New to the forum world

[myoder]

Hi my name is mike, just got a 2003 ford,2wd, explorer, edie bauer pkg.4.0 v-6. The rear end roars like crazy. Told me it was normal. Took a chance with it and went from south carolina to kentucky with it, 1200 miles round trip. Any way to quiet it down or make it stop. 181,000 miles and runs strong. Normal stuff going bad, oil sending unit is bad i think, upper ball joints and rear shocks. I'm a bit of a motor head so hopefully we will be able to help each other out. Thanks for this forum.

 

[rookieshooter]

A really loud roar is not normal. Someones feeding you a line of crap. Yes the 8.8 rear axle does sometimes make a noise but not what your describing. On several 8.8 axles I've had I've done two things that both have worked to quite them down.
The most important is to remove the tires and grab the axle flange and see how much it moves laterally which can give you an indication of the outer axle bearings. I've had to replace several sets.
If they are fine then remove DS and crank down on pinion nut. I've used an extension on a breaker bar for this. I'm thinking it's a combo of both.

 

[rickybobby]

rookieshooter, he has independent rear suspension. those models seem to have noise problems that require internal repairs. not sure on the specifics anymore as i have no desire to own a 3rd gen. some people have run limited slip additive and thicker synthetic fluid with mixed results

 

[rookieshooter]

I know I know, this was posted just so when he goes to a real axle ha ha.

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I know that there is a TSB for rear end noise on one model, but I'm not sure which year.