The mighty front end roar.

[biggiesize]

So I have posted on here before about the roar that my front differential seems to make.I have replaced both front wheel bearings,new upper and lower ball joints and it still has this Awful growl,roar at about 25 mph and on.If I jack the fron end up and spin both tires as fast as I can,there is no roar.It as quiet and as free as it can be.I did notice that I can take the front drive shaft and twist it side to side a good bit.Is that normal for the 99 sports?This roar is driving me nuts.It sounds like I have mud swamper tires on it.

 

[scucci]

I just had tires replaced on my 98 sport. I had a roar from about 25mph to about 50mph. It sounded like a bad wheel bearing on the left front. Swapping tires side to side to change the direction of rotation changed the noise and mph range. It was a set of Goodyear wranglers which are known to get noisy as they wear. It's so quiet now I can hear a mouse belch in the back seat. I put on Dayton Timberline HT 2's.

 

[biggiesize]

So putting 4 new tires on it stopped your roar?I have noticed that when I rotate my tires,the roar changes in sound at first.

 

[team]

could be a bad pinion bearing, I had a bad pinion bearing in the rear diff. on a 2002 explorer and it roared the faster you got.

 

[That1guy12345]

Ah i have the same problem!

Both wheel bearings were replaced, axle pulled pulled and all bearings check, and new tires. The drivers side roar bad just like yours. I'm lost.

 

[scucci]

So putting 4 new tires on it stopped your roar?I have noticed that when I rotate my tires,the roar changes in sound at first.

Yes the new tires fixed the roaring noise.

 

[yellow coupe]

Ah i have the same problem!

Both wheel bearings were replaced, axle pulled pulled and all bearings check, and new tires. The drivers side roar bad just like yours. I'm lost.

Same problem here on the one I just bought. It is loud from the time you start moving up until about 25-30mph and then it quietens down considerably. It is a 98 Mountaineer 5.0 awd. The lady I got it from told me it has been doing it for a long while. She had both bearings replaced and new tires put on and it still does it. I will have to dig into a little as soon as I get a chance.

 

[yellow coupe]

Well, I got mine fixed today. It was the front differential. I installed a used one and all is well now. Just took about 4 hrs and some cuss words. It was making a growling sound up to about 25mph and it finally got bad enough to when you let off the gas and it was on the coast side of the gear it got real bad at any speed.

 

[Sauerkraut]

I have an '00 XLS and I have noticed a similar noise on the front pass side. I have 126K on the beast. Should I replace the bearings first?

 

[my pos mounty]

Does the noise change pitch when cornering? If so, next to do would be to get the truck jacked up, on jackstands, Check for wheel play in the 6 & 12 O'clock positions. If it is present, replace the wheel bearing.
Resist the temptation to go buy a cheaply priced wheel bearing assembly, they won't last very long and will cost you more than buying the good one first. Get a Timken bearing, you won't have any issues with that.

 

[Sauerkraut]

Thanks for the info, I'll specifically listen when cornering on the way home today. At the risk of sounding like a greenie, what do you mean by checking for wheel play at the 12 and 6 o'clock position? I am adept at mechanicing once I get into a project but in the past I have usually just taken my rigs down to the local tire shop for front end work and who know how many extras they have charged me for I didn't need. I'd like to start doing alot this basic maintainance repairs myself. Thanks - Kris

 

[my pos mounty]

My apologies, I should have been more clear in that.
When the truck is up on the jackstands, grab the tire in the 6 and 12o'clock positions and feel for any movement. If there is any, replace the hub/bearing.

 

[Sauerkraut]

Will do, I'll let you know how it fairs! Thanks again.

 

[Sauerkraut]

Well I got it up to my inlaws place and we jacked it up and everything seems to tight in place and looking good. My father in law is an experienced mechanic and he checked it all out and said everything looked to be in excellent condition. I did notice some odd wear patterns on the pass tire. Every other tread pattern on the inside of the tire is worn so that there is about an 1/16" difference in height alternating all the way around. Anyone know what causes that type of wear?

 

[my pos mounty]

Tie-rods. Not sure if thats an inner or outer.
Also check the balljoints

 

[blakshukvw]

I have this same or smilar noise in my x's frront end. I've checked all of the ball joints and stuff. I know it needs a sway bar end link bushing, but that's not causing this noise. I took the truck to a local trans shop yesterday and talked to a driveline pro about it. he said that pinion bearings are not real problematic on the Explorers, but they are on lots of GM's. He says he's seen where manufacturers get bad batches of bearings and the result is that the bearing shell material flakes off causing this noise. He confirmed what I thought that the pinion bearings may be the cause because it's not relative to turning like a wheel bearing. My truck makes the growling noise only under mild to heavy accel or full decel. Any slight input of the throttle, and no noise at all. It seems to be gradually getting worse. They estimated $1500 to replace the bearings in the R&P.

 

[my pos mounty]

I have this same or smilar noise in my x's frront end. I've checked all of the ball joints and stuff. I know it needs a sway bar end link bushing, but that's not causing this noise. I took the truck to a local trans shop yesterday and talked to a driveline pro about it. he said that pinion bearings are not real problematic on the Explorers, but they are on lots of GM's. He says he's seen where manufacturers get bad batches of bearings and the result is that the bearing shell material flakes off causing this noise. He confirmed what I thought that the pinion bearings may be the cause because it's not relative to turning like a wheel bearing. My truck makes the growling noise only under mild to heavy accel or full decel. Any slight input of the throttle, and no noise at all. It seems to be gradually getting worse. They estimated $1500 to replace the bearings in the R&P.

Yikes, I can't imagine spending that kind of cake on the truck. Thats 50% of total value (or close to it for mine). When my rear axle was whining so loud that I couldn't talk to the passenger I swapped out the entire assembly for under $300. www.car-part.com Check it out

 

[blakshukvw]

Yikes, I can't imagine spending that kind of cake on the truck. Thats 50% of total value (or close to it for mine). When my rear axle was whining so loud that I couldn't talk to the passenger I swapped out the entire assembly for under $300. www.car-part.com Check it out

Yeah, that sounds good but how do you know you're not just changing it out with another one with problems? I kow you're gonna say they have a warranty, but I'm not interested in doing this swap over and over until I find one that's quiet. I recently saw someone on here say they had their front R&P bearings rebuilt for $500. I wonder why these guys here where I'm at are so out of the ball park. I asked him how much it would be if I brought the front end in to him so he didn't have to remove it from the truck and he said it would save me like $100. Doesn't sound right to me and I'm not about to throw $1500 at the truck right now since I don't even have a fakkin job.

 

[my pos mounty]

Yeah, that sounds good but how do you know you're not just changing it out with another one with problems? I know you're gonna say they have a warranty, but I'm not interested in doing this swap over and over until I find one that's quiet. I recently saw someone on here say they had their front R&P bearings rebuilt for $500.

It has been my experiance that pinion bearings fail less often than carrier bearings. In Limited Slip Diffs, clutch packs fail more often than anything. Carrier bearings and clutch packs are also alot easier to replace than the pinion bearings (at least with my skill set).
Your right, I am going to mention the warranty word, I did get one. BUT, I also tore into the replacement axle before I hung it under my truck. I know the carrier bearings are good as are the clutch packs (well, the clutches are iffy, but will last another 5 or 6 months). I also checked the axle bearings and replaced the axle seals, backing plates and the cross pin locking bolt. I know what condition my axle is in because I was the one that did everything. I would never recomemend that anyone go buy a junkyard axle and not check it out before hanging it under their ride. That would be asking for failure.
Unfortunately there are many that are unemployed in this country right now, I am among them as well. The leading reason why I dove into this project was the cost, second was I knew I could do the job and care more about the end result than the mechanic up the street, And lastly, at a cost of $300 I wouldn't mind doing it twice..I'm still way ahead of the game.
My truck has over 200K and isn't going to be around alot longer, this is to get me to that end.

 

[blakshukvw]

It has been my experiance that pinion bearings fail less often than carrier bearings. In Limited Slip Diffs, clutch packs fail more often than anything. Carrier bearings and clutch packs are also alot easier to replace than the pinion bearings (at least with my skill set).
Your right, I am going to mention the warranty word, I did get one. BUT, I also tore into the replacement axle before I hung it under my truck. I know the carrier bearings are good as are the clutch packs (well, the clutches are iffy, but will last another 5 or 6 months). I also checked the axle bearings and replaced the axle seals, backing plates and the cross pin locking bolt. I know what condition my axle is in because I was the one that did everything. I would never recomemend that anyone go buy a junkyard axle and not check it out before hanging it under their ride. That would be asking for failure.
Unfortunately there are many that are unemployed in this country right now, I am among them as well. The leading reason why I dove into this project was the cost, second was I knew I could do the job and care more about the end result than the mechanic up the street, And lastly, at a cost of $300 I wouldn't mind doing it twice..I'm still way ahead of the game.
My truck has over 200K and isn't going to be around alot longer, this is to get me to that end.

That all makes sense to me. My truck has 135xxx on it and the truck itself is really nice so I don't just wanna give up on it. I can definitely do alot of this work but setting up lash in a diff or ring and pinion is something I know absolutely nothing about. I wonder what the odds are of having the carrier bearings and pinion bearings replaced to quiet them down and then when the lash is set again, the R&P make noise because they aren't meshing in the same worn areas as they were for 135K miles? Did youreplace the carrier bearings and axle bearings? Who set the lash on yours?