Noise from front drivers side (02 Explorer)

[Aaron1]

Hey everybody! Listen i have been hearing a noise when i am accelerating, driving, and slowing down that at first sounded like clunking and now when i do the things mentioned above you can hear a vibarting sound.It sounds almost like when your brake pads are worn.
I had a friend of mine check it out and he said it was the rack and pinion.Does anyone knowe the avg cost of getting this fixed besides taking it to a Ford shop.My friend also checked my left passenger side and it was ok.I wanted some info and has anyone else had this problem.The noise is aggravating.Thanks for your time....

 

[Pinshooter13]

Does not sound like Rack and Pinion to me. Usually the noise from that is only when turning. You'll probably be leaking power steering fluid from it when it goes bad. Jack up the front end and try a spin and shake on the wheels to see if you notice anything.

 

[Aaron1]

Does not sound like Rack and Pinion to me. Usually the noise from that is only when turning. You'll probably be leaking power steering fluid from it when it goes bad. Jack up the front end and try a spin and shake on the wheels to see if you notice anything.

Hey pinshooter13,my friend did that and when he took off the wheel and shook it it looked loose, we did the right side and the wheel was tight.Also while driving around curves you can hear the noise kinda increase when going mostly to the left.While driving the noise sounds like a womp,womp,womp,womp while starting increases with speed and is maintained with the speed, and slowing down.

 

[coled43]

This sounds like it would be the wheel bearing/hub assembly. It seems to be common on 02's. It costs around $200 for the part and an hour or so of labor. There is a how to thread here somewhere for replacing it on a 2nd Gen and it's about the same for an 02. It sounds like it is getting pretty bad, so you should take care of it soon (It gets worse quick). I just had this done recently. I didn't think it would be worth the pain of getting the old parts broken free for the extra hundred.