I have a 2002 F-150 extended cab with an 8ft bed. At 16,000 miles (I'm now at 16,500) the front tires began making whump whump noises. The sound appears at approx 50 mph. Anyone have any suggestions. I know y'all are great supporters of the F-150 but I had a check engine light go on at 14,000 and now this tire issue. I am wondering if these sorts of annoying problems are typical for these trucks. I am oldish guy and don't abuse the truck.

 

Your tires might have lost balancing or you may have broken a belt on the tire. Go take the truck to a tire store and have them check it out. The stock tires are junk so this is highly possible. As for the check engine light take it back to the Ford dealer since its under warranty and have them pull the codes on it to find out whats wrong with it.

 

I took care of the check engine light immeadiately. This is the first truck and frankly the first american-made vehicle I have owned in 10 years so I'm kind of learning on the job so to speak. I would have expected Ford to give me tires on a $27,000 truck that would make it further than 16,000 miles. I apologize for seeming to only use this forum to bitch but these things never happened on the Toyota Avalon that I ran up to 120,000 and they are very annoying.

 

I had a similar problem with my truck tires. Check the wear patter on the front tires. They may be cupped. If that is the case you need to get your front end alignment checked, and the idler arm looked at. My tires were shot at 30,000 because once they were rotated all four were cupped and made quite a racket.

Do you have the goodyear RTS?

 

Thanks will do. Firestone HT or HD I believe.