Hey all,

2005 Edge 3.0, rwd, auto. I was driving on the highway for a few hours yesterday, and abruptly got a squealing sound which (at first) I assumed came from the rear right drum brake, which has been a consistent problem. I opened it up, checked, eventually snugged up the shoes so they wouldn't rub the drums while I tried to finish my trip, but the squeal continued. At this point I noticed that, even with the wheel torqued down and tight to the drum, while jacked up the axle slides in and out a little bit. I was in the middle of nowhere, so I drove another forty minutes - gingerly - until I could get to a town where I could stop; after 10 mins driving, the squeal went away and didn't return. Would this be caused by a bearing?

I can't get the truck looked at today or tomorrow, as I'm in a small town rn, and I'm pretty mechanically inexperienced, so any tips, suggestions, or critiques are welcome! Thanks :-)

 

Nvm, my bad, I did some more research and learned a tiny bit of sliding - without forward-backward or up-down play - is normal on these rear axles. Sorry!

 

Yes, slight in and out movement is normal for rear axles they are held by a C-clip in the differential

Squeal could be axle bearing
Check fluid level in differential

 

Thanks Ron!

 

You definitely don't want to lose an axle bearing as a failed bearing may or may not start to eat into the axle shaft if not addressed in a timely manner.

 

Thanks Fordzilla; that is definitely sobering. Is there any way to check whether the bearing is (at least probably) good or not without disassembling the differential? Or is disassembly just something that will have to be done to eliminate concerns?

Fwiw, after the initial squealing for 10 minutes, no further noises have happened since. I noticed the rear right brake drum (the noise seemed to be coming from rear right) was wearing very unevenly, so I'm replacing all the hardware in there tomorrow on the assumption that's the most obviously wrong thing going on. But still no noise, even now.