Growlar

The service manager at my dealership, after a 20 min conversation in which we discussed the check valve..in my case and in many, many others its one wheel, they have had at least four 17's with the same issue, at a small to midsized dealership. You need to quit assuming you know the root cause for everyone issues. Its an issue ford has been having for years and should have reengineered long ago. Plus I had the leaky oil pan on my 3.5. 40+ days out of service in 10 months..

johnday in BFE

iTrader: (1)

It's good your SM would talk to you and give some useful info. Many of them won't/don't. Yep, usually the left front. My dealer replaced the same IWE 3 times on my sales managers truck, after I showed them the checkvalve issue, no more problems with his truck, or mine, and a good number of others member trucks on here.
When a guy has an IWE replaced, drives off, and in matter of miles, he's grinding again, wouldn't that be an indicator to you, that something else is wrong besides the IWE?
Just seems hilarious to me, to redesign an IWE, when many times over, it's a checkvalve, solenoid, or line leak problem. Yes, the issue has been known for 3 generations of F150's.
Just trying to help a guy out, if you don't like what I have to say in the spirit of helping someone else, please put me on ignore, and you won't have to read any more of my assumptions.

glittauer

Update -- I went ahead and purchased the check valve tube assembly as recommended, and after it came in the mail, I had no noise occurrence for about 2 weeks, which initially indicated the issue might be like a toothache going away when you get to the dentist's office since I had not installed the replacement part yet. But the noise finally occurred again, and after a couple of times of it, I went ahead and installed the new check valve/tube assembly. But the noise still occurs, largely unpredictable and sporadic in occurrence. Lately, in addition to the noise happening on its own, I've been able to cause the noise to occur on occasion by stopping and shifting in and out of 4wd. And I've been able to make it stop by stopping and shifting in and out of "M" (manual") and resuming down the road, similar to how I had always been able to get it to stop by stopping and shifting in and out of reverse. So, bottom line for now is that the new check valve does not appear to have resolved the problem.

I wish I could actually hear how the IWE actuator problem sounds so I could compare to the noise I'm hearing with my truck.

I plan to bring this up at the next service which should be in a few weeks. Thanks johnday and others for trying to help.

johnday in BFE

iTrader: (1)

Think of the noise as a can with a handful of gravel in it being shaken violently, with a slight grinding sound thrown in.
Next time you hear your noise, throw into 4H to see if it goes away, don't do anything else, just that. That checkvalve has helped some guys out, but there are a few other things it could be, if in fact it is the IWE's.

glittauer

Thanks, johnday. That does not sound like the sound I am hearing which is actually a fairly "normal" sounding gear noise, with no harsh "grinding" or gravelly rattling. I have had the noise stop a time or two by shifting in and out of 4wd while moving at slow speed, but I've also caused the noise by doing that as well as I described above. So, am thinking my issue is not actuators but is perhaps with the transfer case. Very strange. Wish I could record it. Tried once with the smart phone, but you couldn't hear it in the recording.

johnday in BFE

iTrader: (1)

You could be right on with the transfer case being the problem, or even the front differential. I don't mean to scare you, I've just read that others have had those things give trouble. Whatever it is, I hope you get it taken care of soon, it would bother the snot out of me.
Please do at least me a favor, and let me know what comes of it, might be able to help others out by knowing.

Blue2016XL

Another way to describe the sound is a a dragging a tin can down the road.

From your description, it only does it while moving if I understood correctly. With that assumption.

Still could be the IWEs themselves also. So I would do/have them inspected of them, didn't see that posted here, that it would be worth checking as replacing them would still be cheaper than the TC or front diff.

glittauer

Thanks, jd and blue, for the additional info. My sound is definitely not harsh like that, and, as I described earlier, the service rep guy and other folks I've had along when it made the noise didn't even notice it at first because it sounds not "abnormal" in terms of the sounds most folks are accustomed to hearing from gears, engines, wheels, etc. when things are working normally.

Found this on YT: Is that like the sound you guys are describing re actuator malfunction? Again, that's nothing like what I'm hearing.

So, probably something in the transfer case or front diff as you say, jd. Guess we'll see where this all leads. I drove around this a.m. trying to see how reliably I could reproduce the noise by shifting in and out of 4wd high, both from a stopped position and "on the fly" while going 20 mph or up to 40 mph, and did this perhaps 8 or so times and only heard the noise very briefly and it stopped after about 4 or 5 seconds. So, aggravatingly unpredictable and unreproducible. It sometimes happens right after starting up from a cold start, or while just driving down the road under 50 mph. Never has occurred when driving at normal highway speeds, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing (part of me thinks "please just break" so I can get it fixed under warranty and maybe be done with it).

Anyway, will keep you posted on what I find. Might take a long while, however, since this doesn't affect drivability or performance at this point.

johnday in BFE

iTrader: (1)

Yup, pretty sure that video is an IWE grinding. Well, at least that's likely ruled out. LOL.
Know what you mean about it just breaking, been there, done that on other trucks.
Yes, whenever you get it resolved, please let us know.

Blue2016XL

Mine were not that loud or even sounded anywhere like that. Mine sounded like a spray can with the metal ball in it being shook or dragging a tin can down the road tied to a rope and bouncing off the pavement. I could easily drown it out with the radio and would do it intermittently and during the day until the end of the week before I replaced the solenoid and check valve it only did it in the morning. I think the difference was that mine were probably not trying to engage as much.