groaning noise and vibration

[silky]

Hey all,

1998 explorer sport 4x4 with about 120,000k miles on it.

Truck recently developed this growning noise and vibration that can be felt through the floor and steering wheel. Noise sounds like mud tire road noise and starts at about 10 mph and seems to be worse at about 30-40 mph and is most noticeable while coasting downhills. It seems to go away at highway speeds but it may just not be as noticeable.

Does this sound like a locked up transfer case? The only other thing I can think of is an extremely bad hub. How can I test this? Can I remove the front driveshaft and drive the vehicle in 2x4 mode or will that mess something up?

The only other thing I can think of is an extremely bad bearing/hub.

thanks!

 

[olskool reddevil]

I had to replace both of my front wheel bearings at about 120000. Just jack up the front and try to rock the wheel as if checking a balljoint except use just your hands no bar. Also roll the wheel while it's in the air and listen and feel for any noise or roughness. While truck is in air on jackstands check front u-joints and cvjoints

 

[silky]

Well my ABS sensor is shot anyhow so I just went out and bought a new hub. I am going to put that on and see where it goes from there.

One thing I will say about the noise/vibration is that it is not related to engine speed. The noise/vib is louder at 40mph at 1400 rpm then at 30mph and 2000 rpm. I don't know what this means but it leads me to believe it is not mechanical.

 

[silky]

Since I had the passenger side replaced a year ago I suspected correctly that driver side hub was the culprit. I changed it and the groaning noises are gone.

While it fixed the noise issue it did not eliminate the ABS problem. The ABS still comes on at every stop. I am going to "try" to replace the passenger side abs sensor with the one from the hub I just removed.

 

[Rudy602]

Do you mean the light comes on or the ABS kicks in?

 

[silky]

the light does not come on. The ABS kicks in a second to a second and a half before full stop. It is annoying more than anything and the system works normally outside of that.

 

[storlied]

Pull one of your wheel speed sensors to disable ABS until you can get it sorted out. (You will have an ABS light on in your dash while it is off) It'll be one of the wires coming from either of your front wheels to a connector behind the front bumper. The other one next to it is for the fog lights, don't worry about that one.

 

[silky]

Pull one of your wheel speed sensors to disable ABS until you can get it sorted out. (You will have an ABS light on in your dash while it is off) It'll be one of the wires coming from either of your front wheels to a connector behind the front bumper. The other one next to it is for the fog lights, don't worry about that one.

Since my front passenger side hub/sensor is a year old, and the driver side is brand new, I am starting to think the problem may be the rear sensors.

If I were to disconnect the one sensor would it shut the whole system down or just that one sensor? Can you just unplug the sensors one by one until the problem goes away, then you know where the problem is?

 

[storlied]

Pull any of the sensors and the whole ABS system is disabled. Unfortunately you cannot just un-plug them one by one to find the problem. What you can do is get new sensors and start replacing. They are cheap so.. go for sensors before you go for hub assemblies. I don't know about the rear.. never had a problem with the rear yet. The sensors should be a small and cheap part though. Our hub assemblies do go out often though so don't shrug it off because they are new. A cheap brand can go out in a matter of months. I've been through plenty. As weird as it is, the one that lasted the longest was a junk yard unit from a Ford Ranger. Lasted longer than new ones I got from multiple auto part stores.

 

[silky]

well it was a quite simple fix.

I made a mistake first off. I thought the hub on the passenger side was a year old. It turns out I had the mechanic change the driver side last year and that is the hub I changed last week. Since my ABS was still messed I decided to inspect the passenger side hub. Looking at it it is obvious it has been there for some time. I pulled out the ABS sensor but the plastic cover broke in the hole. I went out to get the hub but they wanted $300 + 45 $ tax for it so i held off. I went home, found the hub I removed from the driver side, removed the ABS sensor from it and put it in the passenger side hub...whalla...no more ABS problems


On a side note we really get screwed in Canada. $295 plus tax for an aftermarket hub with a one year warranty. The only other option was a $140 with no warranty. The one I put on the driver's side I bought at advanced Auto in Niagara Falls NY for $122 about $130 with tax. Even with the $50 in gas it takes to drive there it is still double the price here.

 

[silky]

oddly enough now have the ABS light coming on. I checked the code and it was c1155 and 1234....I cleared the codes an will see if they come back.

 

[my pos mounty]

You can measure resistance across the ABS sensors to see if they are out of range.
The rear sensor should read between 800 to 1400 ohms
the front should read between 380 and 480 ohms

 

[silky]

Where would I check the resistance from? Just unplug the sensor by the front bumper?

After driving a bit today the light came back on. I checked the code and it was c1234...c1155 was gone so I am assuming it was a stored code. Looks like that sensor I took from the old hub was no good after all.

 

[my pos mounty]

Sorry, I didn't see that question earlier. Must have missed my e-mail notification...

Yep, just unplug the sensor lead, measure resistance across the two terminals.

 

[storlied]

I'd give them all a good cleaning. If you still have an issue, have someone scan to find out which one exactly it is.

 

[my pos mounty]

I wouldn't chance breaking a sensor by removing it when I can measure the resistance to determine whether or not it is junk. The housing that gets held down by the bolt is cheap plastic and is easily broken.

If you find one of the sensors is out of the proper range, you could remove it and give it a look over, it may just be a piece of crud stuck to the magnetic end. If there is alot of metal shavings stuck to it, that would be a clear warning of the bearings impending death.

 

[storlied]

I've never had one break apart but I guess it's possible, should slide right out.

But yeah, try mounty's idea and measure... but do give them a good cleaning.