Rear Noise

[paulstuff1971]

02 Explorer, noise @ rear mostly the right side, kinda sounds like a bad tire like a (whooping,whoop) checked all tire psi. even put spare on still same sound, brake pads okay.. Anything else I may need to look into..

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome paul

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! It could be the rear differential or brakes.

 

[jsmart2]

sorry to butt in, but I have the same noise on a 2002 on the left side and was thinking of changing the bearing (but it doesn't have typical bearing symptoms - no wobble, can't get it to make noise on the lift, ect.)...what would be bad in the diff?

 

[paulstuff1971]

Just looked @ parts & pricing for the bearings, seems like it'll be either or a independent rear suspension winch is about $151.00. Now how to tell them apart i don't know..

 

[jsmart2]

from what I have read here...it seems as though every time there is rear end noise people change the bearings...not too fun on the back from what I've read but I'm going to give it a shot next week...

I had not heard anyone comment on the diff until Brook (and a guy at Big O...they spent 5 mins. with it and said it wasn't a rear bearing, but was the rear end or diff "going bad"...) but I'm not sure what would be wrong there to look at...

 

[BrooklynBay]

The gears in the differential could have chips or hair line cracks.

 

[paulstuff1971]

Well guess I'll go for the bearings first, sounds pretty awful don't wanna to loose my wheel, hub, ect.. just not sure how long it has before something gives.. Thanks & Good fixxin..

 

[dorman68]

I have seen the rear wheel bearings fail alot.

 

[jsmart2]

that's what I've read as well, but they don't seem to fail like a standard car where you can diagnose it by shaking the wheel (checking for play in the wheel)...my wheels are tight all around when I put it up on the lift...must be a tighter connection than the passanger cars I'm used to...

 

[dorman68]

The typical failure I have read about is that the rear wheel bearings develop roaring noise. The experience I have had was with my neighbor's 2003 Explorer. His Explorer had a bearing noise from the rear. I first jacked up the rear wheels suspecting that the rear bearings would have some play in them, but they did not. We went for a road test, my neighbor drove and I sat in the rear cargo area to see if I could isolate the sound. It appeared to be coming for the left rear. I took a chance and replaced the left rear bearing, problem solved!! I got lucky on this one.

 

[jsmart2]

That's interesting that they don't have the play in them...I'm going for the left side this week...hopefully I'll get lucky also...

by the way how bad was the fix?

 

[Nytroman]

jsmart, they are actually not too bad to change, you might have to have a parts dept. press out the old bearing and the new bearing in( they are PRESSED bearings)

 

[jsmart2]

I have a 30 ton press so I hope I can do it in the garage...we'll see

 

[dorman68]

It was a pain in the but. I had to remove the knuckle and take it to the machine shop to have the old bearing pressed out and the new one pressed in.

 

[jsmart2]

lol....well there's both side of the coin...

 

[Nytroman]

I have a 30 ton press so I hope I can do it in the garage...we'll see

perfect, then you should be all good, take of the caliper, then the rotor, spray up the E-brake with a pentrating oil, and then just slide the E-brake out, nothing holds it in, you might have to wiggle and jiggle. remove rear tie rod bolt and tie rod, and 2 other bolts and its out,

when pressing just be sure the bearing is going in straight, gets to be a pain if it gets at an angle