Not the same noise

[ramsesfan13]

Good evening all. After searching around, I believe I may have an issue/noise different than most. I cannot find anyone with my exact issue, so I'm hoping to tap into the great brains here. On my 2010 XLT EL, in the past 2 weeks, I have noticed a humming/groaning type noise in the front end while driving normally in 2wd. It does not seem rotational, and does it inconsistently. By that I mean as I'm driving, after a few miles, it will start to make the groaning noise and gradually get a bit louder. It's not very loud, but you can obviously hear it, and it's not constant, it will come and go every few seconds inconsistently, as I'm going straight or turning. The weird thing is if I come to a stop and switch to A4WD or 4WD high, let it engage for a few seconds, and then switch back to 2WD, the noise goes away for a while. Then sometimes it comes back. It's doing it more and more often. If I hear it now, I can switch to A4WD while driving, wait a few seconds, go back into 2WD, and the noise is gone for a while. Ideas? Vacuum leak? Thanks for any suggestions. Cheers

 

[gixer2000]

I would look into your wheel bearings. Groaning and growling are common complaints for wheel bearings. Locking and unlocking the hubs could have an effect on that causing it to stop for a bit. Jack up the front and and check for play in the bearing and give it a quick spin to see if you can hear it while jacked up

 

[1955moose]

Check out the Iwb solenoids. We've had members that have a plugged or broken vacuum line that goes up to the solenoid. Usually when a bearing is going out, they get louder and deeper sound as speed increases. That said rack it up and thoroughly check front axles and differential.


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[ramsesfan13]

Thanks, I appreciate the replies. I thought bearings as well, but the noise doesn't seem to follow a typical bearing noise. But I'm going to check them anyway, just in case. As for the IWB solenoids, I apologize, but what and where are those? What do I need to do to check them?

 

[1955moose]

I was hoping that someone with way more knowledge than I would have chimed in. That being said theirs a guy on the internet that describes in detail how to diagnose the Iwe vacuum systems and their solenoids on our Fords. Water dumping onto the parts shorts them out, as well as vacuum leaks from hoses or tees in the system. If you send me a personal message to my Tapatalk account I can try to send it to you.


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[ramsesfan13]

Thanks! However, I found it, and it was very intuitive. I will be checking everything over this weekend based on that and other info I read. Thanks for replying though!

 

[1955moose]

In the future if you can, always share info or results on a problem, it helps others, including myself with diagnosis/ repair of a particular problem with our SUVs .


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[Snag]

Bearing assembly is the likely problem. Pull up Brian on the web. He does the FordTechMakuLoco videos. He will cover the repairs needed. Don't go too long as total failure is not good