2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Low vibrating sound from left front wheel @ 15-20mph, want to help me diagnose?

[CRSmith]

Hi there fellas.

Imagine slowing down for a stop light... When I slow down from travel speed, a low frequency vibration starts at about 20 mph and continues until I slow to about 15 mph. Then it's quiet all the way to a stop. The sound will keep going as long as I'm in the 15-20 window regardless of whether I have the brakes applied or not. It doesn't make a sound when I accelerate. There's a tiny bit of pulsation, but nothing out of the ordinary for a truck with 60k miles. It feels and sounds like its coming from the front left. I can feel it a little with my foot as it resonates through the floorboard. I was thinking wheel bearing or axle u-joint. Any ideas??

 

[BStacy]

Axle U Joint

I bet it's an axle u joint. If it were a wheel bearing it would do it all the time not just at 15-20 mph.

Good Luck,

Brian

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Chopped or "Cupped" tire trads will also do the same thing.



My Mud Terrains have developed a real bad scalloped tread wear pattern that you can hear and feel over the exhaust drone ... yep that loud. On the drivers side run your hand over the tire in a clockwise direction (Counter clockwise for passenger side) and feel the tread surface. if it has sharp angles or the tire catches your hand easily than it juust may be time to get rubber.





(Or rotate the tires to eliminate them as a possibility)

 

[willyslover]

TMTT. . did you check out your shocks... usual place of wear that causes the cupping. . sometimes the rubber bushings but more often than not weak shocks

 

[Turbo Tim 1]

TMTT - I had a bad wheel bearing that was causing this. Ate that tire up in 36,000 miles and the other was in somewhat rough shape.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

I have all brand new Bilstein 5200 SX shocks , DSS , Dt track bar It's prolly from being in 4X4 quite a bit up in canada / VT

 

[CRSmith]

I hadn't thought about tire cupping. I'll have to check that out, although it sounds a little to "metal-on-metal" for it to be tires. Plus they've only got about 5000 miles on them. I'll try to shake the tire top to bottom tonight and look for play in the bearing.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Another hot spot are ball joints and tie rod ends. (We all know the track bar issue so we don't have to go there) But all those things can cause a resonance in the front end at a certain speed spectrum.

 

[ramonram]

left front hub bearing

howdy crsmith, my problem started out like that, got progressively worse, to a grinding sound, then totally blew out on road trip to mexico, jack the front of truck up and see what kind of play you have in the wheel, i could move whole wheel an inch or two, not good. not a bad repair, i would jack up your left front to assess this, and if no movement, you can check on the other possibilities the other members have suggested, over and out, ramonram

 

[CRSmith]

From all the descriptions, it sounds like a wheel bearing. I would have described the sound as grinding, because it does sound like metal to metal, but I thought that would come across as too high pitched over the internet. Thanks for the help.

 

[Jdimig]

my truck did the same thing except the noise would come and go mostof the time. it would start after about 30mph and get worse, and sometimes go away completely. i ended up replacing the front wheel bearing hub. problem fixed