front end noise when going straight

[JS CO]

Hi folks --
I have a new issue with my 2018 Expedition Max -- a phantom noise coming from the front end. It started pretty faintly a month or two ago. We don't typically drive it very much, but it was basically a low rumbly gear sound from what sounded like the left front. We took it in a couple weeks ago and they diagnosed a bad front left wheel bearing/hub (at 35,000 miles!) - they said they could hear a rough spot when they spun the hub. Several hundred dollars later, we picked it up and started driving. And I felt like I still heard some noise, but it didn't sound like it was coming from left front anymore.

So... we then left on a trip 700 miles from home, where we are now, and the sound has gotten way worse. Now, the sound is pretty loud when going straight or turning slowly to the right, but not when turning to the left. It sounds kind of like the car does when you gear down going down hill, but much louder.

Anybody want to share any advice? Should we stop driving it and get it seen ASAP? Did the mechanic (who I generally trust) mess something up? Could this be a CV joint instead?

Anybody care to recommend a mechanic in St. George, UT?

 

[Soliyou]

Since you mentioned CV joint, I assume you have a 4wd.

A common issue with the vacuum actuated front hubs is that they lose vacuum and get partially engaged/disengaged which leads to quite noisy rubbing and damage to the CV splines and hub.

You can check by putting the vehicle in 4A, if noise disappears then the IWE system is to blame.

Ford issued a TSB on early models where a check valve in the vacuum system would fail and cause this partial engagement.

 

[Dworth]

I was going to say IWE as well.

 

[DWs-TTEB]

I echo that (IWE). After I bought my 2019 with 30K miles on it, I had the same thing as the OP stated. Ford Dealer diagnosed it as bad IWE & put in a new 1 under warranty. Has been rumble/noise free ever since. @JS CO get it looked or replaced. Best of luck!

 

[Bow512]

It’s probably the other hub. Just went through the same on ours. Dealer changed one side but it was actually the other one. As long as the sound is the same in 2wd and 4wd it’s the hub.

 

[JS CO]

Interesting. Thanks all for your advice. Should hub also be covered by warranty?

What do folks think about driving on it to get it seen someplace else? The dealer here in St. George (700 miles from home) could not get me in to even look at it until a week from now, so I'm debating driving to Vegas (2 hours away) to get it looked at, IF I can get an appointment there?

 

[JS CO]

Oh, and yes, sound is the same in 4wd or 2wd. That was one of my initial thoughts with the noise is that it sounded like maybe it was stuck in 4wd. And now it sounds like maybe it's been partially engaging and damaging other stuff. Wonderful.

 

[RubyredExpe]

Sounds like a bad wheel bearing. My 2018 had both front bearings replaced at ~50,000 miles. Only 1 was making the noise but they said the other sounded bad. All covered under the factory powertrain warranty. $0 out of pocket with a free rental car.

 

[JS CO]

Too bad I already paid a pile for replacing the one bearing out of pocket, assuming warranty would not cover it after it didn't cover the brake rotors going at 20k miles. I think I've decided to just drive it home and deal with it there, buy myself whatever santo goes with bearings and CV joints and hang it off the rearview and see how we do.

 

[RickExpy]

Got mine back yesterday for the same symptoms, wheel bearings on both sides replaced and IWE also. The repair was covered on the extended warranty except an alignment was needed and not covered. $140. I said wait a minute, I didn't need an alignment when I brought it in and I only needed it after you performed a warranty repair so it should be covered on the warranty, and they finally agreed. Gotta fight em for everything. They've got no vehicles on the lot to sell so they gotta make it up on repairs. Not on me, that extended warranty covered it.

 

[JS CO]

Follow-up:
We couldn't even get an appointment within 7 days anywhere within 2 hours of St. George/Vegas, etc., so we limped it on back to Colorado and the noise got steadily worse over time.

We took it to the dealer and they commenced a long set of repairs that took almost 2 weeks, all covered by warranty.

The worsening noise was due to a bearing failing and getting ground into metal bits inside the front differential. I suspect that this bearing was the original problem (or maybe it was the left front wheel bearing that got replaced). At the end of the day, they had to replace most of the guts of the front differential and both wheel bearings. This is occurring at ~35k miles. This is after the brake rotors were trash at less than 20k miles.

Did I get a lemon or what? On the one hand, it's a great vehicle -- tremendous power, comfortable ride, decent mpg, etc. On the other hand, I haven't had a vehicle this unreliable since the variety of $500 cars I drove in high school.

Is 2018 just a crummy year and I should swap for something else?

Are these things really not built for driving in the mountains of Colorado? We don't use it that much (2018 with 37k miles now), but a fair number of the miles are family of 5 and our gear driving to go ski or camp or towing a light trailer with a raft on it (total weight less than 500 lbs, with usually ~50 on the tongue). So it's common for us to have 1000-1500 lbs of total passengers/payload/trailer weight and then drive it over a series of high mountain passes. But shouldn't that be workable for a truck-based SUV with 385 hp? We aren't really offroading (only a little bit of mild stuff that you could do in a subaru no problem). We don't want a mall-crawler. We want a truck.

 

[37ford]

2019 Limited 4WD

I started having a slight roaring noise a couple months ago with less than 5k on a new set of tires. It would show up between 30-50mph and change tone on different road surfaces. At highway speeds, it would go away completely. It started to get worse, to the point where my wife and kids even noticed. I spent about 8 hours going through everything I could think of to figure out the problem.

- Rotated tires.
- Checked IWE to make sure it holds vacuum and that the valve activates.
- Checked both hubs and both were very smooth.
- Checked the brakes and calipers.
- Removed the front drive shaft to eliminate the front diff or CV joints.

I chalked the noise up to tire noise. Since then, we have been on two 1000+ mile trips, and the noise has progressively gotten worse. It's still quiet at highway speeds, but, under 50mph, it's quite annoying. It's pretty bad driving straight. It's worse going around LH turns. It completely disappears with the slightest RH turn.

This afternoon, I'm going to look everything over again and swap out the front tires/wheels with spares to see if it makes a difference.