The recent snow and ice in Texas seemed to bring out an issue. In 2WD, when making a turn, I'm hearing a grinding noise that sounds like it's coming from the driver's side front wheel. I did some reading, and everything said IWE. I followed the troubleshooting steps of checking for vacuum at the solenoid and ensuring the IWE holds vacuum when the IWE is applied. Both tests passed. But here's the interesting part that I haven't found in my searches. The grinding noise occurs only when the rear wheels are slipping during the turn. If I'm turning on dry ground in 2WD, there is no noise. But earlier, while driving on slush and making a turn, the rear wheels spun, and I heard the noise. It's happened a few times, but only in 2WD and only when turning, with the rear wheels losing traction. I wasn't able to jack up the front to make sure the IWE was truly releasing. I need it to thaw a bit more before I can.

I'm still new to the IWE setup, so I wanted to confirm whether I'm missing anything. I've used 4WD quite a bit the last few days, and it seemed to be working normally with no noise, but this is the first time I've really needed 4WD since I've had this truck.

 

It's still likely the IWE. Look for vacuum leaks. This issue has been covered in depth in many posts. The other thing to look at would be the axle CV joint. If the boot is torn and the bearings are dry, it'll grind.

 

I’ll keep digging. I’m assuming the solenoid feeds both IWEs from the same port. If so, no vacuum leak was evident when I tested with the gauge. But I’ll need to trace both lines looking for any damage.