Hi all. Bought another 03 F150 XLT about a month ago. Has a loud howl in front part that's getting on my nerves. Had recall done [ gas tank straps] and dealer said front wheel bearings bad. Did the quick turn to the left and noise stops. So I'm figuring left bearings. Took it to my mechanic and he verified left front hub assembly. Put new one on and still has the howl [ just sounds like bearing howl]. He said has to be a bad tire. Took it to reputable tire shop. Said other than a little chop on inside drivers tire, all is good. Cant be tire noise. Mechanic said he checked pass. side bearings and they seemed good. What now? 03 F150 5.4 Triton XLT 109,000 miles 275 55 20 cooper discoverer htp tires

 

Howling Mad Murdock!



Is it a 2WD or 4WD?

Honestly, I think this might be your problem though: 275 55 20 cooper discoverer htp tires

Mine are NOISY as hell on my Expy.

 

These are mine.... they are Cooper Discoverer ATR's.

 

Cooper Discoverer HTP 275/55/20


Truck is 4WD

 

Do you have a video of the sound? That would be helpful.

Also, if you are sure it's that specific tire/wheel, could you not just put on the spare and see if it also makes the same sound? Or rotate your tires around?

 

Try jacking up the front and seeing if one of the front tires move. If they move like the lug nuts are loose, then the wheel bearing is bad. I had to get a few replaced, one shop forgot to grease one they said and it pretty much melted.

Do you have a spare tire by chance? Like others have said, put it on and keep rotating it until the noise is gone. We had to do this in my moms van and we found one of the tires had belt separation (our complaint was pulsating brakes, not noise but it's still a way to figure something out).

Also check behind the wheel on the discs, there should be a dust shield, is that shield touching your rotor? That'll make an annoying howling sound. Every time I get a wheel bearing replaced the shop leaves that cover touching the rotor. It's easy to fix, it's just thin metal you just have to bend back out of the way, I'd recommend a long flat head screw driver.

 

Thanks for all the advise. I have to get another spare for this truck cause the spare I have is original 16" and tires on now is 20". Also I found out tonite trying to back up a hill, my 4wd don't work. 4wd be connected to howling noise?

 

It could be something as simple as a tire rotation. I had a loud howling around 45-50 mph and thought it was the wheel bearings but after replacing those, it turned out that a tire rotation took care of the loud howling. I do have to say that Cooper tires must be know for loud road noise. My Cooper AT3 tires are great however I can't get the balanced correctly and they have more road noise than the Firestone Destination tires I had on them before.

 

Just got the howling noise fixed. It was the passenger side wheel bearing. Replaced hub assembly. Cant always go by when you turn to the left and the howling stops then thinking it's the left wheel bearing. First mechanic said he checked right side bearings and was ok. 2nd mechanic said soon as he started moving the right wheel he knew bearings were shot. Anywho , I got both new bearings. now on to why 4wd wont work and rusted exhaust manifold. Thanks everyone for their thoughts