What is this noise?!

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AnarchyOutlaw

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I have been chasing a whistling noise near my driver's door and it turned out to be the beltline molding on the driver's door. I bought the part and replaced it myself even though it would have been covered under warranty. I didn't want to deal with the inconvenience of taking it to the dealer, etc. The only way to isolate and identify a noise like this is to spend the time necessary yourself by taping up the entire door (all seams everywhere) with blue painters tape until the noise can be isolated and identified. No dealer is going to spend the time needed to do this task since they can't bill Ford for the time required to isolate the noise.
I have that same damned issue. I've tried smoke and everything. It only makes noise when it's windy. I just turn the stereo up and ignore it.
 

ROBERT BONNER

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If it is wind noise coming from the door/window, one of the best ways to pinpoint it is with a stethoscope. Since you believe it to be the driver's door, be careful and use two people....the person with the stethoscope needs to be someone you're OK getting close to ;-). They need to carefully examine the periphery of the window opening with the stethoscope. If there is a leak, it will roar in their ears when they pass over it. The best way to clearly ID it is in fact wind noise is to drive it in a cross wind and notice how it affects the frequency. If gusts of wind affect it at constant road speed, it's wind noise. If not, it's something else. I once worked at Ford and the window modules are prone to generating this kind of hard to locate noise. Normally it is an ELF (Early Life Failure) caused by a "pucker" in the rubber module that grips the metal flange of the door around the periphery of of the window opening. Has any service been performed on the driver's window due to accident or other failure?

One of the other chassis related noises that could cause a high speed whistle that is strictly road speed related are wheel bearings. I had an F150 OEM wheel bearing go out at ~100K and it sounded just like a turbine. While 36K is early for a wheel bearing, large diameter wheels and corrosive environments can accelerate Wheel Bearing failures.

Good luck, let us know what you find.
 

BROKENPILOT

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Although my Expedition is not new, I ran into a similar noise with Eddie Bauer. It took me a few trips, but I eventually discovered that my wiper arm springs had become weakened and the wipers were slightly lifting from the windscreen at speed, which created a hum/whistling noise. Keep us posted.
 
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