growling noise with intermittent metal grinding noise in front end

[resq302]

My wifes 2008 Explorer Eddie Bauer 4x4 edition has been making a growling / howling noise in the front end recently. Today, it started making an intermittent metal on metal grinding noise when you turn the wheel to the left. It almost seems like the noise is on the right side. I've replaced the left front wheel hub before a few months ago when it was making that howling noise. This new metal on metal grinding noise that is intermittent has me puzzled though. Would a hub bearing start making a metal on metal grinding noise? When I turn the wheel to the right, the noise is not present. Going straight you hear the howling noise but no metal on metal noise until you turn the wheel to the left. My thought is that since you turn the wheel to the left, the weight shifts to the right front wheel.

Anyone care to share their thoughts of what might be the issue? The explorer has 89,000 miles.

Thanks in advance.

Brian

 

[MotorCityFats13]

when hubs fail they grind just before they completely fall apart.... you cant pinpoint the side by turning since they both have
inner and outer bearing races, depending on the failure location you get the sound when play is at its worst.... if you jack up the
truck on 4 stands you can walk around the truck and listen for bearing failure ... but if it is grinding the side that is bad should
have play in just about every direction, you can also have a bad abs sensor inside the hub causing havoc on the
4wd system


this is a 3 lug hub outer ring you can see the 2 locations that we heat treat that the bearing rides along... each hub has 2 bearing failure locations,
I am a quality inspector for the place that heat treats the SKF hubs so I am probably
the most experienced
person on here in regards to bearing function, failure and basic operation

 

[resq302]

Ok, so I went out and jacked up the front end on my wifes Explorer. I turned the wheels and heard nothing so I tried seeing if there was any play at the wheel. Nothing. Each wheel was nice and tight. So side to side and no up or down play. One thing I did notice was there was a little bit of weeping (no drips) around the seal where the driver side CV joint goes into the differential. There was a lot of play where the CV joint went into the diff. Up, down, left, right. I also notice some (not as much) play on the pass side where the CV joint goes into the differential tube. This side had no weeping or leaks and was nice and dry. When I replaced the hub on the driver side earlier this year, I had replaced this seal too and it fixed the problem. I wonder if the growling / grinding noise could be a bearing going inside the differential.

Should the half axles that go into the diff. section have any kind of play to them? When I checked the rear differential, I noticed no play in this area. Then again, the car was still on the ground at the rear too when I checked it.

 

[resq302]

Just wanted to come back and post the update. Monday I was able to change out the pass side front hub and the noise is gone. Thanks for everyone who helped with replies.