eastfootball88

Hi all,

i have never replaced or messed with the hubs at all on my truck, i have an 04 screw fx4 with 20" wheels and 35" tires. the other day while driving down the road i noticed a grinding noise coming from the front right wheel. it started out only making the noise while i was accelerating, but as i got on the freeway to get home, it started consistently doing it while the wheel was spinning. then all of the sudden the noise just stopped and hasnt made it since. i was originally thinking it was the wheel hub bearings but it seemed unlikely that was it because it just stopped. any ideas?

ford4wd08

Sounds like 4wd actuators or your IWE solenoid. Search it on the forum.

bourgeois1269

Same thing happened to me. It was my passenger side actuator. I had it replaced and will be doing the driver side shorty

homer

As Ford4wd08 wrote, IWE solenoid or actuator (or another vacuum related issue). I always recommend getting a vacuum pump and testing each actuator individually. If they don't hold vacuum (either one) then the seal is toast inside it (the vent-line is what rubbed mine and broke the seal over time - and everytime you start the vehicle in 2WD mode which is often, the hubs are sucked back in and rub the vent line again). The reason it may have started during acceleration is one (or both) of the actuators could be leaking and under load you had less vacuum thus the hub couldn't keep up. My passenger side actuator failed at one point entirely and caused the drivers side to make the grinding noise only on hills (due to low vacuum).

Overall, I had to replace both anyways.


LOTS of information on this forum! You're not the first one with this, and you won't be the last haha. I think VTX or someone has written up some good information on it as well. I did a writeup back in 2008 or so but there's much more informative ones now.

eastfootball88

Thanks guys, definitely helped.