had a leaking rear driveshaft seal at the axle and replaced it and fluid. 75W145 full synthetic as recommended. it was changed at 128000 and I've started to get an axle whine over 25 MPH up to 65-70MPH. quites down around 80 MPH. I just checked it after 2 months (whine just started) with 133000. Any TSB. does this fall under TSB 05-23-3? Any suggestions? noise sounds like I've got really aggressive tires on the truck. Only have Dayton HT all season. Did not add the XL3 additive. Would this help at this juncture. Battman

 

I was curious what, if anything, you found out about your issue. I just traded my Mustang GT for a 2005 F-150 SuperCrew 2WD and after the trade I noticed a whine/roar coming from what sounds to be the rear end as well. The best way I could describe this noise is it sounds as though I have aggressive mud tires on the truck (but I don't). I haven't had much time to get under the truck to investigate yet but I did notice that I had the same seal leaking as you; the front input seal on the diff. I've heard from a few people that some F-150's just make this noise (while some don't) and that the truck will operate fine bc it is just an issue of the pinion gear not being shimmed properly from the factory. Seems to me though that not being shimmed properly would cause excess friction and/or wear. I am having a mechanic/friend of mine inspect it this weekend but wanted to hear from someone else their experience. Please give me good news!

 

Here is my experience.

My 04 FX4 had a serious whine from the rear when I test drove it, I got a good enough deal that I went ahead and bought it anyway. After getting it home, I checked the rear end and noticed the pinion was very loose. I could move the yoke up and down about 1" with my hand. I tightened up the pinion yoke, and the whine changed from low speed to high speed, but it was still there. I bought all new bearings, seals, and pinion nut and installed them, this included re-shimming the gear set to get a good contact patch. It still whines a little. I think the gears were slightly worn from when the pinion was loose and causes the gears to be noisy (my contact patch was not perfect; it would not come in perfect because the gears were used). By the way, my truck only has 67,000 miles on it.

I hate the whine so much that I bought a replacement rear-end off of a guy on craigslist, I will be installing it soon. I hope it does better than my factory rear-end. <o></o>

Please let me know what happens in your situation.<o></o>

Andy<o></o>

 

I looked into it and the service bulletin on these trucks lists a rebuild kit which is $402 at a dealer ($299 online) and is supposed to address this known issue. I have a feeling this is the route I am going to go because this kit comes with everything needed including ring and pinion gears. I hear over and over people saying that after having their rear end rebuilt they STILL experienced a noise and had input seal failures and I'm 90% that's because they didn't follow the service manual's flange tightening guidelines. I should know the whole story by this weekend, and hopefully this whine will be out of my life by the end of the month... I'll let you know.

(86000 miles)

 

I would recommend that you think about changing the gear set when you do the bearings and seal. When I replaced my bearings, I was not able to get a perfect contact pattern because they were slightly worn from being out of spec for so long. I thought I could just change the bearings, reset the gears and it would solve my whine issues. Well, after all of the work, I still have the whine. By the way, this was not my first rear end build. I have done many with no noise at all.

I wish I would have done it right the first time, it probably would not have caused me this much of a headache.

Good luck, I am looking forward to hearing your results.

Andy

 

My 2005 f150 at 80,000 miles every bearing in the rear took a dump. Replaced all bearing $800. Not very impressed with Ford.And this is my 8th f150.