Hi there, last night on the way home while driving on the highway...
my front left wheel started making a grinding noise. It isn't a screeching noise, more like a dragging grinding noise. Just like when your child is learning to ride a bike and has the extra 2 wheels in the back to prevent him from falling, that same kinda noise.

I thought it was the brakes as it was pretty thin at about 1/4" thick. So i bought new premium brake pads and replaced the old ones and did a test drive. Still the same noise!! Do you think its the bearing? Sorry i am not mechanically inclined, so am not sure what it is. The wheel is securely attached and not wobbly. I am afraid to drive it to make it even worse so now i can't work on monday! Please advise.
how much and what i should do and etc etc, thank you all

 

4x4 right? It's probably your IWE actuator. This is the part that connects the wheel hub to the CV shaft when you use 4wd. One way to test is unplug the IWE soleonid (passenger side firewall behind battery) and see if the noise goes away.

 

could you please teach me how to do that? and if is that.. do i need that replaced? and isit expensive?

 

OK, your IWE solenoid will look 1 of 2 ways. It will either have cover on it or it won't. But that's no matter right now. Like I said it is on the passenger side firewall behind the battery. All you gotta do is pull that connection off.
Here's what it will look like with the cover:


And without:


Then after you do that, drive the truck and see if you get that noise again. If not, that confirms the IWE actuator (the part down on the hub) is bad. If it is bad you need to keep driving around with the solenoid unplugged. The reason is so your hubs and CV shafts will stay engaged instead of being part way engaged (the clicking/grinding you are hearing). You can prevent damage. Hope this makes sense.

 

thank you so much sir, i will try it soon. if the iwe actuator is bad, isit expensive to get the part? and isit hard to install?

 

Average price on the actuators is about $100 I guess. I got mine for $80 off ebay.
And I did mine myself but wouldn't have if I wasn't comfortable or hadn't worked with steering and suspension before.

 

ok, ill try and see if this is the main cause. if it is, i will let that dealer know about it. if not i will let him know anyways. Isit safe to drive without it plugged in? and what is that for anyways?

 

The reason you are hearing the clicking noise (assuming this is the problem) is because the actuator has failed and is trying to engage the hubs. Well when it's only part way engaging or what have you, you are grinding the splines and will eventually chew them up. So if you unplug that solenoid it will completely engage the actuators and not tear anything else up.

Here's a write up on how the system works.
http://www.f150online.com/forums/art...then-some.html

 

Here is a good general trouble shooting thread that helped me repair my 4x4. The 4x4 system on our trucks is pretty easy to trouble-shoot and repair.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/836438-everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-the-iwe-system-and-then-some.html

The IWEs are about $75-to $80 at various online sites, and the solenoid is around $25. My local Ford dealer parts guy will match any online prices I find for OEM parts so I just go there and save time. (It's always worth asking if yours will do the same, to keep your business).

Here's another thread that dicusses the IWE replacement.

http://www.f150online.com/forums/2004-2008-f-150/360269-iwes-removal-replacing.html

Between these two threads and us here, you should be able to take care of this.

 

Hi, i did what you said by unplugging that cable and did a test drive. Still there Is a sound, the same sound indeed. What do you think?