Ive been having this issue for years and have been unable to figure out what it was... finally decided to record it. Sometimes it disappears for a month, other times it happens the whole drive for days on end... its completely random though humidity seems like it might increase the noise.

every uneven feeling in the road makes this noise that i can hear through the truck.. its not very loud but its very annoying to me. you can hear the grinding in the last 10 seconds of the video for a few seconds. Any thoughts?

You Tube

 

How many miles? jack up each side or both what have you. grab the tire at 3 and 9 oclock position shake side to side, see if theres any play, then grab at 12 and 6 do the samething, is best to have someone look at the parts if you have play, round one will test tie rod ends, round to will test ball joints, 3rd lift up shock boots and see if there leaking. The deading thud that you get sounds more like the shock in the strut tower is gone, hard to say im not right there with my true own ear. Then check condition of all the rubber bushings on control arms, stab/swaybar links.

 

It has 103k on it. The tie rods were just replaced a few months ago and the mechanic said he couldn't see anything else wrong with it... but that noise moves through the truck when driving and its VERY annoying.. not so much the thud that's actually the first time i heard it and it might have been from me pushing down on the hood.

The sounds im referring to is think of old squeaky mattress springs.

 

Had the same on my grandfathers, around 82k, has 86k now. Sway bar links replaced, and new struts--Note dont let a shop throw the quick struts in, after 30k on my 98 of replacing squeak came back, then turned to a thud.

Also did strut mounts @ same time. hope this helps.

 

How much does it cost rougly to have a mechanic replace all of these? I dont mind doing normal stuff like oil changes etc but not sure i want to take on doing the struts.

 

+1 on sway bar end links. They are not hard to replace, if you have the tools which isn't much. Look it up in the DIY section. Notice that the sound isn't there, or not as noticeable when the truck wasn't moving much, but as you started moving it more the noise gets louder and you can kinda hear the double sound as the sway bar moves around.