Squeek in front left B4000
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From: Quinebaug, CT
Squeek in front left B4000
I have a 98 B4000 2wd and I have started to get a squeek in the front left corner. It just sqeeks like a spring when I drive down the road and you cant even hear it if you have the radio on but when you take a sharp turn at low speed it gets pretty loud. Worse when you back up out of a parking space. I just spent an hour with the wheel off trying to figure it out with no solution. I did notice some power steering fluid had looked like it leaked or sprayed out of the filler cover but when I ran it with the hood up it was fine. Are these trucks prone to any suspension issues? Does anyone have any ideas on this? The truck has 90,000 on it now and It was a southern truck until last september.
Thanks,
Chris
Thanks,
Chris
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I've got a 1997 B4000 that has around 97000 miles, and just needed to replace the wheel bearings in the front (mine is 4 wheel drive though). There was some noise before I took it in, it was pretty obviously coming from the wheel though. Not sure if it would be the same issue as yours or not, but something to check out.
Matt
Matt
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From: Randolph, NJ
Try bouncing the suspension up/down and left/right while you are parked with the wheel on. The ball joints can make some horrible noises when they are out of grease. I don't have too much experience with the 2wd suspension to have a feeling of what would be squeaking.
-Jim
-Jim
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My '98 B2500 has made this noise many times. I have replaced 3 (!!!) upper control arms because the ball joints were shot. There aren't any grease fittings, so the parts have to be replaced. The other time it made the squeaking noise, the lower ball joints had to be replaced. I would look at either of those two parts.
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I just had a very similar problem with my 2000 ranger a few days ago. In my case it turned out to be a ball joint. The way I found which one was I jacked the front end up, removed the wheel, pulled the cotter pin and castle nut from the tie rod and removed it. That left the spindle to turn freely and I noticed the lower ball joint was rough, the protective boot had been torn and I imagine all kind of salt and dirt got inside. Just a note the noise I had sounded just like a rusty spring. The noise came in going over bumps but also got much worse while turning so it sounds like you could be having the same problem. Anyways new balljoints aren't that expensive if you are willing to put them in yourself. I might be wrong but I think that 98 B4000 has the same setup as my 2000 Ranger. I used a 98 Ranger repair manual to research my problem and it said the ball joint couldn't be changed but then I read a thread here under the technical information about a guy with the same problem in a 98 ranger and he explains how to do it. Hope this might help.
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From: Quinebaug, CT
Thanks guys. I am really starting to think its the ball joints as the grease fittings are all done and I have been driving through a lot of road grime this winter in New England so its probably full of salt and dirt. Also the sound is very much like a squeeky spring on strait bumpy roads but its really nasty pulling out of the driveway or a parking space. Anyone know what I should expect to pay for parts from the Ford dealer or should I purchase parts online? What if I had a local shop just replace them? thanks again for all the help.
Chris
Chris
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Originally Posted by eyball
Thanks guys. I am really starting to think its the ball joints as the grease fittings are all done and I have been driving through a lot of road grime this winter in New England so its probably full of salt and dirt. Also the sound is very much like a squeeky spring on strait bumpy roads but its really nasty pulling out of the driveway or a parking space. Anyone know what I should expect to pay for parts from the Ford dealer or should I purchase parts online? What if I had a local shop just replace them? thanks again for all the help.
Chris
Chris
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for my ranger I paid $15 for the ball joint, they have one that is $35, both available from autozone. You can borrow the ball joint press, buying the press would suck because it is about $100 dollars and it isn't very usefull for anything other then balljoints. Buying the part from the dealer probably won't work because they will try to tell you that you need to buy the entire control arm not just the ball joint.
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From: Randolph, NJ
From RockAuto.com:
Front Upper
MOOG K8560T $28.79
Motorcraft MCS104132,(Ford F5UZ3V049A) $35.79
Front Lower
MOOG K8561T $45.79
Motorcraft MCS10376,(Ford FOTZ3V050A) $29.79
The MOOG's probably have grease fittings. Be careful if you trust Autozone when you look up parts for your Mazda. They gave me the wrong ball joints for my 4wd when I asked. Ended up just buying the Moog's elsewhere.
-Jim
Front Upper
MOOG K8560T $28.79
Motorcraft MCS104132,(Ford F5UZ3V049A) $35.79
Front Lower
MOOG K8561T $45.79
Motorcraft MCS10376,(Ford FOTZ3V050A) $29.79
The MOOG's probably have grease fittings. Be careful if you trust Autozone when you look up parts for your Mazda. They gave me the wrong ball joints for my 4wd when I asked. Ended up just buying the Moog's elsewhere.
-Jim
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My '99 4WD Ranger just started squeaking in the LF suspension just as eyball describes. I isolated the noise to the lower control arm joint/bushing. I sprayed the entire joint with WD40 and that took care of the noise (at least temporarily), but I'm sure the bushing (control arm) is close to needing replacement. Eyball, you might want to try the WD40 trick, so that you don't go through the trouble of replacing the ball joint, only to find that you need to replace the entire control arm.
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