IWEs? Noise continues after OEM hubs

[71Rcode]

Gents, I replaced the hubs in my 2012 XLT last month due to me diagnosing the LH hub grinding when spinning by hand.

Replaced front hubs

Was experiencing an increasing grinding from what felt like the LH front wheel/hub area. I could slightly reproduce the sensation spinning the tire by hand. Took about 3 hours to pull and replace both sides with Motorcraft parts. Will give her a test drive tomorrow. 120k 2011 XLT 4x4.

www.expeditionforum.com

I'm still experiencing some noise it's kind of a wub wub wub sound when I am slowing down. And I can feel it in the steering wheel and in the frame somewhat. Definitely a vibration. Happens whether I'm braking or not. The brakes are new including rotors on all corners as well.

I believe the only thing that can be left is the IWEs. When I run her in four high I don't get the vibration/noise. When I have her on jack stands idling in 2wd and spin the frontLH and RH wheels, they spend freely and are disengaged...and I can't detect any kind of resistance. I replaced that three-pronged vacuum unit on the firewall with an oem Motorcraft unit no change. I tested the old one and she seemed to be fine so I wasn't anticipating a miracle fix there. I've also rotated the tires a couple times and not experience anything different.

IWE time? Thanks much!

 

[Trainmaster]

CV Joint on the front axle bad? How about a wheel bearing? Get all four wheels off the ground and listen with a mechanic's stethoscope while it's running. Noises like these travel all over the place and their origin can be very hard to locate. Spend time diagnosing before replacing... You'll save a lot of money, and work.

 

[71Rcode]

Train your points are taken. Thank you. I have the stethoscope and used it prior before replacing the front hub bearings. One thing I did not do is put all four corners on jack stands and run it in gear.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I had a similar issue- all my checks of the vacuum system showed good. Everything seemed to lock and unlock like it should while in the garage. But on the road- funny grinding noise. Put it in 4hi, noise goes away.

I installed the RCV lockouts and haven’t had a problem since. My lifetime MPGs are 14.7, with a latest of 15.1 and a best of 18.0. And I won’t have to waist anymore time/money on the IWE vacuum system.

 

[71Rcode]

Interesting. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out! Assuming that means the IWE deletes keeps the front shafts turning at all times?

 

[ExplorerTom]

Interesting. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out! Assuming that means the IWE deletes keeps the front shafts turning at all times?

Correct.

 

[71Rcode]

I ordered Motorcraft IWEs. Should have them in later this week. Decided to go Oem this time before trying the lockouts (which didn't seem to have a boot or seal to keep out dirt).

 

[BlackBetty]

I had a similar issue- all my checks of the vacuum system showed good. Everything seemed to lock and unlock like it should while in the garage. But on the road- funny grinding noise. Put it in 4hi, noise goes away.

I installed the RCV lockouts and haven’t had a problem since. My lifetime MPGs are 14.7, with a latest of 15.1 and a best of 18.0. And I won’t have to waist anymore time/money on the IWE vacuum system.

Just got all the stuff to that this past weekend. I will be heading to the auto craft shop to knock it out in the morning!!!

 

[max78]

I had a very similar issue. Mine turned out to be an issue with my new rotors. The ID was ever so slightly too small and did not seat flat on the wheel hub by just the tiniest amount, this caused them to pulse at all times, and it didn't get worse when breaking which I though was weird. I wound up grinding the inner diameter of the rotor so it slipped on like the other side and that fixed all my issues.

Hopefully its something simple.

 

[71Rcode]

Ellison, please share any tips when you knock out.

 

[BlackBetty]

Ellison, please share any tips when you knock out.

Ok… just knocked out the job today. First tip I’ll give is to grease the heck out of the new actuator. I went with the “vacuum delete” actuator. Would rather not do this again if I can help it.

Slather grease all over the actuator. Also, do the same with the wheel hub. By the way, I replaced the hub, too. Lastly, the half-shaft was swapped out as well. From the attached pics you see what little grease that’s present dims filthy. The new “vacuum delete” actuators actually have a grease zerk on them. Love this feature.

Reluctantly went to Ford to get my parts, but they were out. Only got the replacement nuts for the upper control arm & half-shaft spindle. Ended up getting the hubs, and actuators from O’Reilly’s. Did not have time to wait on Ford (had no expected date to give me) as I needed my grinding issue resolved before my drive from Huntsville to Arizona.

Everything was pretty straightforward. Here’s a few tips:
-Use plenty of red wheel bearing grease

-Use a crowbar to put downward pressure on the upper control arm to keep the ball joint from spinning when the nut is too low to use a socket to hold the ball joint. When reinstalling, use the crowbar again for pressure to torque the nut

-Slip the actuator over axle, then slide axle through hub. Secure hub so the splined area is fully pulled through the steering knuckle. Seat actuator in hub/ on axle. Guide axle spindle through hub bearing. Be careful of threaded area. Put nut loosely on axle to hold in place. Fully secure hub to steering knuckle… then, secure actuator to steering knuckle.

-FYI, I did this job on my 2016 Expedition. The YouTube video I watched had an F-150 as the demo vehicle. The guy in the video mentioned the sway bar end link hardware needed to be removed. Not so in my case. I removed it on the driver side (first side I did), but it didn’t offer any extra play. So, when I did the passenger side I didn’t remove the sway hardware. Was just as easy.

OOOOOOHHHHHH… the hub bearing assembly wheel speed sensor harness was interesting. If feel the harness cable was a tad bit shorter than the OEM setup. Also, the “male” side on the new hub assembly wiring harness had two flat pins. Took me a minute of messing around with the connection on the driver side… couldn’t get it!!! Then I remembered something… I think it was about 1-2yrs ago I had an issue hooking up my new A/C blower motor resistor. Tried and tried. Finally was able to track down a Motorcraft piece that slid right in. Then, on my daughter’s ‘04 Expedition the MAF sensor pins didn’t line up. Voila… examined the pins to see which way I needed to coerce them. Got it on the first try. If harness just won’t snap together check pin alignment.

I think that’s it… if I remember something I will add to this. Good luck.

P.S.- if you have access to a lift that would be very helpful. I’m a retired Army veteran, so I have access to the auto craft shops on military installations. For those that don’t know it’s basically a dealership type setup with lifts, alignment machines, tire changing machines, paint booths, welding gear, special tool, and more. Availability of some of the above items will vary depending on location.

 

[71Rcode]

Great writeup and thanks for the tips! I replaced my hub assemblies two months ago do much of this is familiar.

 

[71Rcode]

Hey I just replaced my iWE actuators in my 2011 expedition. Apologize if this is sloppy voice to text conversion. It went fairly well got better on the passenger side after I did the driver side first. Biggest challenge is I have a big country lift on the front and back of this Expedition so the suspension is pretty much maxed out so there's not a lot of room or play to attach the upper control arm. With this in mind what I did was remove the brake caliper and unbolted the brake caliper line and the Hub sensor Bolt from the spindle for more play. I also suspended the caliper out of the way. The only other thing I needed to do really was removed the upper control arm bolt to the spindle and then remove the tie rod end. That gave me a plenty of room to get in there and pull back the CV axle to get to the iwe and slide out the cv axle. The one mistake I made because a test drive showed me that I didn't have the driver side CV axle fully seated against the wheel hub ...is make sure the CV axle is all the way seated into the iwe and through the wheel hub. If I could do it again I would have scribed a mark where the CV rides inside the iwe so I would know that's how far and I needed to go. After my test drive I was getting some popping in four-wheel drive and I came back and reseated the left hand CV shaft into the Hub and that solved the problem. Not bad. If I could do both jobs again I would have done them at the same time. Hubs and iwes.

 

[BlackBetty]

Great pics… I didn’t think to take any. Had my phone away from reach/ out of sight because people kept freaking calling me!!! I hate when I’m turning wrenches and my phone rings.

 

[BlackBetty]

…If I could do both jobs again I would have done them at the same time. Hubs and iwes.

Actually, I did change my hubs and half shafts along with the IWE’s. Figured if I was all the way in it like I was… why not.