I have a '02 F250 Superduty 4x4 Diesel (stock). Lately, it sounds like I'm driving down the rumble strip on the side of the road. The noise is louder at slower speeds, but I can still hear it at highway speed. I don't really feel any vibration, unless I pay really close attention. I just pulled the front tires off & checked them for separation. Both hubs appear to be disengaging properly, and the wheel bearings don't seem to be sloppy. Front universals are good. Any ideas?

 

Does it sound like it coming from the front or the rear?
Is it a Auto or Manual?
Stock tires or not?
Did this start after any recent work or not?
Have you checked your U Joints? If not then set the E-brake and put in neutral on a lvl surface and check the U joints by looking for slop.
Check the carrier bearing for slop.
How are the fluid lvls in the differentials? How is the fluid lvls in the trannie and x-fer case?

Hopefully this will give you a place to start and hopefully you'll find the problem before it becomes a bigger problem. Your truck is crying out to you, good thing your listening.

 

My first check would be the u-joints. take a bright flashlight under with you and look at all of them. Look for little puffs of rust dust or streaks that don't look like the others

 

I had the same problem, making the same rumble strip sound you describe. Mine turned out to be the front wheel bearing set on the passenger side. Replaced it and the problem went away. Found the answer when I had the problem right here on the best diesel website in the world--FTE!!!

 

Thanks. I'll get into the differential housing next. Last night I took the right front bearing off (even though there was no slop) just to see. Everything looked good, so I re-installed. The grease in the Hub assembly seemed to be stiff, so I cleaned it up and regreased it.

 

Does it start and stop or is it constant?

 

Welcome to FTE dwigmore. Glad to have you here. One thing that comes to mind is that maybe your front tires need to be rebalanced. I had a rubbery grinding sound coming from the front end from time to time and couldn't find a thing. I needed new tires anyway so I asked the guy to run the old ones on the balancer they were way off. The only thing that I can think of is when I hit a bump the tire went into a "wobble"

 

If you have a steering stabilizer you might want to check that as well if it starts and stops. I would hit a bump and it would sound like I was driving on a cobblestone road and then hit another and it would/could stop. I swapped out everything I could think of and then gave up and took it to the shop and they said they had 2 others just like mine earlier that week that needed a new stabilizer shock.

 

Well, I regreased the hub assemblies, and it seems to have made a difference. Checked the diff oil, and it was full and clean. All the bearings and u-joints are good (although I didn't go into the differential). I have a feeling that it could be a tire issue as suggested. The only thing I notice now is that as I'm slowing down, it sounds almost like the old bias-ply tires at about 20 mph. I'll get the tires rotated and balanced, and report back... Will also look into that stabilizer shock.

 

Please do. Let us know, we all here learn from everyones experiences.
In regards to the differential, typically if you had a bearing going out it would start to leak at the main bearing where the drive shaft goes in, so if you don't have a leak then I would doubt that to be the problem unless it's a internal bearing.

One thing you could do if you have a floor jack and/or jack stands is put the axle up on the jack and jack stands and put it in gear and see if you can determine where the sound is coming from. I would recommend assistance with this and keep the front of the vehicle clear in case it falls off the stands.
With a 4 wheel drive you could put the whole thing up off the ground and engage 4 wheel drive. It's a bit dangerous and I would be EXTREMELY careful. I take no liability of you do pursue this course of action.

 

Subscribing.

 

Check your carrier bearing. You have to pull the driveline to get an accurate assessment of it is good or bad.

My truck was rumbling like yours and I checked all the normal suspects-tires, brakes, wheel bearing, etc. I then dropped the driveline to change U-joints and when I tried to spin the carrier bearing, it would barely move. It didn't have any slop in it and looked OK, just wouldn't spin. I put a new one on and the rumbling stopped.

Let us know what you find.

 

Chec your tire tread and make sure the tread is not feathered or wavy. if thit is, you most likely have bad shocks also which causes this. Bad wheels bearings will cause the tires to do the same thing. How old are the shocks? What brand? try to rotate your tires regularly too

 

Carrier bearings suck! Darn things are just simply a pain in the ****!

 

I have the same problem... just started a thread about how to install a carrier bearing ! Just need to know how to do it ???? Can someone help here ??