Front end squeal(ish) noise

[00f250]

I started getting this intermittent noise yesterday. It appears to be coming from the left front. Wheel bearing is only about 6000 miles old. If any of you remember the commercial about some sort of lube that was better than everything else where they put lubes on a bearing like thing and tried to stop it with another piece of metal. The sound is almost like that. Swapped my Warn lock-out for the factory one to test it, no difference. Tried it in 4 hi, hubs un-locked and no noise. Any ideas, the least expensive the better, as I just put $260 worth of front brakes on today, the noise was there before hand.

[clayton applegate]

Did you check to see if the brake dust cover is bent and rubbing on the rotor. Those things bend easy and they make a terrible noise for such a minor problem.

[00f250]

Ok, update. Called a local 4wd drive place along with Marc to get idears of what it could be. The 4wd shop said to pull out the lockouts completely and drive it and see what happens. No difference. Called Marc, he said to try and lock the lock-outs and keep the T-case in 2wd. I did that and NO NOISE at all.

So

NOISE
HUBS T-Case
Free 2wd
Removed 2wd

NO NOISE
HUBS T-case
Locked 2wd
Free 4wd
Removed 4wd

In summary. it the front end is free spinning, I get the noise.
If it is spinning, either hubs locked OR T-Case in 4wd I get no noise.

I am at a loss for the noise.

I haven't check the springs yet like Marc Suggested. We'll see what happens next.

[clayton applegate]

I know this sounds wierd, but I just whent through this on my 99 F250. You said that you just replaced your hub and bearing. The brake backing plate/dust sheild has a tab that bends up and down to allow the ABS sensor to be removed. If you didn't bend it back down completely( which I failed to do) it will squeel like heck. It changes sounds at various speeds as well as when the hubs are locked....due to resonant frequencies I'm told....bending it down fixed my problem.

[straycat]

Had a problem similar to that, and it was the backing plate just touching the roter.

Gord.

[00f250]

Ok, if that was the case, either backing plate or the tab it should make the occasional noise all the time not when the front end is free-spinning. I am at a loss for what it could be. I still need to check the U-Joint to see if it has a bad cap or the like.

[straycat]

The only time I could hear it was turning a slow corner, going straight you couldn't hear it. Not saying thats your problem,but it doesn't hurt to take a look. I also had a noise I spent a day hunting down, thought a u-joint was going, it turned out to be a small rock I picked up in the u-joint crunching itself up. So you never know hahaha. Good luck.

Gord.

[stroker27]

hey i know this is from feb. BUT, im getting a sqeal(ish) noise on the front end as well.... did u ever get that figured out? mine has like multiple levels of squeals all kinda happening at the same time, not too loud but def. audible while driving slow.

[00f250]

I took out the WARN hubs and put the factory hubs back in. No more noise. Not sure if that was the problem, but it fixed it.