So when i am drivin around 35 to maybe 50 mph, and under constant or minor acceleration, i hear an intermittent grinding noise coming from my truck. I think that it might be from the front end. Could it be the wheel bearings? How, are these things tested? More importantly how can i test it with out a jack and jack stands? (i hope to get a jack and stands soon)

 

run it to a tire shop, ask them simply if you can just borrow, or have them jack up one side at a time. bearings are hard, but if they are bad enough you can tell this way, just like a balljoint, I would check for 12 o' clock and 6 o' clock movement,(sometimes the steering wheel will rotate if you check 3-9 movement) and spin the wheel to listen for noise, unless you're AWD it should spin, you will hear the brake pad and rotor but listen for other noise.. then check the other side the same way. If one is much louder than the other, it's probably bad. Not a definite way of tell though..

my ranger had a crazy offset wheel on it and would loosen the bearings about every 3k miles, I checked this way at each oil change and had to pull the wheel/caliper/rotor/hub to re-tighten it each time... PITA repacked bearings each time, went through a lot of grease with that POS

It could be u-joints too maybe? I'm no expert, but I'm sure more ideas will pop up. How many miles are you up to now BTW?

 

Another way, but not the best is to load and unload the wheel bearing, that means you need to find a nice smooth road and swerve the truck back and forth carefully at like 30-40 and shift the weight of the truck. If you know what you are trying to hear it should go away when you take the weight off the one side.

This is not an exact science, but its one way.

 

When was the last time you rotated your tires?

 

I am between 70000 and 75000 *and its Full-Time 4x4.*

Its been a while, but it had this noise ever since i bought it. Im just getin around to thinking of getin it fixed or at least diagnosed, so a wheel doesn't fall off. Just tryin to stay ahead of the problem.

*I wished that it was safe to put the entire truck on jack stands, and start it up and try and have someone in the cab running the truck while i have a listen arround. Or even better yet, have my own dyno rollers that i could put it on. *

 

Jack it up and spin the wheel. If you can duplicate the noise this way, pull rotor, slap wheel back on, and spin it again. If noise is gone, it's likely just brake noise. If noise is still there, listen carefully to pinpoint if it's near the hub or further in. Could be a dry CV joint even.

Certainly doesn't hurt to wiggle the wheel and see if you can feel play, but usually by the time you can feel it, they are extremely shot.

 

best thing to do is go to a buddys shop and use his lift, if not available use the jackstands, have a buddy sit in the car with it on all 4 jackstands, and very carefully put it in drive, do not accelerate as the vehicle will move the wheels when idling, hopefully this should be enough speed to hear the problem, check the differential and rear wheels for noise (brakes bearings etc) then move to the front check the brakes and front cv axle, i got the same thing going on in my truck, ever since i went to duals it makes a wierd grinding noise, i just havent had time ha...