so the other day im driving my 1st generation Dakota turn the steering wheel to pull into a spot and heard this grinding noise from my front end. Looked under and didnt see anything visibly wrong with it and then it stopped for awhile and now its back so gonna have to take it in and see whats wrong. Any ideas on how or what to look at to fix this problem so i can stay away from the shop?

 

Welcome to Dodge Forum!! Check out the Dakota section!!

Dusty

 

I moved this thread to the correct section,
FF

 

what size tires do you have? It sounds like your tires might be too wide and they're rubbing against the wheel wells.

 

2 things come to mind for a grinding noise ,,first thing i'd check is the brakes and make sure the pads aren't worn down and grinding ,,the second thing would be the wheel bearing,,on 2 wd models it's pretty simple to replace,,if 4wd it can be a bit more af a project but it's do-able,,if ya have basic mechanical knowledge ,, something ya learn ya need with dakotas MECHANICL KNOWLEDGE ,,LOL
crazy

 

welcome to the site

Wheel bearing gets my vote also

 

Found out it was too much gear fluid in the rear axle drained some out and noise went away haven't had a problem since

 

wow thats weird. to much oil make a grinding noise. never heard of that before

 

Yeah it was wierd took it to the shop and he drove it around and it would only grind when it was in gear neutral no noise so we put it on the lift looked at the pumpkin took off the cover and it pissed out been a couple months since we did that and still no noise