearing.

 

[StevenStebo]

Reviving this thread since its related to the work that was done (I'm assuming)

So I noticed that when I'm hitting bumps, it felt like my shocks are going south, fast. (No biggie, I'm waiting on my tax return to order shocks and brakes).

Then I thought, it's weird because there were no signs. No leaking shocks, no stiffness, no bouncing and wobbling, etc. so to all of the sudden have a horrible ride is odd. So one day it's raining, and the road I take to get on the highway has a lot of that rubber tar crap all over it to cover the cracks. It was like I was driving on ice. At the time I was like WTF! But after it happened again, it's my rear end wanting to slide around as if it's out of alignment.

Then I noticed when I'm on the highway and the symptoms I was feeling thinking my shocks were bad, is my rear end hopping around over bumps.

Definitely a bad alignment. I'm just assuming that the bearing replacement threw it off somehow.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Hey. Check alignment and make sure tires are 35 psi. Other than that, you might be just a little paranoid after all you've been though. You can always take it back to Paul's and tell him it's squirrely at speed.