Hi my name is Chris and I am new to these forums. My knowledge about my truck is novice at best, so I apologize in advance if I sound like a noob.

I let my brother drive my truck recently and he hit a curb pretty hard (enough to break the upper control arm/front bearing) to avoid a car accident. Since then, my truck has been having some issues.

Recently, I had it in the shop to replace the gear oil in my rear differential to 75-140W that has a friction modifier for my limited slip diff. Initially when I was turning left or right, I could feel and hear a rubbing noise. I still feel like there is some sort of rubbing noise when I'm making a slight left or right turn. The issue is definitely not as bad as it was before. I asked the mechanic to look over the gears for any wear or any metal shavings that had collected at the bottom when he took the diff cover off, but he told me everything looked fine in that regard.

It's difficult to explain the noise, but it's definitely not a grinding or screeching noise. And when I'm slightly holding the steering wheel to the left or to the right, it makes that noise once every tire rotation. The noise can be heard more so when I am turning to the left, but my truck also needs an alignment so that might be the reason it happens more when I turn left. I've gone through the majority of f150 forums and I have yet to pinpoint this issue.

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Also, last winter, I installed a new K&N intake and bought a tuner so I could increase my HP/MPG. When it was first installed, it sounded great. It still does sound great when I press heavily on the gas pedal, but when I slightly press on the pedal, I hear a metallic whistling noise that is incredibly annoying. I know some air intakes will produce a whistling noise, but this only does it while I am in drive, and while the gas pedal is pressed slightly. If I press harder on the pedal, the noise goes away, regardless of the speed I am going. I tried getting a sound byte of it, but my phone sucks at recording sound.

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Finally, since someone left a seatbelt in the door one night, it caused my cabin lights to stay on, killing the battery. Since then, I was able to get it jumped, and it has been running fine for the past few days. But, since the battery died, my headlights will not come on in the Automatic setting. I have to actually turn my lights on manually to get them to work now. Also, I tried plugging my tuner in today(Diablo Sport), and nothing came on the screen.

Any ideas what might be causing these issues?

 

I found why my tuner wouldn't come on when I plugged it in. Bad cigarette lighter fuse. I couldn't locate any fuse for the automatic headlights though, and all the other light fuses I checked were in working condition.

 

You're correct...every filter-on-a-stick/intake that I've ever run has an obnoxious whistling sound. You probably are only hearing that at partial throttle and not greater because when you apply more power, the engine noise drowns out the sound of the intake.

Pull your battery at advanced, autozone, or wherever and have them test it. It could be that you have a bad/depleted cell in the battery. You may have enough power to run the engine, but an insufficient amount to power some of your accessories (I see that you figured out the fuse thing).

 

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I'm wondering if the old gasket on my throttle body could be replaced with a silicon gasket instead similar to other areas in my truck. Any idea what causes that whistle? Air leak or something?

And the sound isn't drowned out by the engine, as I have tried going 10mph and press slightly on the gas pedal and I hear that noise, but if I press a bit more, it goes away. The same happens if I'm going 60mph. If I press slightly on the pedal, I can hear it on the highway.

This was actually a non issue last winter when I first installed it. But a few days after installing it, we had a really bad snowstorm and my truck took a toll because of it. I'm going to check all the clamps today to make sure they are completely air-tight. Is there a tool I can buy to test for air leaks through the intake?

 

As far as I know, that's just the sound of the intake and engine taking in air. Keep in mind...you don't hear that with a stock vehicle because they come with a box that has a point of air induction that's further away from what the average short ram intake has. That and the factory box is a covered unit that...as a result...cuts down the noise.

 

Is there something I can buy that will muffle that sound? I've heard others replacing their TB and that fixes the issue, but I don't want to shell out $300 for something that's really a non-issue(meaning it's not detrimental to my truck's health).