96 Rattle noise

[96expsl]

I have a 1996 Ford explorer and it sounds like a small rock in a hubcap when the vehicle is moving . It is comming from under the truck. The suv runs good,no problems. The sound is just a little nerve racking.

[tinystitches]

I have a 1998 Ford Explorer XLT. It began having a strange noise from the front end, kind of a rattle, klunk,baseball card sound. It varied when it happened.....I could be moving slowly, I could be traveling on the highway at 55 to 65. It would be sporadic also.....some days it was find with no noise, other days it would be horrible and really concern me that something was going to start falling off.

My car has only 65,000 miles on it, and this problem went on for 3 years. I would take it to the dealer and they would find nothing wrong and could not explain it. Most of the time, I could not get the car to reproduce the noise. Since I am female, I believe they felt the rattle was in my head. Luckily, they never charged me for these exams as I usually had them check about it when I had an oil change, or a recall.

Anyhooo, after 3 years, and I was about to give up, I finally took it in and had one of the mechanics ride with me. I found the guy with the best hearing (yes, the one that they all said could hear noises the best) and it only took a drive around the parking lot for him to hear the noise. I was ecstatic, as someone else besides my sister had finally hear "the noise". After the dealer having the car for few days, it was returned to me when a repair of one of the tie rods. However, a few days later I took it back as the noise was still there. Another few days later, the car was back and they had replaced the other tie rod. THIS FIXED THE PROBLEM AND I HAVE NOT HEARD THE NOISE SINCE THEM. And, luckily for me, not only did we all learn a lesson (me, that patience is a virtue and persistence does help; the dealer, that I was not hearing things and there really was something wrong with the vehicle that even they did not know about), but all of the repairs were under warranty.

I hope this information may help someone with that strange noise they may be hearing, that no one can seem to identify.