Ok dealership said its just the tires, if i open the door while im driving i can really hear the tires hum, not a rear end whine. i have a set of wrangler rt/s laying around with half tread on them that i can easily get mounted. Anyone have an opinion on these tires?

 

My info comes from life experience I guess. I lost a tire once to a broken belt right after a tire rotation. 90% of tire shops will do the same. Light radial tires(6ply or less) don't really matter, but bigger and directional tires always rotate to the same side, so the belts are always going in the same direction. Do as you wish, but I know rotating to the same side will never cause any issues.

 

I'm no mechanic, but I've always been told that cross rotating tires can lead to belt seperation and damage to the tire as the belts conform to one direction over time and by changing the force to these belts can cause seperation. This may be B.S. but I'm sticking to it. Interesting though to be hearing about this.

 

If the tires are used to going one way and then i criss crossed them while rotating, and they are running opposite direction as before, i would thing that it would cause them to hum more, wouldnt you think?

 

I put brakes on front a few days back. Right side bearing sounded rough. Had a Transmission Mechanic test drive without any prompting said right front wheel bearing noise. Now I'm ticked off that Ford has replaced the cone and cup bearings (replaceable for about $20) with sealed bearings that everyone says only come as a rotor + bearing assembly ($82.99 at AZ, $198 at dealer). I'll install the new rotor + bearing assembly and see if the noise goes or stays. Expensive experiment but the dealer would likely charge $75 or more for diagnosis.

 

For what it's worth, most of the time I hear of someone talking about a rear end whine, or a bad differential, there's one common symptom. The whine is present when applying power, and absent when coasting.

I've had this on one old car I had when I was 16. There was a loud whine at 55 MPH when I was on the throttle, but when I let off the noise went away. My current work truck is doing the same thing, although at 442,000 miles, who can blame it....

Now, that's not the ONLY way a differential can make noise, certainly not the case with the clutch pack issue, either...but it's a very common one...

 

Got my general ameritrac TR put on today (i dont care if someone thinks they are a crappy tire) My ride is much smoother, quieter, no more humming from the ATs i took off, so all that noise i thought was coming from the rear end was definately tire hum, thanks!

 

do any of you know what the tourque spec is for the axle / spindle nut on a 2004 f150, 2wd ?

 

UPDATE:
Replacing the rotor and bearing assembly cured the whine.
The bearings are still sort of cone and cup bearings but the outer bearing is installed
before the outer and inner cup (one piece) is pressed into the rotor/hub. So, it can't
be removed the old hammer and punch way.
Torque spec for the axle nut (bearing retainer in the Ford parts diagram) is 295 ft/lb.