Hey Everyone.

I have an '04 1500 Quad cab with a Hemi in it. The truck has just over 80k on the clock, and I've owned it since about 24k.

I'm hearing a noise at about 40-45 mph. It sounds like a bearing to me, but I'm wondering where to start looking. I noticed the noise on the way home from the cabin last week. I think I can feel it in the steering wheel, but also possibly the brake pedal, or the floor.

It has Cooper Zeon LTZ rubber, which has a more aggressive tread than the stock tires. I do rotate them regularly, at every other oil change, or every 3rd change for sure, depending on the time I have available. I rotated them this time, to see if it was maybe some tire noise I was hearing. I still have the noise/very slight vibration, I don't think the rotation changed anything, good or bad.

So my question is: If I have a bad bearing, where do I start looking? Could it be a u-joint? Somewhere in the rear end, or one of the front corners?

I don't consider myself to be an overly aggressive driver, and although I never met the previous owner, (I just know what the salesman told me about him) I doubt that he would have done much pounding on it either. It is/was very clean and straight when I bought it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading,
Mike
Green Bay, WI

 

Check your front end make sure everything is tight.
Pull your brake calipers and bracket and remove rotor. Rotate hub bearing slowly feeling for any roughness. If they check out good pull your driveshaft(s) to check u joints and center bearing if you have one. Two pretty easy checks and free for the DIYer. Other than that your into transfer case or differential(s)
I have been through the same dilemma too many times with my truck . Even bought one of those vibration analyzer machines for my next encounter..
Hopefully your find a bad hub bearing or u joint.
Good Luck
Edit. Don't rule out the tires.

 

Thanks for your input, big guy. I was driving through an S-curve yesterday...when I veered to the right, the noise went away. When going through the left turn side of the S, the noise came back.

That made me think that the body roll/weight transfer was taking weight off of the the right front corner and, as a result, making the noise go away.

I jacked it up, and used a pry bar to check for play on the front right. I decided there was enough play to warrant a closer look. I brought the old one in to the store to get a second opinion on if I could feel something bad or not. Just for the record, my old 80,000 mile hub felt better than the MOOG (expensive brand) one, right out of the box.

The first test drive revealed the noise to still be there. I'm going to clean the old assembly up and swap out the other side, since I have a 'spare' laying around now.

And the search continues...

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

Update:

This afternoon, I swapped out the left side hub assembly. My noise went away. The bearing wasn't sloppy, but when turned by hand, you can definately hear and feel bad spots.

I do have one other question.... Why does the driver's side have an ABS wire? My Ram does not have an ABS system, that's for sure. The sensor was not installed for the test drive, and no light came on on the dash or anything, so I'm wondering the purpose of said sensor.

 

Mine is making a noise from the front also. I changed the brakes, still there. No play in the tires. I thinking of changing the wheel bearings also. I did swap the tires to a all terrain tire.

I was thinking of buying the bearings and swapping them out, but don't have a press, so probably just buy the assembly.


2004 Ram 1500, 2 wheel drive with 41,000 miles on it.