how would you determine if you needed new bearings ............ my issue is this ........ once you get up to a speed of 40-45 plus mph I get a good growling/moaning type sound which seems to be coming from the front right hub/tire area ............ if you turn the wheel to the right it goes away ........... straighten it out it comes back ............ under 40 mph no distinguishable noise whatsoever ............. any and all diagnostic help is greatly appreciated

 

truck in question is a 2004 2500 Dodge Ram Quad Cab SLT Short Bed Hemi 5.7 roughly has about 150,000

 

id say thats ur wheel bearing going, mine is the same way pretty much. if im going around 35-40 mph the front left is winding and if i turn right its worse but if i turn left its not as bad. i just did my right side one so i couldve figured the left one was going to go soon enough as well. so moral of the story, if one is going, id try to replace both if you have the cash. but thats just me.

 

at 150k, how many times have the ball joints, sway bar links and tie rods been replaced?

 

never ...................

 

You should certainly take the time to replace the wheel bearing hubs, sway bar links, tie rods, upper control arms with ball joints and the lower ball joints. It will feel like a new truck.

On a side note, with this having been neglected, what about the coolant, transmission oil and differential oils?

 

sounds like a lot of work ............. I'm not into changing things that aren't broken ............ just kinda trying to figure out what the noise is and fix that ........ the truck rides excellent .......... tracks very well and straight ........ runs like a champ ............. have done the dealer scheduled maintenance since it was new just not sure about rebuilding the front end if its not needed

 

The time and energy required to get to the hubs and what not, plus the mileage you're talking---Weed is right.

At the very least, inspect everything really good while you are in there. It just really sucks doing major repairs this year, just to yank it all apart next year when you'de be time and money ahead to rebuild it new in one session

 

At 150k, trust me, it all needs replacing.

Waiting to fix things until they break is what gets you stuck someplace at night and where you don't want to be.

I won't be putting myself or my wife and kids in that situation.

But, everyone is different.