Front right wheel noise when turning left, cause?

[Adam Smith 2]

Today, I just started getting a sound from my front right wheel area when making hard left turns. There does not appear to be any rubbing of the tire against anything in the wheel well, and the sound is a little too harsh for that. The sound is something like a muffled grinding noise, and it seems to happen only at a certain point in the wheel's rotation (i.e. it pulses on and off as the truck wheel spins). What should I be investigating? Wheel bearing? CV joint?



'02 trac, 60k miles.

 

[Dreman]

CV joint or wheel bearing, as you said. Check for tears in the CV joint boot. A tear in the boot would let dirt and water in, shortening the life of the joint considerably. The pulsing would lead to believe a CV joint as well.



A quick peek in your member profile shows you like marine horns. Are you the guy with the Sport Trac on YouTube?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Grinding is characteristic of a bearing and or bearing race issue. However,,, the ABS system can make a similar noise as well but normally is more of a banging as in it being activated on and off very fast.



Easy to determine if it is the ABS by either pulling the fuse or unplugging the front sensor.



Yes, it will trip the ABS light, but it will reset once you correct the issue by plugging it back in...

 

[Dave King 2]

I had the same type of noise on my 01. Only seemed to happen when turning on a little incline like turning into a driveway. Turned out to be the brakes. Pads were down to just about nothing and started to grind on the rotors. Not much damage done though. Was able to turn the rotors and save them.

 

[Adam Smith 2]

I'm starting to suspect the CV joint as well, as I can hear the noise faintly on right-hand turns this morning also. I'm fairly certain it's not a brake noise, it's not coincident with braking, and on one occasion the noise went from a grinding sound to more of a popping. I'll get under there and see if either of the boots are torn.



And yeah, that is my trac with the ferry horn on youtube

 

[EddieS'04]

I changed the wheel bearings and races twice on my T-bird. I suspected the mexican made bearings. It turned out to be the tread pattern of the tires I had just bought, doing the growling on turns...

 

[Chad Merry]

It sounds like the wheel hubs. My ST made the same noise and I replaced both hubs/bearings with Timken brand and all is well now.

 

[Richard L]

When the wheel makes a noise when steering in one direction and not the other, it usually means a bad wheel bearing. The noise comes and goes when the wheel is loaded or unloaded as occurrs when you steer left or right. This is more prone to happen with the 4X4 since they use sealed front wheel bearings that cannot be serviced like 2WD's can.



...Rich

 

[Adam Smith 2]

Thanks everyone! It is starting to sound like the bearings. It's not a tire sound, it's too much of a grinding noise. It definitely increases with loading. Turns at the bottom of a hill are the worst. Listening from the outside, it does not sound like a CV failure, there is no characteristic clicking. It sounds like metal grinding slow but heavily against metal--no squealing, just grinding.

 

[MarkDawn Houlahan]

Check your steering stops on the lower control arms. If they are dry they make noise on hard turns, especially when under compression like a driveway ramp. A simple dab of wheel bearing grease on them will often solve it. Done the wife's several times over the years...



HTH...

Mark