I took my 08 F350 in to have the front dust seals replaced with the redesigned part number. When I picked the truck up it was making a really bad grinding noise. The noise was as if there was a bad spot on a rotor or wheel. In other words, it wasnt constant, the faster I drove the faster the noise was. It was 6:00 Friday before a holiday weekend and there was no other choice but to drive the truck home. The noise was pretty loud at first but was gradually getting quieter. The noise was louder when I turned to the right. By the time I took it back to the dealer the noise was almost gone but obviously something didnt go back together right. The dealer is telling me they dont hear any noises now and they took it apart and dont see any signs of anything rubbing or grinding. I say BS. So what all comes apart to replace the dust seals (I cant even see where they had a wrench on it but it does have new seals) and of the items they took apart, what could make this noise? Brakes maybe?

 

Maybe 1 of your hubs was partially locked in?

 

Man I've read a couple of your posts and it seems like you just have the worst luck with this truck. Hopefully you will find a good dealer who can straighten everything out once and for all

 

There are a lot of things that could make such a noise, but for it to be louder when turning one direction than the other I'm thinking it may be a bearing problem.

Hard to say, I'd bring it back to them!

 

sounds like it was not put back together correctly to me either.

 

I took it back last sunday. I told them to address the front end noise as well as the mouse in the dash noise. They called me Monday and said they think what I am hearing is the keys bouncing around in the ignition as I am driving. Holy crap, do I look that retarded? Then they called Tuesday and said its probably the air compressor for my air bags. OMG!!! They claim they dont hear any noises at all. I told them to take it back apart and inspect it because something has to show signs of wear. I called them back Wednesday night, said the tech took the wheels off and everything looks fine. They wanted me to come get it. I said no, you have a smoking gun in your hand and no idea where the bullet is, find the bullet!! Take every bolt you touched back apart and find out what's wrong. its that simple. I havent heard from them since. I bet money its sitting outside in the corner and they havent touched it. This dealer is 30 miles away and its the 3rd dealer I have tried. Ford has the most desirable trucks, hands down, but if I cant find a competent dealer to work on my truck its time to look at different options.

 

Does anyone know what comes apart to do the front seals? When I looked at it all the spindle nuts and everything were rusted and I couldnt see any signs that a wrench had touched them. Even the cotter pin was rusted and didnt look touched. I will retrace the steps myself, I just cant tell what they took apart and dont want to start removing things I dont need to.

 

well it took 2 weeks but I finally got my truck back from the dealer. Took them a week just to admit it had a noise in the front end (i.e. they shoved it in a corner because it was return work that wouldnt pay them anything). They tried to pass it off as no big deal, I had to get nasty about it, they finally admitted the backing plate was left loose/didnt seat properly and was scraping the rotor and they even "did me a huge favor" of resurfacing the side of the rotor that was scraping the backing plate. Interesting that they managed to put over 60 miles on my truck during this time period too. Hmmmmm.

 

oh yeah, when I got the truck back the air compressor for the air bags was running every 20 seconds because "someone" knocked an air line loose, and my reverse sensing system is not working anymore.
Is this stuff really rocket science? Will the problems ever end or will there just be more/new problems everyt time I pick the truck up?

 

interesting outcome. loose backing plate. 60 miles. Bet they ran a few errands as well.