Last month I pulled out of my driveway and halfway up the block my truck was growling. I jumped on the gas then off and it went away and never did it again. So I suspected the IWE had not fully disengaged from when I started the truck. Seeing my warranty is going to expire at the end of this month I talked to my buddy who has been a Ford Tech at the same dealer since 1979. He wrote a ticket and said he was just going to order a set of IWE's, solenoid, and put them in. He put them in today but did not have time to road test it. He called me and said it was done and seemed fine in the back parking lot. I stopped up the dealer and took it for a short ride with my spare key. Now its growling constantly until you put it in 4H and then its whisper quiet. Switch back to 2H and the growling comes back. Switched it back and forth a few times; same thing. I'm going to call him tomorrow and tell him he better take it for a longer ride down the road. WTF? He knows his **** and has done them before, so I don't know whats going on. I am more mad at myself for not just leaving it alone.

 

Could it be bearings starting to go? The dealer I go to does them quite often on our generation of trucks

 

I only have 21K miles. If it was the bearings, I would not think the sound would go away when I shift into 4wd.

 

That is classic IWE problem. Maybe he didn't install them right.

 

Thats what I am thinking. When he called me he was even telling me how you have to watch putting them in and the key is to make sure the axle is seated all the way in the hub before you tighten it up, etc, etc..
Hopefully it is that simple and can be easily taken care of. It's just weird because he is like "Mr. Ford" The dealer only sells and works on trucks and he has been there 39 years. Surrounding dealers send the stuff to him they can not figure out. He just doesn't screw up. Hard to believe he did not install them right, but I hope that is the case and we don't end up chasing the issue because I really like this truck and want to keep it for as long as I can.

 

When he is looking at it, have him also replace the check valve. That has been a cause of the grinding issue as well. Although, it may have fixed the original problem it may not fix the issue now. A lot of people have been finding that that the check valve fails and it fails intermittently.

 

Is there only 1 check valve? Or one on each side?
He only drove it around the dealer parking lot and I only drove it 1/2 mile or less and not over 30mph, so maybe/hopefully it didn't screw them up if it is the check valve.

 

By your signature it looks like you have a 2014. There is only 1 starting with 2009. It will be close to the solenoid.

I can't imagine you have done a lot of damage in this short amount of time. Just try not to drive anymore than you need to. Or if you have 4wd auto, drive it in that mode until you get it resolved.

 

Its still sitting in the dealers lot. I just took it down the road and right back with my spare key. They don't even know I was there and took it for a ride. I am going to call him tomorrow and tell him.
Kinda seems like it would be a good idea to replace the check valve every so many years as a precaution, but then again...this is what got me in this mess. Fooling with stuff that "may" be broken. I only did it because my warranty runs out in a couple weeks and if they were bad would rather they pay for it.

 

That's fine but, here are some threads showing that quite a few members here have found the check valve resolved their grinding issue. It may have resolved mine but, the solenoid and the check valve were replaced at the same time. When I had the noise, most of the threads at that time pointed to the solenoid. No mention of the check valve. Service manager replaced the check valve when I asked if that was the next thing to replace if the truck still had the noise when I saw him pull it off and test it.

https://www.f150forum.com/f2/gen-ii-...c-pump-397377/

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/possi...ailure-293485/

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/iwe-i...7-f150-404176/

https://www.f150forum.com/f118/iwe-failure-404073/