Weird sound coming from the driver side wheel well

[Craig Martin 2]

How would I know if I had a ball joint or tie rod going bad without lifting the truck?.....besides the obvious tire wear and wheel pointing weird.

I've been getting a weird squeek/rubbing sound coming from the driver side front wheel well area. I have no clue what it could be. The shocks are less then 2 years old, and the tires are about the same. Could it be the torsion bars?

If anyone has had this issue before and could help me pin point the cause it would be helpful.

 

[Mike Wilson]

Hey, Kegger. A leaning (usu. inward) wheel assembly is almost always an upper ball joint gone south, common on smaller Ford vehicles. Inside wear on a front tire with a level-appearing wheel assembly (when viewed from the front, straight on) most likely is a toe-out problem (could be the tie rod there). Tracs are known for this, esp. the earlier years. Wheel bearing (or hub assy. on a 4x4) would be a lower-pitched groan or growl. Lift it up and spin the wheel. Front end alignment problems will almost never produce a noise when diong this. A bad bearing or hub will almost always produce a squeak, growl, or weird noise. Or, if it is really bad, it will not be able to be turned by hand once lifted up and attempted to be turned by hand because of the friction of the worn parts. Hope this helps ya!

 

[swshawaii]

Very difficult to diagnose without unloading the suspension. Don't guess, lift the tires off the ground. GL

 

[Mike Wilson]

With swshawaii on this one. Gonna have to jack it up to unload the suspension. Wheel bearing or a hub (on 4x4) will either produce a squeak, growl, moan, or other unpleasant noise when the wheel is spun. If a bearing is really bad, you may not be able to spin it at all by hand due to the worn parts and friction. Let us know. We're here to help!

 

[Craig Martin 2]

K so I had a couple friends with a lot of mechanical background behind them (they have built many a truck with air ride systems and what not) and they took a listen to the noise yesterday. The truck was parked and they rocked it back and forth......and it made the sound. It sounded like a crunching kinda sqeeking sound. Hard to describe it lol. They were suggesting it could be a lower ball joint.



So I'm gonna have to take it to my mechanic later on this week. Because today while driving I didn't hear it at all! It did rain hard here the last couple days so I'm thinking it could be a bushing or something getting dry. (Now that it's wet its lubed)



On to of that I have a slow leak on the passenger side front tire

 

[Mike B 6]

I have the same noise. I had the upper ball joints and control arms on both sides replaced today. The shocks were original (116k miles) so I had them replaced also. The noise was unaffected. The only thing I can find that might be the problem is badly deteriorated front body mounts.