Noise when slowing down

[scottrappley]

I just noticed today that say I was cruising around 60mph, then I hit the brakes to drop out of cruise and when the vehicle starts slowing down I am hearing a noise like when the tires are going over the cracks in the road. I know it is not the road as the road is all new with no cracks or anything in it. I shift in and out of gears fine so I do not think it is a transmission problem. I was thinking something to do with the caliper or brakes in some aspect. It can't be the tires neither cause it would do it all the time. Also I noticed it does not do it all the time. I will need to drive more to determine if it is getting worse or not or to try and diagnose more information. Anyone have any ideas or experienced this themselves? My vehicle is a 2003, explorer, limited, V8, 4wd if that helps. Thanks.

 

[scottrappley]

Update

Update. Talked with my step father and he thinks it is possibly a cv joint that is the problem. I believe this is all part of the halfshaft and all of it would need to be replaced. Has anyone else had a similar experience? How do I know if I need a halfshaft with traction control or not? When I went to autozone's website that was an option. I "assume" with the limited model, and having 4x4 auto/4x4 hi that it would have traction control. That jumps the price up quite a bit of course. How hard is it to replace a halfshaft? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scottrappley]

Update

Well crawled under and started moving things around yesterday. Noticed no problems with the halfshaft or driveshaft. I decided to check the front differential fluid and it was extremely diry and possibly low, hard to tell. I sucked it out and put new fluid in. Problem still exists. I have noticed the clunking does not happen unless I reach about 50mph. Once I reach around 50 mph and then just take my foot off the accelerator and coast there is this "huge" clunking sound. Here is the interesting thing to me. If I engage the 4x4 high, the clunking goes away. If I then re-enage 4x4 auto, the clunking comes back immediately. Any ideas????? Someone must have experienced or seen this, I hope. Thanks.

 

[Ronin8002]

My truck has done this too...it's like a thud sound but it doesn't do it all the time. Thought it might be the abs?

Well crawled under and started moving things around yesterday. Noticed no problems with the halfshaft or driveshaft. I decided to check the front differential fluid and it was extremely diry and possibly low, hard to tell. I sucked it out and put new fluid in. Problem still exists. I have noticed the clunking does not happen unless I reach about 50mph. Once I reach around 50 mph and then just take my foot off the accelerator and coast there is this "huge" clunking sound. Here is the interesting thing to me. If I engage the 4x4 high, the clunking goes away. If I then re-enage 4x4 auto, the clunking comes back immediately. Any ideas??
??? Someone must have experienced or seen this, I hope. Thanks.

Posted via Mobile Device

 

[scottrappley]

You think it might be the ABS? Hmmm. I am not sure how that would cause a huge clunking but right now I am up for anything. I have been reading a ton of posts and it sounds like I could replace just about anything. I have not found a post that really sounds exact like mine. This has to be a common issue. I am sure someone else has experience this. Just have to find the right post and hope they have a solution.

 

[xTOM153x]

Sounds like a 4x4 Control Module because when you say you engage 4x4 high it goes away and a lot of people had problems with it trying to engage while driving. Unplug it or remove fuse 17 and 18 (i think double check with that) its all over the forums its a common problem and its only about 150 to replace the module if thats the problem and you can probably do it yourself.

 

[scottrappley]

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I will have more info today. Over last weekend I changed the fluids in the rear differential and the transfer case. My step fathers son owns his own shop and is in with a network of technicians every morning on the net. According to that group of people the problem could be related to my tires. I guess between the 4 tires you can not have more then a 3/4" difference in circumference between them. They measured my tires and one of them was around an 1". Also that particular tire is the same brand and size as the other 3 but a different tread pattern. I had just purchased this explorer so this was something that I did not do. My plan is today to go and have 4 new tires put on. I was going to do this anyway as the tires do not have a lot of tread left. I asked Belle tire to measure the 4 new tires to see what the circumference is of them. Hopefully tonight I will have more information. If all goes well the problem will go away. If it still exists after the new tires then I will take a look at this 4x4 control module. Thanks for the input and I will post again after I have new information.

 

[scottrappley]

Fixed

Well I went to Belle tire and purchased 4 new Goodyear Fortera HL tires and had them installed. Took the Explorer for a ride and now the clunking is gone. Feels so good to not have that feeling anymore. I had no idea having tires of the same size but a big difference in tread depth would make that clunking sound. Whoever had the vehicle prior to me was not very bright. Anyway hope this information helps out someone else down the road as well.

 

[JHG120]

Glad it's fixed. I've seen this before with tires and different sizes, but never even thought to mention it. Nice tires as well. Now just keep them properly rotated.