so i took my truck to the local ford dealer the other day to have the front end checked out. trying to figure out what was causing the noises in my front end. soooo the popping i was hearin and feeling was from a F'd up axle shaft & bearing, and a tie rod that has a tiny bit of play in it. he said the cracking/scratching sound comin from the left wheel could be the caliper slider pins needing some grease and possibly also from the popping noise traveling from the right side of the messed up axle shaft to the left side, echoing through the wheel. but i have my doubts. i greased the slider pins and the noise decreased significantly, but is still there. it seems like it only makes the noise when im slowing down and turning my wheels to the left. thought it was breaks but it does it when im turning w/o applying the breaks at all. he said the bjs and brakes were alright. one thing i noticed though is that i have stock shocks all the way around (need new ones). and the left sides upper sleeve is dented in a little on the outter edge and looks like its been rubbing the lower part of the shock. could this be the sound, or do you goes have other thoughts? thanks

 

if your left shock was messed up, you'd hear it when you turn right and vice versa. I'm thinking it might possibly be the wheel bearings too.

 

are the wheel bearings seperate from the hub assembly? if they are together then ive replaced it, TWICE! heres what i bought: hub assembly

 

if it is the wheel bearings idk why the hell the mech couldnt figure it out. could something be causing it to go out??? ive replaced L and R hub assemblies, the L one twice. thank god for the warranty...

 

could this be caused by not engaging, disengaging my 4wd? ive been searching on here and google and ppl have said the differencial and the TREs

 

how many miles on the truck?

would you describe this sound as 'growling'?? 'growling' is a symptom of bad wheel bearings and the entire hub assy would need to be replaced. You can't just replace the bearing on 4x4's....the hub and wheel bearings are a unit.

 

And this is why I hate replacing them on my truck.

Is it a rotational noise? or when you are tuning your wheels etc.

 

its like a cracking/clicking sound. thats what i thought on the hubs. i guess he though it was like the older rangers. its got almost 112k. ive replaced both CV axles and both hub assemblies (drivers side, the same side thats makin the noise, twice). im havin the fron axel shaft/bearing replaced thursday. its leaking fluid and is really loose, wiggles around quite a bit. and its rotational and when turning. this noise came from both sides but after replacing all the parts i listed above it went away. then the drivers side noise came back. happend to be that 1 out of 6 assemblies are lemons and it was bad so we replaced it under warranty. it went away now its back again. if its the hub assembly again, could something be causing it to wear this fast? the most offroading i do is just driving around at our hunting lease and when i go fishing, etc. i dont go wheeling or nething. could the ABS cause the sound.

 

anything guys?

 

Check your inner tie rod, I have a similar noise and my inner tie rid has a lot of play, I'll let you know if my noise goes away one I replace it

 

is it like a clicking sound when you turn the wheel to the right or when slowing down/breaking?

 

ok, i got the axle shaft and bearing replaced. it deffinately did NOT make the clicking/cracking sound in the left side go away. this really frustrates me that no mech can tell me wth is causing it. first one said that it was the 4x4 hubs which is BS bc i have live axles. the 2nd one said it was the axle shaft and that the sound is most likely traveling through the axle to the other side echoing the noise. the axle shaft was REALLY loose and leaked alot of fluid but fixing it did not make any of the noises go away. it drove a little better but thats it. its getting to the point where i wanna take all the **** i put on it off and buy another ranger and put it on it. it sux havin stuff screw up and not know whats causin it or how to fix it.

but neways. i did do some messin around to try and locate whats causin it. it does it whether im on the brakes or not. i drove around a left hand turn without hitting the brakes and it still made the noise. it also pulls to the left when coming to a stop if that has nething to do w/ it. i dont rele know what could cause the noise except for the brake system.

 

im finally just gonna guess that its the brakes. not sure if its rotors or calipers, ill replace both and the pads if need be. it sounds rotational to me. i dont understand why its just when i slow down and make left turns. anyone got nemore ideas??? i got prices on inner/outter TREs, upper/lower BJs, UCA's, and 4 shocks. my dad says he cant do the BJs or the inner TRE's bc he aint got the tools. if neone can tell me how to do it thatd be great

 

how many miles? and when was the last time the brakes were replaced?

 

around 112000. i got the truck around 100,000 which was back at the end of last june and put breaks pads on like a few weeks after. i had a ford dealer look at the whole front end to see what could be causin all of the noise. the axle shaft and bearing were leaking very bad and was very loose. replaced it. he also said that upper/lower BJ's, brakes, UJs, and everything else was fine except for the passenger side TRE had a little play and thats it. well, my A-arm and shock on the drivers side have hit at some time but idk when. but he said everything checked out ok. i think hes full of ****. it pisses me off that a damn ford mechanic cant tell me wth is wrong...

 

i dont trust dealers, their "ford certified mechanics" screwed both my dad and i over because they didnt know what they were doing, bring it to a smaller local garage and they fixed it right the first time, where as ford was having me bring it in every 2 days and not doing anything to it, literally.

 

wow. my dad used to work on cars alot back when he used to race and he cant think of nething but brakes causing it. since its got that many miles i might as well replace everything neways ya know.

 

If its what I think it is...https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ad.php?t=84470

Now im having problems with the passenger side..but the drivers side is still silent from when I greased and cleaned everything. no more cracking/popping/ticking

 

yea, but it seems like evertime we replaced a CV joint or hub it would go away for a while then come back. and its come back to stay i think. the only reason that pushes me away from thinkn its brakes is that it does it when im turning to the left WITH or WITHOUT applying the brakes.

 

Any luck getting this figured out?

My truck has started a rotational clicking sound when cruising and slowing down, not so much turning or braking. I'm thinking it's either a cv or hub but can't tell yet.

 

Check your U-joints?

 

Good idea. I haven't yet, but will.

That makes me think about the driveshaft too. It has been slinging grease for a couple months and I wonder if that could be the noise maker. hmmm

 

Yeah CV's will normally start clicking when you turn. At least that's what mine did, then they exploded lol.

 

i havnt had time, i just dropped 650 on vacation. lol. after i get some money saved up im gonna replace in/out tie rod ends and both upper control arms w/ moog parts. and get it aligned to see what that does... ive replaced both CVs already and both hub assemblies (drivers side that noise is coming from twice...). could something be causing them to go out? like bein out of alignment or other parts being worn putting more stress on CVs/hub assemblies? and could over worn shocks (im thinkn theyre original w/ 115k on the truck) cause issues? im lookin to get KYB monomaxs all the way around soon too.

 

Mine seems to be coming from the drivers side too.

All my bj's, shocks, and stuff are pretty much brand new. So I'm not suspecting those.