I have a 04 F150 and recently I had a bad grinding noise coming from the front end of my truck with a pulse in the brake pedal. First thought was that it was bad brake pads or wrapped rotors. Changed those and issue still persisted. Power steering felt normal and did not have any issues with it no noise or anything.

I was about to order a new set of pulleys and a new power steering pump to see if that would fix the issue. I decided to first change the power steering fluid to see if that would change anything. Changed it nights ago and now no noise or pulse in the brake pedal.

Just wanted to put this out there in case someone was having these same issues. Give this a try before you go and spend a nice chunk of change on unnecessary parts.

 

Is your truck 4x4? If so next time you hear the grinding noise put it in 4wd and see if the sound goes away. If putting it n 4wd makes the sound go away then you have a problem with your IWEs. Search this forum for IWE and grinding in front end. You'll find lots of great information about it. If your truck is not 4x4 you might want to check the hub/bearing

 

So.. changing the power steering fluid has what to do with your brake system ? Lol

 

Guaranteed bad wheel bearing. Jack up the front end and grab the wheel/tire at 6:00 and 12:00 and wiggle back and forth. See if there's play. Any play at all, replace the whole hub assembly. They're not that expensive (as least they weren't on my 97 Dodge 2500, but that's not 4 wheel ABS). One of the best brands to go with (in my opinion) would be Timken. MOOG isn't what it used to be.

 

Whatever you find report back to us so others can learn from what you found.

 

X2^^

 

especially if happening when turning wheels

 

Fords can be amazing sometimes. I've owned several and continue to be amazed. Some of the stupidest things my trucks have done seem to magically fix itself and somehow disappears forever still amazes me.

 

***UPDATE***

After changing the power steering fluid the noise has not came back. I checked the wheel bearings last night and there is no play. I went to the shop today and they said the wheel bearings and all front end parts seemed fine, they could not pin point what was causing the grinding initially since it does not do it anymore.

My truck is 4x4, but I did not check if it did the grinding when I put it in 4x4 at the time. I tried to put it in 4x4 today and no noise.

I have no idea what the power steering fluid could have in common with the brake pedal pulse but that is gone too.

 

Most likely you have a failing IWE control solenoid.