Bad Hub? Help Please!
 

Hello, I drive a 2006 F150 with 117,000km. I have this humming, growling sound coming from front of vehicle, pretty sure left side. I can feel the vibrations thru the pedals and floor as well in steering wheel a bit. It has been going on for a few months now but comes and goes. Just recently it has been worse and more frequent. Below are the symptoms:

-worse while slow, mostly goes away at high speeds.
-goes away when turning left or even veering left, but not right.
-seems worst while just coasting and still happens in neutral.
-goes away completely in 4x4.
-sounds fine at rest.
-didn’t happen this morning till about 10 min into drive, about -5C at night.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I have done a tone of research and from what I can gather it sounds like maybe the front hub? Does this make sense that in 4x4 it goes away? I have replaced bad bearings before and the noise sounded rougher and got worse with speed, where my noise is worse at low speeds and coasting.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Matt

You have a bad front wheel bearing and it's probably the left side as when you turn left..... it takes the vehicle weight off of the left front wheel.

The 'hub' is probably fine. Just change the bearings and races. Rick

Thanks Rick! Just curious how come it stopes the noise/vibration in 4x4, is this because the hub is locked? Also typically doesnt a bad bearing get loader with speed?

spindle
 

Well, I am not totally sure why the noise stops when in 4x4. Maybe when the hubs are locked, everything is rotating as a unit, rather than the wheel/hub/bearing rotating on the axle shaft. I recently spent some time in a buddy of mine's similar truck and he didn't know what 'that noise' was either. I told him what I thought (wheel bearing) and he took it into his mechanic and the mechanic confirmed my diagnosis.