Hello new to the forum, looking for some help. I have a 2015 F150 4X4 Lariat crew cab with 38,000 miles, was having grinding noise when slowing down took to dealer was under 35,000 miles. Said can't duplicate issue and sent me home, came back a couple of weeks later same diagnostic. On my third time to same dealer, service manager said it was my IWE and Ford has no fix for it and they have tried to but nothing seems to work. He suggested that we disconnect the vacuum hose and that should eliminate the noise, which it did but is this really the best option to fix a $50,000 truck is to disconnect the vacuum hose? Please help and would like to heard from Ford tech regarding this know IWE issue... Thank you Jim

 

Hi Jim, and welcome!

To quickly answer your question, NO, that is not a fix. All the guy did was remove the vacuum hose, and lock your IWE's in. There's a number of threads on here about this, you can look in my statistics and find a thread I started awhile back, that should help you out.
Usually the IWE's grinding happens under throttle. A good test to see if it really is the IWE, is plug that hose back in, and drive it. As soon as you hear the grinding, switch it into 4H. If it stops, the bet is that it is an IWE. One cheap and quick potential fix, is to replace the check valve. Not always that, but it's a good place to start.
I'd also recommend to find another dealer, it doesn't sound like that one is very interested to help you.
See attached photo, for the checkvalve, it's that black and white circular thing on the hose. If you follow that hose towards the fender, you'll also see how the hose setup looks.
Gt back if you need to.
Oh, and here's a link to Amazon for the valve you need. It is not the OEM one, a couple of us think it's a better one. Can also gt at the dealer or most part stores.

 

Thanks Johnday, I replaced the Check Valve and now when I shift into 4 hi it sounds like the IWE is not fully engaging 4x4,and growling sound get worst. I guess its back to the shop again, too bad the next ford dealer is over 50 miles away. I just want it fix properly... Jim

 

You're sure you put the check valve in the right direction, correct?

 

I thought the same, but if so, the hubs would have just locked in, they would have never gotten vacuum.
Jim, so after replacing the valve, and leaving in 2H, did the noise go away? I'm wondering if the IWEs might be so badly damaged, that is what could be causing them to grind in 4H.
Just likely a dumb ?, but did you reconnect the hoses like in my photo? Wish I could be there, to see this firsthand.

 

I have a 2017 F150 with 18,000 miles and noticed the rubbing type noise a few weeks ago also. Did some research to find out it's a pretty common issue with these trucks. I guess I'll try the new valve from Amazon before going through the dealer because I'm sure with my luck they won't hear anything. My first American vehicle and it's disappointing to say the least.

 

Likely the good thing to do. Not sure how common overall it is, as an example, my '12 never had a problem, and there'smany that don't.
I think the bad thing is that is known over three generations of trucks, and still, many dealers don't appear to know what to do other than automagically throw on some new IWEs.
Bear in mind, it's no guarantee it is the valve, but it's a pretty inexpensive place to start.

 

Agreed. I mentioned it to a friend of mine with a 2013 80k miles, zero issues. I just fear going back and forth with the dealer like I've read some people have. Rather it just break and be fixed plain and simple.

 

Since it's such an intermittent problem, and my service manager and I couldn't get it to grind, we agreed to run it until it breaks. I just couldn't see doing that to a truck with around 500 miles on it, so I bought a valve right there at the dealer. Since then, I put another one in tandem with the first. No problem in the last 5000 or so.
The valve I've been recommending, is NOT the OEM one like comes with the hose. The black end is slightly larger, but does work. Another member and I came to somewhat of a conclusion, that the flapper material may be different than the OEM. Cooler temps on the OEM seemed to bring out the problem, where it doesn't appear to on the YG360. It baffles me though, how some have trouble, and others don't.

 

Curious if there's one or two check valves in the system. Something I haven't really looked at (yet). May order spares just in case.