Friday evening I had this really loud noise, maybe front right side... Sounded like something was stuck in the rotor/caliper and was completely destroying something... got out and looked around didn't see much... it was dark, no flashlight.. I limped it home slow on the shoulder, the last turn was a right turn and the noise went away. Got a flashlight, looked for anything obvious - no luck.

Ran it again on Saturday, had the noise once. Seems like a slight turn to the right might be a way to get it again. Had someone drive it a bit while I walked along side, of course it won't make any noises when I'm ready to track it down!

I pulled the right front wheel, caliper, rotor, nothing looks wrong. I was going to pull the cv out of the hub but I didn't have a large enough socket for the axle nut. I rotated the bearing and axle together, I don't really hear anything and nothing seems loose enough to give me any problems.

What evidence should I be looking for, as far as damaged hub bearings or cv joint issues on this? Want to make sure I'm going after the right parts.

This is a 4x4 2004 Ram 1500 SLT quad cab with 20" wheels, it has 107K miles on it. Had it since new - and I've replaced the ball joints a couple years ago.

Thanks,
Paul

 

I have had similar symptoms with wheel bearings as they go bad. if you turn one direction or another it will unload one wheel bearing (the inside wheel on a turn) and it will get quieter.

Jack up the front end and see if you have any play in the wheel bearing by grabbing the top and bottom of the wheel and trying to wiggle (caster/camber). check the same thing grabbing the front and back, then see if you can feel any rough spots as you slowly rotate the wheel.

CV's usually start to click or pop when turning before going bad, and usually will end up taking the boot with them when they let go. that makes it easy to spot if they grenade.

best of luck with the trouble shooting

 

I drove it over 50 miles today and not a peep! I hate not being able to pin point these issues.

I'm assuming its the hub bearing. I guess I have time to order new bearings online and save some $. Anyone use A1Auto? Seem to have good prices on pairs of hubs.

 

Cheapest I found when I did mine were just under $200 a piece. That's for a 4x2 and not the 4x4.

 

Any update on the fj5gtx? I literally have the same problem, thought it was driver side bearing, replaced it but the sound remains and is getting worse.

For the life of me I couldn't get my driver side cv joint off, so popped the old wheel bearing out and put the new one in. There was no play in my old bearing but would have bet money that it was the problem.

The other side has no play but I am seriously contemplating replacing it as well as the more I read about these 04-06 1500 bearings makes me uneasy. btw 80xxx on the odometer...

 

Sounds like you're in better shape than I am, at least you have a noise you can track. I drove the truck another additional 50 miles today, with no noise present. I could assume its self healing, but experience dictates its going to be more like a ticking time bomb. Not being able to be outside of the truck when it was making noise, leaves me with no credible evidence of where that noise was coming from.

I couldn't detect any movement out of the ordinary on the right side when I had the wheel/rotor/caliper removed. I had the left off the ground and couldn't detect any abnormal movement on that side either. No smoking gun!

As far as ordering parts, I have a wire on the left side, no wire on the right. I have only rear abs. A vendor told me they THINK the wire is a speed sensor - and that I can remove the speed sensor from the old left one and place it on the new one. I guess I need to resolve that question before I execute my online purchase.

 

That's what makes me so nervous about wheel bearings, when they go bad they go bad. On my old 2wd '96 dodge my front wheel separated from the spindle because the bearing blew on the highway with NO warning whatsoever at 80k on the odometer, just a single loud pop and then grinding like a banshee. At least with this it has been apparent for over a week and getting worse. Personally I'm not gonna drive it till i get that other bearing, giving me some piece of mind. 4wd engagement or sharp turning doesn't effect the noise either. The odd thing that makes no sense to me is at low speeds <5mph it doesn't make the noise, when my other bearing blew it didn't matter what speed it was horrible until I could get it stopped, in fact it sounded worse at lower speeds. Granted there is a difference with the bearing setup between a 2wd spindle and 4wd bearing unit but still, a bearing is a bearing..I would think that it would be constant but I don't know. It's hard to track when you have to be at a normal speed to hear/feel it you know?

I will report this weekend after I get the other bearing installed..

 

Sounds crazy, but check the front axle drive shaft.



When the u joint went out in my ram, it only made noise from like 5-15mph and you could only hear it with the window down. Once it was up to speed it stopped making any noise. I always thought it was the pass wheel bearing since the noise was so faint and echoed so much.


Once I had it up on a lift adjusting the passing gear band, I noticed the u joint was wasted. Put a new u joint in it and my mystery noise went away!




Btw 4x4 and 4x2 hub bearings are the same from the factory, at least later model units are (06-08 will interchange with 02-05). Had a set I pulled off a wrecked 07, Hubs were splined for the front shaft to go in, and it was a 2wd truck, never had been replaced so I know they were factory dodge units. Put one on my truck already.

 

The left side bearing went out in much more fan fare last week. Dug into it this weekend. It'd be almost easy if things weren't all fused together with corrosion. That really slowed my progress, I wasn't using heat on that axle, and I didn't want to get out the big sledge hammer. Ultimately the big sledge came out and separated the axle from the bearing. I decided to replace the cv axles anyway.