PLEASE HELP FAST - 2000 Explorer - Noise while driving (front pas. wheel)

Here is the background: I have a 2000 Ford Explorer It is making a "thumping" vibrating noise and the tire wobbles (fishtailes, side-to-side) when I drive. The noise is coming from the Front Passenger wheel. The noise/wobbel is constant - does not increase or decrease with speed. Does go away when breaks are applied. Not noisier when turning either direction or sharp vs. not wide turns. Steering wheel vibrates a tad with the noise, Break pedal does not.

Here is what we have done to fix it: Replaced the Break Pads, Replaced the Hub Bearing Assembly, Replaced the outer Tie rod. Replaced the lower ball joint. Had the CV joint checked, as well as the Drive shaft (not those). We have had the SUV put up and speed up to 40 mph and you can visibly see the tire moving side-to-side - kind of fishtailing. Asked the mechanic if it could be the spindle - they said "Not likely". We switched tires to see if it was the tire itself - Noise did not follow the tire.

Question: Is it just as simple as the Rotors or Drums need to be replaced - or am I missing something altogether. PLEASE HELP ASAP!

Welcome to the forum!

I think you're missing something or not accurately stating something. Just about all of the items you have looked at would cause a noise to change with vehicle speed. The faster you go, the higher the frequency of the thumping. But you state that the thumping does not change with vehicle speed. That would say that it cannot be associated with the drivetrain.

Is the thumping present when the vehicle is stopped? What if you put the vehicle in neutral while firmly holding the brakes and slowly increase the engine speed? Might you be experiencing a misfire? Also, make sure you don't have a chunk of ice or something that's stuck in an area and it's bouncing around as you're driving. Since you're in MN, did this just start happening after a recent snow by chance?

-Rod

Thanks so much for checking. The noise and wobble (I might not have mentioned) are not there when the vehicle is not moving/in park. The noise and wobble go away when the break is depressed, so the "neutral - high speed" doesn't cause the sound or wobble. The sound and wobble do not change with the speed of the vehicle. I understand all the things we have been changing the sound should speed up - but the reason we are doing these things is more because of the wobble in the tire – kind of like a fishtail wobble from side-to-side.

We have had this noise and wobble for about 2 months now - no snow or ice. The problem started prior to our snow. It is also not a misfire – because that would not cause a tire wobble. Any other ideas?

In all my research, the only thing I can find this pointing to is the Wheel Bearing, and we just replaced that (well a mechanic did) – the Wheel Bearing - Hub assembly was changed.

Is the wheel bent? Or a tire belt separation? I know you said the noise did not move, but sounds can be decieving where they are coming from. When you rotated the tire, did the wobble stay there or did it go away? Sorry for the questions, but you have raised my curiosity.

I am leaning towards way2old's comments as well. It sounds like the problem my friend had with his car a couple years ago. The belt in the tire separated. Noise does travel along the chassis but you mentioned your steering wheel shook as well, which does indicate a front end issue(Are you sure the shaking is through the steering wheel and not the body?).

Do you recall hitting any pot holes or large bumps at a fast rate of speed? A bent wheel and a separated belt can be caused by this.

Good luck

Put the front end on jack stands use something stationary. Sit it by the front wheel get a large can out of your wifes pantry. Put it about 1/8 inch away from the side of the tire. Rotate the tire by hand slowly a bent rim or shifted belt on a tire will cause the can to move or rub the can. If this is ok put your hand on top and bottom of the tire push in and pull out the tire a bad ball joint will allow the tire to move. Then put your hands on the sides and push and pull a bad tire end will allow movement.

There's also a chance the wobbly wheel and the noise are not related, but you found the wobble while looking for the noise.... Since you had the same wobble even after moving wheels around, I don't think you're looking for a bent wheel but either something loose in the steering/suspension or a bent half shaft as the source of the wobble. Is your Explorer 4WD, AWD, or 2WD?

-Rod

Thank you all for your suggestions. We have checked them all, so here is the update.

It is NOT a problem with a bent wheel or Tire Belt separation. As I said before the noise stayed in the front passenger side when we moved the wheel. We checked and the wobble stayed in the front as well. We haven’t hit anything-including big bumps, dip, curbs – nothing. It is not a bent rim – as the rim goes with the tire, and the noise/wobble stayed when we moved the tire. We had changed the ball bearings very recently (not even 2 weeks ago) – Not bad ball bearings. The explorer is a 4WD, and we really do believe the noise and wobble are connected. We looked very closely as we turned the wheel and the “thump” noise happened at the same point that in the wheel every rotation. We took the tire off and turned just the rotor and saw that the rotor is warped and the noise (and slight warp) happen at the same exact point. So we are going to try replacing the rotor. After we did all this we looked and it seemed that a caliper was slightly out of place. We corrected it (seemed to be a little stuck) added some grease, and the noise seemed to go away. We are going to check tonight to see if the wobble is still there or not. But even so we are going to replace the rotor for fear of it being warped. Thank you all for your concern – If this all works, I can’t believe it was something as simple as a stuck caliper and our mechanic and us never caught it or fixed it!

Thank you for the follow-up. Just for clarification though, from your most recent description, the noise would most definitely change with vehicle speed. That is one of the very difficult things about trying to troubleshoot over the Internet. ;)

-Rod