Troubleshooting question on a front end noise.

[calvanosm]

I have a loud hum and vibration coming from the front end that is real bad in a sweeping left turn and yet much quieter in sweeping right turns. I suspect wheel bearings but my crappy Hanes manual indicates that I have drive axles with (I think) integral bearings. Do you think the front drive axle is the culprit. It's a 2003 ford explorer, 4WD, V6, automatic, and 106K miles.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've renamed, and moved your thread to the stock 2002-2005 section. You could start with the bearings, and brakes. Were these things ever replaced?

 

[jrford]

Very common for the wheel bearings to go bad, perfect symptom. Although bad brakes may do it too . .
Jack up the wheel in question if there is any play wheel at all then they are shot. Mine made a noises like mud tires, also an ABS light which wasn’t related. But there was NO play only noise.

They are replaced as a hub assembly about $110 on fleabay. . .$200 locally.

 

[Silver04XLT]

I just experienced the same thing. The noise got much worse on left turns so I assumed that it was the left bearing. Well $200 later I come to find out that it is the right bearing so I just went and bought another bearing to fix it. I hope this helps. If you dont have the money for both right now try to do just the right bearing until you can get the other one done.

 

[jrford]

I should add in chasing down a ABS fault, after replacing the left side (which made all the noise), i replaced right too. . which didn't seem bad or loud.
Once out of the truck, when i turned them by hand both had 'rough' spots. Left was much worse. . .very minor in the right. Plan on doing both but you don't have to do it all at once.

Once the fronts are quiet then you will hear the rears bearings . . .lol.

 

[calvanosm]

Wheel Bearings

Freakin' OUTSTANDING! Thanks to everyone that replied to my "sweeping left turn hum" question. I will be replacing the wheel bearings on both sides (doesn't make much sense to do anything else) this weekend....assuming I can get parts in one day. will let you know what shakes out of the maintenance event but........I'v feelin' pretty good that this will take care of that "holy crap the truck is gonna seize up and sling my butt through the wind screen" noise. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

 

[99-5.0-awd]

i have a 99 AWD 5.0 will these fit ...all i can find is 4wd hubs my front end is grinding badly i have replaced tires,brakes ,and rotors so i need new hubs just need to know if these will work for my AWD................
http://www.nextag.com/wheel-hub-assembly-ford-explorer/stores-html they are the 1st ones.......