I have a 2005 F-150 5.4 4x4, recently I have been hearing this now loud thumping basically every time the tire completes a revolution. The sound and vibration occur in direct relation to the revolution of the tire, the faster I go; the faster the sound occurs. I believe it is coming from the front driver's tire, but I cannot be sure. I only seem to hear it when going past 20 mph. It occurs when going straight and when turning right, when turning left it seems to go away. I did try putting it in 4Hi and the sound continued.

I started by having the tires checked, balanced and rotated by a tire shop(they are 10 months old, 8k miles, all terrain tires). They said there is some uneven wear on the fronts but nothing major enough to be causing the issue. After the rotation the sound remains.

Then, thinking it was a bad bearing hub I replaced it with a new one. The old one did have some play but I didn't think it too bad. The sound again remains the same. I will note that when doing this, the brake pads were worn down to where they need replaced. I am replacing those tomorrow, one thing I did notice that I don't have much experience with was the brake caliper pistons were extremely hard to push in. I actually gave up with installing new pads and put the old ones back on because I couldn't retract the piston any further without fear of braking something and I was using what I consider a sub-standard clamp(I couldn't find the big one I normally use).

When doing this, I did not notice any kind of scraping or wear on any of the mechanisms in sight on the tire, wheel, hub, caliper or rotor.

Tomorrow I am going to replace the CV axle and actuator on the drivers side. I did have a past experience with a water filled actuator which would click, this is not similar to the sound I am experiencing now(I replaced that on the passengers side at that time. ).

Any thoughts on what this could be? I'm just wondering what else it could be besides the CV axle or the actuator. I have read that the CV axle will make more of a click or pop when going bad? Could my symptoms be that of a bad CV axle? Could the brake caliper/assembly be an issue?

Thanks

 

By the time you finish throwing parts at it, you could pay a pro to look at it.........

 

Sounds like a IWE issue. My 07 made a similar noise when the solenoid failed under the hood. The noise sounded like playing cards in the spokes of a bicycle.

 

Sounds like you need some new calipers for starters.

 

I'd throw some new rubber lines on it if you are going to replace the calipers. Just added insurance, they are cheap too.

 

So it turned out to be a bad bearing on the passengers side. The noise and vibration was strong enough in the drivers side that I falsely assumed it to be the culprit. I had someone else drive it while I sat in the passengers seat and could feel it very strong on the farthest part of the floorboard. Replaced that hub and no more noise...