'00 explorer front wheel noise

[mabulok]

Greetings, wondering if anyone has experienced front end noise at high speeds. It sounds like when the wheels are out of balance but just had mine done and still have the noise. Could it be bearings, or possibly alignment? How often do you all get alignments done? I've got 75k miles and had one alignment. Also, noise is actually present at most speeds greater than 35mph and gets faster as the speed increases, which I'm fairly certain is related to the wheels in some manner. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks...

[Doug Rodrigues]

Join the club: My noise is at low speeds only. It almost sounds like a grease seal in the left hub is rubbing dry and making a hum....almost but not quite a squeal, but that wasn't it. The noise doesn't change when stepping on the brake, so it's not the brake pads? I don't know what it is?

[mabulok]

Going to get a front-end alignment and perform my brake/bearing job this weekend. Along with the regular lubing of front-end parts. I'll keep you posted and let you know if that works. I'm fairly certain now that it's most likely an alignment issue. Last time it started performing this way I had that done and it took care of it. Except at that time my symptom was squirrelly steering at highway speeds. It was difficult to keep in a straight line, along with the road noise. This time I've only got the road noise.

[mabulok]

Ok, just as it was last time, wheel noise was being caused by the front-end being out of alignment. I never had any handling issues, just the noise coming from the front wheels. Also had the added benefit of fixing most of the wheel shimmy during braking. Going to do the brake/bearings anyway because it's due now. 76k miles and still looks/runs like new.

History:
New Jan 2000
Oil/filter every 3000 miles (myself)
Transmission service 75k (myself)
Plugs 70k (myself)
2 front end alignments, one at 30k, one at 76k
FREE replacement tires for my Firestone's at 35k (Michellin LTX A/T's, fantastic tires-hardly any wear after almost 40k miles!)
Brakes under warranty at 12k and 20k.

[Projet]

I have 2000 Explorer that had front end noise /shimmy with Michelin tires with less then 10K on them. There were two problems
1) lower ball joints were dried out with no grease due to seal failure and made a noise when suspension moved(this is documented Explorer issue)
2) the Michelin tires on the front were rebalanced and checked for force variation . The tires had excessive force variation and I filed a claim with Michelin through Bell tire and they prorated the tires with a cost to me of $40 .
My vehicle now has a front end hum starting at 35 and peaks at 55mph that you can see the rear view mirror vibrate. I suspect the front hub bearings. I just replaced hub bearings on Taurus and I checked them by jacking frontend off ground and put vehicle in drive and saw that the strut moving . I concluded this after verifying tire/wheel were OK
The hub bearing for the Explorer is about 170 each with the abs sensor
Any one out there with any other suggestions or hub bearing problems / diagnois help on Explorer ????

[tbergluind]

have the same problem on my 2000 bought new tires and aligment and still has a little of a hum sound like a truck with big tires right? Im going to turn the roters and try that and if that don't fix it i figure that it is just the type of tire that is made for the suv's i'm willing to bet that if we put street tires on them that it will go away but you probley will get stuck ? Have fun I am.