I have a 03 exploder 3.73ls rear end with the whine. Very annoying had it since I bought the truck with 13,000 miles, mine kept getting louder, eventually took it in because of the axle seals leaking, another common problem with 02 and newer exploders, found out from the dealer that there is an upgrade kit that is on back order, I have 60,000 miles and no warranty left, the dealership helped me fight ford on this and I am paying $300 of $1300 for a new rear end. Dealer says its is some kind of secret warranty that Ford has but doesn't publish to its customers. Parts just came in yesterday goes to the shop next week.

 

My 96 just kept getting louder and louder. I finally bought a used one from a salvage yard. Took it out of the truck, only had 25,000 miles on it. I finally put it on and ALL the humming went away. It's a pleasure to drive it again. I did take the old chuck apart and could not see anything visually wrong with it. There weren't even any shavings from worn metal. But the new (used) one did the trick.

 

Knock wood, I have an 05 EB with the v8 and have not had any problems.

 

From what I have been reading the v8's are not the ones having the problem it is the 4.0 v6's having the problems.

 

I had mine replaced around 18,000 miles and around 35,000 it started again looks like Ford is going to eat another rear

 

Mine just started up again around 31K miles. I guess I'll be making another trip to the dealer.

 

is there a program code for the "secret" warranty on the rear dif? Also does anyone know the maximum milleage that the warranty will apply to ?

 

I don't know of a program code, I just asked for assistance from the dealer and they contacted Ford and got it set up. You have to ask about the Warranty program they won't tell you about it. As far as mileage I don't know.

 

Our 2004 Explorer, 4.0, with the 3.73 gears has the the rear end whine also.
It has about 9K miles on it now. The wine has been getting steadily worse,
so, I brought it back to the dealer (it has already been there 3 times for the transmission clunk in reverse and trans fluid dripping from the bellhousing).
They drove it and said that they heard something, but it wasn't bad enough to
warrant any repairs. They also told me twice that it needs to "wear in" longer, implying that it would get better by itself! Needless to say, I hit the roof and got loud. I always stay calm and curtious.... until now. I said that there is no way that I was going to buy their story that it needs to "wear in" and that the
noise is getting worse! I drew the attention of everyone there all the way back to the parts counter. (I'm sick of getting lied to) The service writer told me to lower my voice and the service manager came out to see what was going on. I asked him about their story of the rear end needing to "wear in" longer and he said that he was not going to say that. (smart on his part).
The truck went back in yesterday, they said that they were going to have a "certified expert" look at it again. They called me and said that they couldn't hear the noise because it was raining and I havn't heard back from them yet.
Mom has 50% hearing loss in one ear and 30% loss in the other ear and she can hear the whine in the rear end when it comes in an goes away between 50 and 62 mph, so it's not just me. I have had and driven at least a couple dozen new cars and never heard a whine in the rear end, but it's mostly been
Chevys, Toyota, Honda etc. The only other rear end whine I have heard is our old 1985 F150 with at least 200K miles on it...... So if they tell me this is normal again, I'm afraid I'm going to come unglued.
When I had the transmission clunk, they told me there was nothing wrong also..... seems like their standard line. They are also trying to fix the lumbar support adjustment also.
more to follow as the story unfolds further...................

 

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I am in the Toronto area and have a 02 Explorer XLT. First heard the rear end whine just before factory warranty expired - and I got a new differential under warranty (and I have extended warranty now also).

Now it's just over 24,000 miles later - the whine/hum is back. Dealer said now it's "tire noise" due to "cupping of rear tires". Since it was time to change tires anyway - I didn't complain. I had brand new Mich Cross Terrains recently installed and guess what - the noise is still there and it's going to the dealer soon. It IS the differential and I will force their hand.

I just have a question....

I've had a few things fixed under the factory/extended warranties (various TSB stuff etc.), and after 1 particular service, I happended to note on the dealer's copy of an invoice the following:

"REPEAT CONCERN"

It was stamped in big red block letters. Does anyone know what this means?

Thanks!

 

I own a '04 Ford Explorer 4x4 with appx 56,000 miles and have the same rear end whine noise as described here, between about 52 and 62 miles per hour.

 

Took the '03 XLT in today for the dreaded rearend whine. They heard it and have begun to repair it. They even gave us a loaner (focus) for the two days they will have the Exp. I have to say, this is the first brand new car I have ever purchased and thank god for the factory warranty. Guess I oughta look into extending that cuz at this rate a couple repairs like this would break me. I just hope the new rearend holds up.
To note: Have also noticed a weird clunking when making a left hand turn. It comes from the rear end and sounds like an axle is popping out and back in....anyone hear this noise in there rig before?

 

I have the whine on my 2003 Eddie Bauer. Has towing package so I think it's a 3.73:1. Whines as you accelerate between 80Km/h - 95Km/h. My 96 Limited also had the whine at between 95Km/h to 105Km/h. I'm taking the 03 into the dealer on Monday for a few other things and bill bug them about this too as it' still under warranty. Never did get rid of the noise on the 96. Was very annoying.

 

I'm new here so reading over the posts and when I saw this topic I wanted to add my 2 cents. I own a 97 EB 302 V8 2WD since '99. I went through the tire wear road noise rear differential noise thing for about three years befor getting somewhere close to a quite ride. I got lots of "runaround" from two local Ford dealerships along the way.

I bought the truck from a local Lincoln dealership it had 27K miles and brand new tires. I thought it strange that it had brand new tires and was concerned about odometer rollback. I raised the issue and bought a song and dance about "We only sell top quality stuff. Tires were about half worn out so we put new ones on." I shoulda known better. The salesman's lips were moving, right?

Anyway, before I got to my first oil change, the truck was getting noisy. That's when I learned of the tire wear problems from the Ford suspension. The front tires were cupping on the inside tread row and starting to make that 4X4 noise. It took several trips to the aligment rack and several pair of additional tires over many months to finally get reasonable tire wear with normal 5K mile rotations. Once that tire wear problem was fixed my road noise was better. (It was always better when I replaced the cupped tires with smooth tread so there was no doubt about the tire noise source.)

Anyway, after solving the tire wear problems, I was still hearing a differential whine and roar at moderate highway speeds and it was becoming more pronounced. The dealerships kept saying it was tire/road noise. I finally got them to do warranty repairs (I had a 7:70 extended ESP) on the rear end when I had the service manager at one of the stores drive my truck and note the noise. Then I had him drive my son's 96 that was quiet as a mouse over the same highway stretch. Then I put the 96 tires and wheels on my 97 and had him drive that setup on which the noise was still there and just as pronounced. Same roads driven for test with only constant being the 97 driveline. I remember telling the guy about the tire swap during the test drive and that my noise couldn't possibly be tire/road combination. Faced with no more excuse, they made an appointment and fixed the differential.

They rebuilt my rearend changing several parts including some bearings. That was 2 years and about 50K miles ago and truck is reasonably quiet with only a slight whine noticed at moderate speed with the radio off. It is certainy acceptable for a truck, I think.