NeutronJon
New member
I dropped my 05 Limited off at a local shop last night. 
I started noticing a little bit of hum and vibration recently that seemed worse when steering slightly left and was eliminated by steering slightly right. I've had a couple of frozen calipers before so I thought this might be the problem, but after several miles at highway speeds the calipers were still cool the the touch. I did notice the lug nuts were slightly warm on the front drivers wheel, but didn't think much of it.
Over the course of thursday and friday last the week the noise worsened and the vibration started getting worse. I concluded that the wheel bearing was the likely cause and started searching the forums to see if people had any problems with the preassembled units that a gentleman from the forums was selling on ebay a few years ago, as I had already replaced this bearing for similar symptoms in the spring of 2013. That time the bearing lasted several months with nothing more than the slight vibration, so I expected similar results this time.
Not finding much on the forum, I consulted a local buddy who races dirt tracks on the weekend and has more experience than I. He mentioned that commuters do a lot of highway miles in the left lane put more lateral force on that bearing, which can contribute to early wear. In 2013, my commute was about 15 miles of country roads with an average speed of 35 MPH. Now my commute is significantly longer, with at least 30 miles per day spent in the fast lane on the freeway. Based on his advice, I started looking for another preassembled unit and making plans to swap the hub in an upcoming weekend. Unfortunately, that bearing had other ideas.
I made a short trip saturday morning and noticed quite a bit more noise than the past two days, as well as what sounded like a metal on metal grinding. On my way back to the house I received the VSC TRAC, VSC, and skid lights, as well as an ABS warning (but no check engine - not that it would be expected, but to help others on future searches). The more troubling symptom was that my brake pedal travel was increasing and started requiring two pumps to stop the vehicle. The first pump had little resistance until nearly the floor, and the second pump was short, firm, and felt normal. When I got home I checked the wheel and again found the lug nuts warm, but not hot. I pulled the wheel and inspected everything and didn't notice anything unusual at first.
I inspected the brakes and noticed about a 1/8" gap between the pads and rotor on the inside and out. This explained the pedal travel as I was using hydraulics to squeeze the pads back in and the second press to actually stop. Knowing that I had a suspect wheel bearing I also grabbed the rotor and wiggled in side to side. I discovered about 1/4" of travel (slop) that you could observe the lugs moving independent of the knuckle. At this point I realized that the slop in the bearing was allowing the rotor to vibrate against the pads and compress the caliper pistons. The VSC and ABS lights were likely caused by the ABS speed sensor distance varying and sending false readings.
Having already decided that the rig was no longer road worthy, I made arrangements for a rental for the week and made an appointment at the shop for Monday. While they have it I'm getting as much bang for my buck as possible. The truck has 160,000 miles on it. I replaced the shocks and springs (and converted the rear air suspension) 18 months ago with FJC parts so those are staying, but I'm having the shop add the Daystar budget 1" lift in the front to ease the rake. My LCA bushings are also in rough shape and rusted in place (the truck spent the first 10 years of it's life in upstate NY - salt country), so I'm cutting the labor costs by having them cut the old ones out and putting new in new LCAs. The UCA bushings are in much better shape so we are hoping that we can do the bushings without needing to replace the upper arms. All of the ball joints are still in surprisingly good shape. The driver's CV axle has a torn boot so I'm also replacing that shaft rather than attempting to replace the boot and grease (it's been torn for at least a year) and changing the fluid in the front and rear differential (last swapped about 50,000 miles ago with Mobile 1 synthetic.
Hopefully the details of my story will help someone else with similar symptoms. I tried to hit as many relevant terms as possible to help with searches. The shop quoted me $640 for the wheel bearing and CV swap. He said he wanted to see how it comes apart on the off chance that he can salvage the LCAs and just do the bushings. Either way I'll have a new total today. The daystar spacers aren't coming in until tomorrow, so I'm hoping we can have everything done by Wednesday or Thursday.
The question is: if it were your rig, is there anything else you would have done? The truck is paid off and I expect to keep it for at least another year.
I started noticing a little bit of hum and vibration recently that seemed worse when steering slightly left and was eliminated by steering slightly right. I've had a couple of frozen calipers before so I thought this might be the problem, but after several miles at highway speeds the calipers were still cool the the touch. I did notice the lug nuts were slightly warm on the front drivers wheel, but didn't think much of it.
Over the course of thursday and friday last the week the noise worsened and the vibration started getting worse. I concluded that the wheel bearing was the likely cause and started searching the forums to see if people had any problems with the preassembled units that a gentleman from the forums was selling on ebay a few years ago, as I had already replaced this bearing for similar symptoms in the spring of 2013. That time the bearing lasted several months with nothing more than the slight vibration, so I expected similar results this time.
Not finding much on the forum, I consulted a local buddy who races dirt tracks on the weekend and has more experience than I. He mentioned that commuters do a lot of highway miles in the left lane put more lateral force on that bearing, which can contribute to early wear. In 2013, my commute was about 15 miles of country roads with an average speed of 35 MPH. Now my commute is significantly longer, with at least 30 miles per day spent in the fast lane on the freeway. Based on his advice, I started looking for another preassembled unit and making plans to swap the hub in an upcoming weekend. Unfortunately, that bearing had other ideas.
I made a short trip saturday morning and noticed quite a bit more noise than the past two days, as well as what sounded like a metal on metal grinding. On my way back to the house I received the VSC TRAC, VSC, and skid lights, as well as an ABS warning (but no check engine - not that it would be expected, but to help others on future searches). The more troubling symptom was that my brake pedal travel was increasing and started requiring two pumps to stop the vehicle. The first pump had little resistance until nearly the floor, and the second pump was short, firm, and felt normal. When I got home I checked the wheel and again found the lug nuts warm, but not hot. I pulled the wheel and inspected everything and didn't notice anything unusual at first.
I inspected the brakes and noticed about a 1/8" gap between the pads and rotor on the inside and out. This explained the pedal travel as I was using hydraulics to squeeze the pads back in and the second press to actually stop. Knowing that I had a suspect wheel bearing I also grabbed the rotor and wiggled in side to side. I discovered about 1/4" of travel (slop) that you could observe the lugs moving independent of the knuckle. At this point I realized that the slop in the bearing was allowing the rotor to vibrate against the pads and compress the caliper pistons. The VSC and ABS lights were likely caused by the ABS speed sensor distance varying and sending false readings.
Having already decided that the rig was no longer road worthy, I made arrangements for a rental for the week and made an appointment at the shop for Monday. While they have it I'm getting as much bang for my buck as possible. The truck has 160,000 miles on it. I replaced the shocks and springs (and converted the rear air suspension) 18 months ago with FJC parts so those are staying, but I'm having the shop add the Daystar budget 1" lift in the front to ease the rake. My LCA bushings are also in rough shape and rusted in place (the truck spent the first 10 years of it's life in upstate NY - salt country), so I'm cutting the labor costs by having them cut the old ones out and putting new in new LCAs. The UCA bushings are in much better shape so we are hoping that we can do the bushings without needing to replace the upper arms. All of the ball joints are still in surprisingly good shape. The driver's CV axle has a torn boot so I'm also replacing that shaft rather than attempting to replace the boot and grease (it's been torn for at least a year) and changing the fluid in the front and rear differential (last swapped about 50,000 miles ago with Mobile 1 synthetic.
Hopefully the details of my story will help someone else with similar symptoms. I tried to hit as many relevant terms as possible to help with searches. The shop quoted me $640 for the wheel bearing and CV swap. He said he wanted to see how it comes apart on the off chance that he can salvage the LCAs and just do the bushings. Either way I'll have a new total today. The daystar spacers aren't coming in until tomorrow, so I'm hoping we can have everything done by Wednesday or Thursday.
The question is: if it were your rig, is there anything else you would have done? The truck is paid off and I expect to keep it for at least another year.
