Growling, grinding noise from front end

[turboexplorer]

Add another one to the list, my 98 has done it and progressively getting worse. I can feel it in the floorboard on my feet. Did 4406 swap same sound with or without the front driveshaft in. Done both wheel bearings (timken oem replacements) and both CV's. Only thing left is the front diff. Fluid looks alright from what I can suck out of it to ??????? Taking it to a shop I used to work at in Salt Lake City (300miles from here) and we are going to spend some time on it so we will see.

P.S. Side note is anyone else's backlash seam to be way to much??? Pinion bearings tight no leak or play.

 

[RiderX]

hey Turboexplorer,
I live about 40 mi south of SLC, So maybe we can meet at your old shop in SLC and see if we gots the same problem. Send me a private message if that's possible and whatever we find out we can let the forum know.

 

[fex98]

its the transfer case I got some problem with my 98 x 4wd replaced front diff CV joint . The transfer case has a plastic slecter and its brakes

 

[Pboss]

Here's where everyone laughs at me and says shut up Paul ...

I had a similar grinding "noise" that got louder when I turned left, but not right.

When all was said and done, it ended up being my power steering pump. I got a rebuild kit from rockauto, and voila, no more noise

Take it as you will, but the actual steering never seemed to get any "different" than normal other than the noise.

Feel free to tell me "you don't know what you're talking about"

 

[Surfcop]

My gamble on the hub paid off big time!!! When I swapped it out the noise went away! That hub was only 6 months old and it must have failed prematurely! No visible signs of wear in or out of the vehicle. It seems brand new, but makes a horrible ROAR when installed!

Mine's Done!

 

[turboexplorer]

So when to my old shop up here in Salt Lake city and I found the problem that I thought it was to begin with. It's the outer end of the front diff on the passenger side. That thin torington bearing is ****ing falling apart! I thought thats what is was when I had it up on jack stands and had my mom run it at 25 MPH not my favorite thing to do with all tires spinning but anyways I thought it was that and than took it to Ford and they said there is no way that it can be that bearing it has never failed. I called bull **** and ended up not even having to pay Ford. Anyways had it on the lift and there is no question now what it is. That outer bearing on the front diff on the passenger side. Had it on the lift at 50MPH and you can feel it bad when you grab that part where the bearing is on the tube of the diff housing. You can feel the bottom of the floor or even the frame of the truck and then your other hand on the diff and it is EXACTLY what I can feel and hear through the floor while driving. Also we put on the stethoscope and placed it on that bearing and and you can hear it growling and grinding and popping and everything else that it does. Anyways sorry for the novel but was excited to find out what it is now just need to make it 300 miles back home and pull the diff out! Hmmm.......just more money, Will update when done may be a little bit have a wedding in two weeks

 

[Mark98]

Any update on this? This sounds exactly like my problem.

 

[captspeedy]

Hey Mark,
There seem to be a few different problems on in this thread. Since yours is a 4x4 I would look at Turboexplorer and Surfcop. I haven't figured mine out as i left the country but I when i get back to it the first thing i will check is the bearings in the diff and the tube. I checked everything else on mine and thats all thats left.

 

[turboexplorer]

This has still been a problem for me. I have had the whole front diff rebuilt and it didn't change a single thing. I bought a used diff from Turdle and change that shaft that goes from the center of the diff to the right CV axle. Still Nothing. I am a 4406 conversion so pulled front shaf and still the same so not t case. Its that from cv where it hooks onto the axle but no way to make it not move so .... All out of ideas.

 

[Mark98]

This has still been a problem for me. I have had the whole front diff rebuilt and it didn't change a single thing. I bought a used diff from Turdle and change that shaft that goes from the center of the diff to the right CV axle. Still Nothing. I am a 4406 conversion so pulled front shaf and still the same so not t case. Its that from cv where it hooks onto the axle but no way to make it not move so .... All out of ideas.

Did you try changing your tires? This noise only started since I got brand new General Grabber A/T tires. I'm going to be rotating them today to see if I got a bad tire.

 

[turboexplorer]

Rotated and no change. Don't have any that I can switch to change the whole tire set out. Well maybe? My moms mazda 6 has the same bolt pattern, would look retarded way retarded if they would fit over my hubs so guess I could try. So who knows it may be the tires but I still have way to much tire life to want to change them. No friends down here to try a switch with, slowly getting a little worse to so could be. Would be interesting if on these the tire pattern transfers through the truck that bad.

P.S. I have Goodyear wrangler silent armors on mine. Hook up great, have loved them, but slowly getting louder though as they wear!

 

[Mark98]

Rotated and no change. Don't have any that I can switch to change the whole tire set out. Well maybe? My moms mazda 6 has the same bolt pattern, would look retarded way retarded if they would fit over my hubs so guess I could try. So who knows it may be the tires but I still have way to much tire life to want to change them. No friends down here to try a switch with, slowly getting a little worse to so could be. Would be interesting if on these the tire pattern transfers through the truck that bad.

P.S. I have Goodyear wrangler silent armors on mine. Hook up great, have loved them, but slowly getting louder though as they wear!

Update: I rotated my front right and back right tire friday.... Amazingly the noise dissappeared . So saturday I went and got my right front(bad one) balanced again (which is was off 1 ounce on each side). And lone behold, still noisy . So I'm just going to run it til I have to rotate tires and then enjoy peace and quiet for 5,000 miles. Almost seems like I have a tire with "noisy" rubber. Because other than that, it rides amazingly smooth....

 

[turboexplorer]

Nice at least its only tire problems! Think I'm not so lucky its time to rotate anyways so I will and report back, but it still does it in the air with the tires off the ground. Doesn't in 2WD but does in four so... yup o well everything has been replaced and no leaks have checked bearings and things no marks so ? Good to go I guess bugs the hell out of me though.

 

[muck]

I have a 98 mountaineer 4x4 that started giving me greif last week. I'll start from the begining to try to give all the info i can.

1 month ago my right front bearing were shot and completely fell apart and tore the cv boot with it. So stuck in a walmart parking lot an hour from home I changed the cv joint and wheel bearing.

My front tires had a wear going on the insides of the tires. So I went to the junk yard 2 weeks ago and got a set of front tires. Balanced and mounted there.

Now here gones the problem Im at now. Last week I started getting a "tunk" noise coming from the front that increases with speed. At first I thought that it was the left side wheel bearing because the sound was very simular to the noise i was getting with the other wheel bearing. Plus when i turn left the noise would go away. if i turned right the noise was still there. I bought the wheel bearing and chaned it, noise still there. So i thought the only thing left was the cv joint. went and replaced that too today. Noise still there. So I jacked up the front and rear, put stands under all 4 tires and started the truck up. in drive the rear tires spun at an equal speed. the front drivers side seemed to be spinning faster, but the right side didnt realy spin at all, very little and it seemed to be jumping. feeling the drivers side it seemed to be jerky to.

I had changed my transfer case last summer and changed the universal joints then too.

im starting to wonder if its the differential up front.

 

[turboexplorer]

If its jumping when its in the air it cane be that the CV's are close to maxed out. Mine when I had auto zone shafts in it did it bad when you drooped the fronts even a little with the jack stands or lift on the A arms. Spent some money for some real shafts and its is gone all the way. The OEM Ford ones dont do it either. So I have the auto zone ones for backups. But if the wheel wants to hop while its in the air this is your only problem that can cause that. The front diff in no way can make that tire jump, (tranfer grumbling grinding and clunks through the shaft) but cant make it jump. Anyways thats what I found in all of this if that helps at all. Guess the re man auto zone ones dont have quite the movement the OEMS do. Clunk turning one way and not the other can also be a CV, can be other things to but can be a CV will notice it a lot on front wheel drives. So if yours is AWD like mine was, then it can do this as well.

 

[Mark98]

Update: I rotated my front right and back right tire friday.... Amazingly the noise dissappeared . So saturday I went and got my right front(bad one) balanced again (which is was off 1 ounce on each side). And lone behold, still noisy . So I'm just going to run it til I have to rotate tires and then enjoy peace and quiet for 5,000 miles. Almost seems like I have a tire with "noisy" rubber. Because other than that, it rides amazingly smooth....

Arghh spoke too soon! I've since rotated all my tires(put the "bad" one on the back, or so I thought) and the noise is just as bad. I'm going to try getting an alignment to see if that could be the issue. Everything on my front end is new(balljoints, wheel bearings, brakes, rotors) other than tie-rods and cv axles.......

 

[trailerman49]

Before you spend a bunch of money trying to figure out that grinding sound coming from the front (sounds like a growl from bad bearings)......rotate the tires first! After spending money for bearings the noise was still there. Rotated the tires and it went away. The steel belts in the front right tire separated and would cause a grinding/growling sound at 30 mph and up (does not growl when put on the back).

 

[trailerman49]

Did all of that too. Still had the growl on the right front. Very frustrating! All tires like new. Decided to rotate. Put the right front on the right rear and right rear on right front. To my surprise.....the noise was gone! Swapped the tires back and the growl was back. Found out that although the tires looked like new the steel belting had somehow seprated and caused the grinding sound as speed increased and only when on the front........go figure! Could have save a bunch of bucks!!!! So before spending all that money on the elimination process.....start with the rotation!

 

[turboexplorer]

Always a good plan to rotate tires first! By far the cheapest thing you can do first to check, and more than half the time it is the tires problem. Still have it in mine but do notice in one rotation it is worse than the rest.

 

[Juan Chuito]

Explorer "rumbling" noise front end ??????

To all Elite Explorers:
I am new to your forum; and have yet to "adapt" to the Serious Explorations website. Please bear with me. I also have a '98 Ford Explorer XLT (2wd) with rumbling noises that confuse me when driving because I think that it is raining (with thunderstorm and lightning going on) but there is no rain. SOOOOO, I need HELP!!!!!. First of all, I want all of you to know that I am of sound mind and judgment; Second, I have replaced, with brand new parts, the 2 front rotors/hubs, both calipers and hardware for pads, and installed new pads in the front (it needed all of it anyway). Also, the front end is in good shape, ball joints and rack and pinion steering are A-OK!!. I know it needs a front wheel laser alignment; BUT, when I bought this wonderful vehicle someone had put P235-75-15 Yokohama Geolander tires (20 % worn) on all 4 wheels. I am suspecting that between the tires and the slight cupping on the side, and the design of the tires, I might have bought myself a growling monster. Please tell me I am on the right track. It will be a whole lot less expensive IF I have to deal with tires rather than driveshaft repairs and/or replacement; or differential axles or pinions. My ears (and eyes) are open to all of your wonderful suggestions. Someone said a "mind is a terrible thing to waste"; so please HELP your fellow Ford man before "marbles" fall out of my upper casing. Thank You sooooo very much.
Juan, desperate and rumbling in Orlando, Florida.