Squeak or squeal in LF tire

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
So the sound is more like a stone stuck in tread. Started awhile ago thinking is was a stone, but till there. 26k on truck and today I tried something while driving. Going about 40 mph, window down, I rotated the steering wheel L/R and noise went away briefly then came back. Have not jacked up that side to check for possible;e bad bearing/hub, as I really thought it is the squeal thingy on brake pads indicating they are low. BUT seeing how the noise went away w/ the L/R motion has me thinking it's not the brakes. Thoughts?
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Have you checked the lug nuts?
I would then suggest checking the springs, hangers and bearings.

Peace
Dave
 

Gary521

Well-known member
Pull the wheel and do some checking. Before you do that when the truck is elevated, shake the tire at the 3-9 position and the 6-12 position to see if you have any play.
 

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
Been sometime since I posted this, but so far........

Took to dealer for a looksy and tech said brakes are the prob. NOW, coming home this past Sat, nice day and thought I heard a louder than usual noise, so put window down and the noise is not a squeak/squal anymore. More like a grinding. So for farts and giggles, pulled over and engaged the ESOF 4wd and noise seemed to go away. Disengaged it and noise got louder. Did this a couple more times and more/less same results BUT did notice too that even in 4wd the noise really never went away. I did turn the wheel left/right at Hiway speed and the noise went away in both directions. This has me leaning more towards bearing/hub. Your thoughts.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
I would agree with your guess of bearing/hub, although only 26K miles on your truck seems low for this. I had both front hub/bearings replaced on my 2004 Dodge 3500 this summer, but 250K miles on mine.
 

rhodies1

Well-known member
This definitely sounds like a wheel bearing, noise is going away under load when you move the wheel.
 

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
wdk, truck has just over 40k miles now.

Thanks for the replies, will chat w/ dealer who I'd rather not go to and see if they can take a look at it. Still under the powertrain wty I believe.
 

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
Well I'm still about 3 weeks away from taking truck to dealer, BUT had a almost catastrophic deadly/disaster situation. While backing alongside garage yesterday, I heard a load noise in LF. Popped off hubcap and there lists a broken wheel stud. Figure this to be odd, but an easy fix. Called local dealer while doing errands here in town, no studs, but dealer in city has them about 12 miles away.....RATS!). So finish my errands and go to city dealer. While on city streets and pulling onto their lot, hear a load noise again in LF. Pop cap off and there sits broken stud #2. Now it's like "WTH is going on"? Get the studs but they are course thread and mine were fine. No lugs on hand but Lincoln dealer across the street "has" them. Go there and no they have the fine thread nuts. In between I called tire shop up per stud dealer to see if they can get me in last minute to put them in (guess more to it than just beating the H out of them to remove 'em and they said er, uh, er, can you be here by 3? Yup!. Well seems the studs were packaged wrong from Ford. So after about 20-25 minutes and not ahead any, I head to tire shop.

Now I was here last in early Sept for new tires and went to TN/back and there around town and such, w/o any probs whatsoever and about 4500 miles as well. They get me in in very short order then call me into the bay (this can't be good). Sure enough. Upon arrival, of the remaining 6 studs/nuts, 5 nuts were loose, the 6th was only barley tight, and the studs themselves, the threads were compromised. To make matters worse (thought this was bad 'nuff), the holes in rim were oblonged, so rim was toast as it would never get 100% tight. Now it's a really "WTH" moment.

In talking w/ tire shop, I recall being at Ford dealer last month and I told them about the noise (topic of this post) and recall them telling me in return then the brakes were 50%, rust on rotors and slides pins may need lubing.......basically some brake work. Looking at some serious bucks here and no problems back in Sept, now I'm thinking dealer pulled this wheel off to look at things and didn't tighten/TQ things back up. Call dealer to see exactly what they did and if a wheel was taken off. They said I said RF and I said I'm 99.9% positive I told them LF. After all, kinda hard to hear a squeak/squeal in RF I think going down the road. But they are saying RF and would have to have the office pull paperwork out to see what the tech did. As far as I'm concerned, they took LF off and boo-booed.

So tire shop is going to replace the 8 studs and put spare tire on for now and in my belief the Ford dealer will confess they erred and both reimburse me for this part, provide a new rim and cover cost of switching tire over.

In the end, I may not have a bad hub/bearing afterall as this all just came about last weekend. Kind of a peeing contest if you will I think between me and Ford dealer as to what they said I said and what they did. BUT the tires/rims have not been removed at all since Sept, drove over 4k miles and not a problem 1. Truck goes to dealer and 1mo later this? Tire shop said it's usually 2-4 weeks before you see end result like this from not being tight, and it was at dealer on the 19th of Nov.

If not caught yesterday, I had planned on using truck today for a 120+ miles trip and towing a trailer. One can only wonder the "what if's" if the other studs broke off at 55-60mph and/or towing?

Another up[date to follow.
 

NYSUPstater

Well-known member
Well I just spoke w/dealer and they claim they never took the wheel off. Doubt very highly that someone just happen to want to play a dirty trick randomly came by and loosened up the nuts. So from what I'm gathering based on this call that the dealer is saying "It's not our fault", and I'm on the hook for everything. Merry Christmas to me right? ! LOL
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Just thank God that you DIDN'T have an accident. As Forrest Gump said: "XXXX Happens".

I just had a $600 towing charge and a $2000 repair for a minor fuels system part ( and other less critical stuff found) at a remote RV park on a Friday before a mandatory Monday RV park move. I had to swallow hard and pay ANYONE who showed up to do the truck tow, and the shop the tow driver knew of open on Saturday, that got it fixed by Saturday afternoon. Analyzing what happened afterwards, with the time constraints I had, I would probably do the same thing again. But I am buying my own OBD codes and engine data reader, and have the internet ready for troubleshooting help.

If you don't make a claim with a dealer within a day or so, nothing is going to happen. Years ago I had a Ford station wagon that I took to the dealer for a fuel filter clog (I think). After the repair I found the bead chain for the aftermarket cruise control cut. Of course, the mechanic swore up and down that he didn't do it, "it came in that way", and I ended up fixing it. After this recent repair, I found the aftermarket EGT gauge didn't work, found the red power wire for the gauge cut. I just fixed it.
 
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