Front end noise

[Brucie]

I recently purchased an 03 F-250 4WD with 71,000 miles. When I test drove it and put it in 4WD, it made an awful grinding noise from the front end. So before I agreed to buy it, the owner took it to the local Ford garage and had it worked on. The ford garage checked the front wheel bearings (good), replaced the front differential, the transfer case and the front drive shaft. They also flushed the transmission (automatic). The garage manager said the truck had been driven off-road but did not appear to have been underwater. Now the bad noise in 4WD is gone, but there is still some noise coming from the front end all the time, even when not in 4WD. It kind of sounds like the hubs are locked in, but these are the automatic hubs with the switch in the cab, and the hubs are in automatic. Anybody out there ever heard of this? The Ford gargae tells me all is OK, but I feel that something is still not right.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Sounds to me like one of the "automatic" hubs has gone bad. These things are real pieces of crap. The best thing you can do from a reliability viewpoint is to replace the automatic hubs with manual ones. It's not hard to do. It'll take about 15 - 20 minutes for the first one and about 10 minutes to do the second one. (It goes faster with practice.)

Click on my webshots link below and you'll find some pics I took when I did mine a few years back.

 

[01SMOKINSD]

I just recently changed my auto hubs over to the warn manual hubs (part # 11690 I believe) Make sure you cap off the vaccum lines going to the auto hubs. I capped mine off right in the whell well by the brake lines. Honestly best mod I have done yet, even picked uo some fuel milage.

 

[Brucie]

OK, thanks. I'll give that a try. On a different note, my truck has the factory running boards but I want to put on the factory oval chrome tube steps. Anybody have some they want to get rid of or know where I can get some?

 

[BigRedWeather]

Tighten the lug nuts

This may sound too simple, but if the lug nuts are loose, it can make a bad noise. My F350 calls for 120 foot pounds of torque on each lug.


BigRedWeather

 

[BamaSixGun]

is the exhaust free and clear from touching anything? if it is, it will make the whole floor pan vibrate.

just another thought

 

[Brucie]

Lug nuts are good, I'll have to check the exhaust.

 

[Tbar]

The ford garage checked the front wheel bearings (good), replaced the front differential, the transfer case and the front drive shaft.

Hummm...........that is alot of work to have done on a truck with only 71,000 miles ????


Tbar