Loose Bed?

[MikeMusic]

Hello everyone,

My Expedition XLT is a 2002 with 258K miles on it. She runs beautifully for a vehicle of her age and mileage (I try my absolute best to keep her in great condition). Mechanically, she's sound and I'd drive her anywhere with complete confidence in her but I am now having an issue that is going to send me to the loony bin.

Every time I go over a bump the rear of the truck sounds like it's going to fall off in the middle of the road. It's hard to explain but it doesn't sound like a particular loose part; it sounds like the entire thing is not fastened. I had the exhaust system replaced which was definitely overkill. Sound still there. Replaced swingbar (please excuse my ignorance of part names. I'm no mechanic). Sound still there. The tailgate is tight -- no sound coming from there. Had my mechanic poke around underneath with his rubber mallet and he said everything's tight back there. If I'm allowed to post here, I'll take a recording with my phone so that you can hear what I'm referring to.

The only time the truck doesn't make that loud noise back there is when it's completely packed with very heavy pieces of equipment (I own an entertainment business so we often travel with huge speakers, cases of cables, etc).

Have any of you ever heard of the bed being detached from the body?

 

[craig sargood]

Try putting a floor jack under it and try lifting it with some wood, if it lifts at all, you’ll know the problem. Maybe try replacing body mounts, I think there’s like 8 or 10, not too hard.

 

[MikeMusic]

Try putting a floor jack under it and try lifting it with some wood, if it lifts at all, you’ll know the problem. Maybe try replacing body mounts, I think there’s like 8 or 10, not too hard.

Thanks. I’ll take it back to my mechanic to have the body mounts replaced.

When you say lifting it with wood, what does that mean? Again, I’m not too car savvy.

 

[lonestarjeff]

Another thing that can be pretty noisy is if you have shock mount bolt holes that are wallowed out or worn shock bushings.

 

[Trainmaster]

By now in Brooklyn driving, the rear links are probably pretty worn. They also rust out pretty badly. As was said here - check them all out with the wheels lifted and no load on the axle.

 

[MikeMusic]

Thank you very much, guys. Haven’t had a chance to take her to the mechanic yet (super busy schedule) but I will soon and post the result here.

 

[craig sargood]

Hey, sorry for the late response, to lift with with wood blocks, means use a normal floor jack at stack some wood blocks to take up the distance and to not damage body underside.

 

[Petesexpy]

Hello everyone,

My Expedition XLT is a 2002 with 258K miles on it. She runs beautifully for a vehicle of her age and mileage (I try my absolute best to keep her in great condition). Mechanically, she's sound and I'd drive her anywhere with complete confidence in her but I am now having an issue that is going to send me to the loony bin.

Every time I go over a bump the rear of the truck sounds like it's going to fall off in the middle of the road. It's hard to explain but it doesn't sound like a particular loose part; it sounds like the entire thing is not fastened. I had the exhaust system replaced which was definitely overkill. Sound still there. Replaced swingbar (please excuse my ignorance of part names. I'm no mechanic). Sound still there. The tailgate is tight -- no sound coming from there. Had my mechanic poke around underneath with his rubber mallet and he said everything's tight back there. If I'm allowed to post here, I'll take a recording with my phone so that you can hear what I'm referring to.

The only time the truck doesn't make that loud noise back there is when it's completely packed with very heavy pieces of equipment (I own an entertainment business so we often travel with huge speakers, cases of cables, etc).

Have any of you ever heard of the bed being detached from the body?

I just spent $3,500 fixing rusted rear subframe (4 body mounts completely gone) and the radiator support (2 front body mounts gone). I've heard the noise like you described during turns. It turned out to be the floor flexing, because the subframe stiffening it was rusted off completely. The only reason I could afford it was because a local mechanic fabricated the subbframe for me out of an angle iron and gave me a huge break (paid $1,700 instead of $2,700). The rusted radiator support was $1,800 and it was also a huge break (2 body shops refused to even talk to me, the other 2 quoted $3,000 to start with - it was a small performance fabricating shop that was a bit slow at that time who did it). Get it checked, or you are going to end up with car in 2 separate parts...

 

[craig sargood]

And you should replace or at least check out your suspension since your in NY, I’m sure you have some rust and/or just wear n tear.

 

[craig sargood]

Hopefully you don’t have Pete’s problem ( sorry Pete)

 

[MikeMusic]

Hi guys. Thanks for your responses. Took it to my mechanic and he said the cost of the job -- roughly $2500 which could increase if other things break during the process) would far surpass the worth of the truck which I agree with. Sadly I'm just going to drive it the way it is until she dies...which doesn't seem like anytime soon since she's mechanically sound. I'll be driving with my system up so as to drown out the rattling back there.

 

[Petesexpy]

Yes, that's what it would cost me if the shop charged me the full amount. HOWEVER, think about it this way - if you leased or bought and made payments on the new expy (or even used one), you'd pay a MINIMUM $400 a month. So, if you make this repair, it will take you roughly 6 month to "pay it off." And you will have this car completely free of any additional payments. If you would buy a new (or used) Expedition, you would have about SIX MORE YEARS of the same payments. I just put in roughly $5K into the car since last Thanksgiving, and by that math, I will pay it off by December 1st, and have the use of my car FREE OF CHARGE after that. So if you put into the car less than $300-$400/month in repairs, you are breaking even.