As I've posted here a couple of times, I have a noise coming from the drivetrain in my 2002 Mountaineer that sounds like I have badly cupped tires on the front. The dealer first diagnosed bad bearings in the front differential, but the repair did not solve the problem. After I alerted him to a TSB, he ordered a chain and bushing for the transfer case. Has anyone heard of this problem?

 

My 2002 Mountaineer is at the dealers at this moment and they too are chasing the noise. They are going to put in new bearings also, even though they don't think they're bad??
Have you tried rotating your tires to the back? I did and the noise became rear end noise. The dealer told me the tires were bad (Goodyear Eagle LS) and to take to a Goodyear dealer.
They confirmed that there was something wrong with the 2 tires but they couldn't figure it out, even after talking to Goodyear.
They told me Ford will replace the tires under 3yr/36K mile plan like any other warranty item. But now my dealer is telling me the tires are fine, even though they are the ones who told me there was a problem first. I'm going to push the matter.
A friend who is a world class auto guy told me he has had the same noise in his last 3 GM SUVs and that it was finally
"resolved" by flushing the front diff and replacing oil with synthetic oil. The noise is much less but still there and not getting worse as it would with natural oil. He believes the diffs are made by the same manufacturer in both the GM and Ford SUVs. My Ford dealer is going to try it for me.
Good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply. I dismissed the tires as the problem when the noise was the same on different road surfaces and even snow covered roads. The noise completely disappears if I hold the gas pedal between accelerating and decelerating. I did have all four tires replaced anyway for better traction.