New wheel bearings in, still noisey

[NissanTy]

Just had new wheel hubs put in and my explorer is STILL making noise of a bad bearing. I don't know if it would be something in the AWD system or not. Its under a powertrain warranty but don't want the dealer to rape me of diagnostic fees if its something not powertain related. Could it be the rear wheel bearings as well? Thanks!

 

[wharriso]

Can you raise the wheels and spin them by hand to see if its coming from a wheel?

 

[NissanTy]

I had it out on the interstate this evening and it sounded bad. Kind of sounds like its coming from the center left from underneath. I'm thinking maybe transfer case or possible front differential. Think I might take it to the dealer next week.

 

[wharriso]

Before you do that you should lift up the rear and see if you can spin the wheels. I am saying that because I paid for an unnecessary wheel bearing repair before. I went to the shop with a car rode down the street going "click, click, click" and told them to fix the noise. They told me it was bearings in the differential (I don't even know if a differential has bearings), but I told them to go ahead and make the repair. When I got the car back and test drove it, the click noises were still there. I told the mechanic the noises were still there and he said "I thought you were talking about the other bearing noise". So I took the car home and did exactly what I am suggesting that you do, I lifted the car on each side and spun the wheels. The rear passenger wheel was very hard to turn by hand. I tried to remove that bad bearing for a few weeks then finally took the car to the dealer, they had to saw the spindle off. Needless to say I never went back to that shop again.

If you don't want to get "raped" with diagnostic fees it might help to isolate the problem, if you can.

 

[cusingeorge]

My 2007 is making a similar noise, and after thinking long and hard about it (and driving 600 miles this week) I decided that the noise is the half shaft on the drivers' side. When I am driving, and slightly turn the steering wheel, the noise abates. I don't think a wheel bearing would do this but a CV joint being put under a load might.

 

[mes5yc]

I have a 2003 XLT. I have the same problem. I thought stuck caliper, or wheel bearing. I have replaced both. It is worse with minimal steering input. I had a guy ride with me that had experience with transfer case problem. It is only left side and louder with speed and worse with steering input. Usually CV shafts make a clicking, there isn't any. No puslation while driving like with a transfer case problem. I will be swaping in a new left front CV this week. A new one from AutoZ is only $70.00. Now the guy did say he ran into issue of different front CV's male or female one having 26 splines and one with 27 splines. I've been researching, how I found this thread. Anuone know about this? I ask because I usually go RockAuto for parts but don't want wrong one. If your sound is a low growl that gets worse as soon as you turn the wheel then I say its CV shaft.

 

[Flag Gibby]

Mes5yc - If its the CV, the boot on it will usually show strain/damage on it due to the wobble that it makes instead of rotating smoothly (hence why you would typically hear a clicking noise). As far as the whole 26/27 spline thing, that may be the issue with the 3rd gen vehicles (I notice that the 2002-05 sport trac run a different part number for the front cv's), but haven't run into that issue with the 4th gen vehicles which is where you are posting right now.

 

[NissanTy]

I will try and spin the wheels as well as check the CV shaft. I can't really tell if it gets worse with turning left or not but it is a constant whine/hum and gets a lot louder with speed and when slowing down has almost a growl. I want to rule out rear bearings due to the noise seems to be near the middle/left of the explorer. I'd hate to buy a new CV shaft and that won't be it. I'll do what wharisso said though and try to rotate all the wheels to see if there are any noises.

 

[NissanTy]

Update on my explorer, left real wheel bearing is going bad (I never would of thought but I guess possible, noise sounded like it was coming from the front) and they ran a power test and cylinders 4 and 8 have a misfire. Diagnostic fees was $106, yeah ouch, but now I at least know whats wrong with my explorer. Guess thats the price I pay for buying a vehicle with 138k miles.