Ford F-150 - 1997-2003 :: Clunk From Rear Of Truck On Braking
Sep 7, 2013
I've spent several hours over the course of the last week trying to figure out the problem I am having with my 1999 F150. When coming to a stop, there is a heard and felt "clunk" coming from the rear end of my truck. The other day, I had to brake to a stop rapidly and it felt like something had dropped out of the back end of my truck. It's 4WD with a 5.4L V8 with 240k miles. I have a fair amount of knowledge of the truck, having performed all maintenance and most repair, so if I need to check something and report back I should be able to. Also, I've owned the truck since it was new, and this is a recent development.
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I recently bought a 2003 F150 sport Scab 4x4 with 75k miles from a Ford dealer with a 4.6l auto. we didn't notice it when we test drove it but it has a squeak when going 0-10 mph in forward or reverse. The story goes a week after getting it home we started noticing a vibration and thudding in the rear end when braking so I take it back to the dealer (50 mile trip 1 way) and when I get there the drivers side rear rim is 30 degrees hotter than the passengers so the tear it apart and find the e-brake was dragging so they lube it up and tell me its good to go. I made it around the building and now I feel it dragging iddling around the parking lot and it is still squeaking so I take it right back in.
Long story short after going through this 2 times that day and bringing it back another day they replaced rear pads, calipers, roters and the hoses going to the caliper and tell me its good to go. Well it no longer had the dragging feel and I had to drive through DC traffic so I beat feet for home and on the way noticed its still sqeaking. I call them and they tell me to put a thousand miles on it and maybe the pads just need to wear in (??). so I took a road trip and 1.2k miles later it still squeaks.
I have tried to tell them it may be the u joints (after searching on here I learned that I am taking it back tomorrow and going to try and get something done but they are still saying its something to do with the brakes and probably won't do the u-joints. Normally, they are filling up the gas tank every trip up there and its all been under warranty (gonna see about getting the warrenty extended tomorrow due to this problem has been ongoing since we got it). Should I just let them run their own course and keep making trips back and forth?
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Truck is a '99 2WD with drum rear brakes. 81K miles. I rebuilt the rear brakes due to a leaking wheel cylinder. The old shoes were not completely gone, but were worn evenly - everything looked normal.
Not a professional wrench, but I've been re-doing my own drum brakes since the '60's, so it is not rocket science to me. Still, as a precaution, I did them one side at a time so as to have reference point, and also snapped a few cellphone pics just to be safe.
Replaced both wheel cylinders, all hardware, and of course the shoes. Gravity bled the cylinders first, followed by the old tried-and-true, wife in the driver's seat, "down-and-hold, now up" routine. Adjusted shoes to just contact drums lightly, and buttoned it up.
The problem is that I'm getting a violent chattering from the rear axle with either light or normal braking. The chattering is worse as the brakes warm up - shakes the whole truck. At first I thought I had a bad rear ABS sensor, but then I did a couple of stops just using the parking brake, and got the same chattering.
Now I've pulled the drums off to re-check. There is nothing loose, nothing out of place, nothing leaking, but there was a heck of a lot of brake dust in there and the lead shoes on both sides were noticeably more worn than the trailing shoes - and I've driven maybe 100 miles since the rebuild.
You can't reverse these shoes, since the trailing shoe has a peg to hold the automatic adjuster, so that is not the issue. The drums were turned less than 1000 miles ago, so I did not have them re-done at this point.
I had my "assistant" partly depress the brake pedal while I had the drums off to confirm that the cylinders were expanding both shoes, and they are.
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Our 2005 Ford Taurus makes a rhythmic clunk from the rear when you slow down. The rhythm seems to slow as you brake. The noise isn't there when you are cruising or accelerating, only when you slow down. We recently drove 2000 miles with a small trailer attached. Could that have anything to do with it?
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I have 97 F250 light duty equipped with factory rear air suspension. Truck has 180K miles. Both rear air bags were replaced about 100K miles ago under warranty (I didnt do it myself!). Both sensors and compressor are new within the last 18 months which I replaced myself. Recently, rear air bags have been deflating when truck is sitting idle. Compressor reinflates air bags as expected when struck is started but recently cannot maintain. Sprayed soapy water today on air bags and airlines and witnessed leak (due to air bubbles) at lower side of air bags on both sides. My conclusion is that air bags are culprit. Seems coincidence that both are leaking??
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Driving home yesterday I noticed a grinding sound from the driver side rear of the truck. Had a look at the drum brake today and found that the cable to the adjusting lever had snapped and pieces had jammed making the grinding noise. I need to replace the cable and probably have that drum surfaced, but the pads look good.
On the passenger side the hardware is all intact but the shoes look as if they have "spider" cracks everywhere, still lots of shoe left though. What might be causing the cracks on the shoes, and do these need to be replaced? How to do rear drum brakes? (1997 4x4)
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How to remove the rear seat on the LS460? I need to take it out to have access to the strut tower..need to make sure it's not ripped out/loose bolts or whats not ..still trying to locate the source of that clunk when braking..still...
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I am trying to track down where exactly a clunk is coming from on a 2003 Explorer 4x4(auto, hi, low). My buddy brought it by my house yesterday and i cannot pin point it. If you put the truck in reverse, once you hit the gas, it clunks pretty loud. If you just put it in reverse, let off the brake, it will not do it until you hit the gas.
I got the explorer up in the air and crawled under it. I had my buddy switch from forward to reverse, and back again. Every time he let off the brake in forward or reverse, it would clunk. The reverse clunk was definitely louder.
It does the clunks in all settings, -auto,hi,low. No flashing dash lights. The dash lights do come on accordingly. One thing he pointed out was the Auto,HI,Low Buttons themselves are not backlit anymore. Not sure if that has anything to do with it?
I cannot narrow it down as the whole transfer case, front driveshaft and front diff, shake with the clunk. U joints don't seem to have play (prying with small prybar). I then went ahead and unplugged the big wire connector at the transfer case and the clunk went away.
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Only clunks under power. Push in the clutch and it's fine. I haven't pulled the diff cover just yet....
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All right, I went ahead and rebuilt my suspension considering everything was worn out. I used upper and lower control arms and all the tie rod ends from O'Reilly's (MasterPro). While I was under there I noticed that the sway bar end links and bushings were deformed and worn, so I changed those out.
The clunky front end is confusing as hell to me. All of the front end bushings and ball joints are new, and if I hit bumps with a little vigor it rattles. Under hard braking to a stop there is a loud clunk from the front left. I have shocks on the way (Monroe Reflexes for the front, Sensatrac load adjusters for the rear), which are the only things left that have been removed and not replaced with new ones.
The truck was perfectly clunk and rattle free with the old worn out bushings and ball joints. I can't imagine why it would start clunking now with a new front end. I felt the new ball joints and they were tight and didn't have any play. The bushings were tight. I'm at the end of my rope with this crap. I've double checked that the ball joint and chassis nuts and bolts are all very tight.
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I'm getting a CLUNK when coming to a stop with my truck.
If I shut off the overdrive while coming to a stop it doesn't do it. Or if I manually shift it down a gear.
I read on here it could be a U-joint or the yoke or something and maybe something needs greased.
Anyway I crawled under the truck and it looks like I need a special socket to remove the 4 bolts holding the driveshaft to the rear end.
What type of socket it this? No grease fittings on my U-joints. What's causing this CLUNK as well?
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I have a 97' f250, 4.6L auto transmission, 4x4, 168000.
I have only owned the truck about 5 months so I dont know much about the history. When I coast to a stop, (usually 40mph or faster) to a stop I get a clunk on the down shift into second I believe. It only happens when coasting to a stop, all other shifting up and down patterns are good. This happens I would say 7 out of 10 times but seems to be increasing.
The other issues that I believe is related happens every time I put the truck into reverse, there is a similar clunk. This happens every time and does not do it into drive.
I have ran lots of searches related to this in FTE, I cant get a clear direction to begin down. It seems like it could be transmission related but also may be driveline or U-joint related.
Two other notes-I did drain and replace the transmission fluid and I noticed that the T-case and transmission are much cleaner than any other undercarriage part. Whatever that means??
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So I have an issue with my 03 f150, Basically It clunks in various scenarios such as Accelerating also occurs take off and general breaking/slowing down but not really when stopping. December when it was cold and I was decelerating (not on the break just coasting) it feels like i was driving on the shoulder.
It does it much more in cold weather. Just had the truck out getting a little rough with it for 5 or so hours today and 0 issues with it.
I was thinking it was a slip yoke issue that I hear allot of trucks have the issue but I was at the dealership today and both guys and a mechanic sitting there were like "never had that issue on an 03 f150, might be your back end." They also stated the clunking would always occur and be more prominent when breaking which its not.
I am certain its not the transmission its not occurring with any shift point. Kind of hard to do it if its hard to reproduce in the heat.
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Two weeks ago Sun, truck ran fine, however Mon morning all hell broke loose. Truck was running very sluggish and stalling while coming to a stop. My first thought was tune up. I replaced the plugs and wires. During this I found that i could not get a socket around the ever loved driver side rear plug so i was only able to replace 7 plugs however in that process i managed to break the metal coolant tube that runs to the heater core.
Aday later replaced the entire intake manifold,egr valve, egr tube, IAC valve, both coil packs, fuel filter, tranny fluid and filter. During the removal of the intake i looked at the rear spark plug and found that a screw had been wedged into the hole breaking the plug and got it changed now it is all back together and the truck runs amazing however did not solve the low rpms during stopping. ive replace the above and checked fuel pressure which is good.
I have a TPS sensor just haven't installed it yet not sure if it is related to the issue. Tranny guy says it may be a bad solenoid or TC however last night I reset the PCM and drove it it ran flawless. this morning the problem returned which leads me to believe its not the tranny. ok one last kicker that 6 experts have failed to answer when i manually put the truck into 2nd gear the engine dies! no studder no fighting just quits.
Truck is a 98 F150 4.6 V8 186,000 miles i have yet to
1) change TPS.
2) clean throttle body.
3) clean MAF sensor. n
Not sure if any of this has an effect on the issue. There is only a EGR insufficient Air flow code..
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When braking i would feel the pedal pulsating...figured the pads were finished. Checked them out and they were not in that great a shape so I changed them all around. I'm still getting a pulsating feeling in the brake pedal.... I just need to bleed them or are the discs warn or warped or something?
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I have a 1998 F150 with a 4.6 engine and is a 4x4 now the other day when I was backing out of the garage I heard a clunk noise and it seems like it is coming from the right front, so I tried it going forward it made the same noise but not as bad. There is no road noise and all the u joints are good and tight, the noise was when I gave it a little gas. My question is the front cv u joint would this make the noise? And what about the hub? What is the proper why to check the CV joint and the hub? The noise was when I was in 2 wheel drive.
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I have a 2000 Ford F150 XLT 4X2 that has a "clunking/squeaking" noise in the steering wheel, intermittent happens driving straight down the road, hitting bumps, breaking. It is very annoying! changed out lower ball joints tightened wheel bearings, greased idler/pitman arm thinking that was the problem and it became worse. Had someone look at it and stated that the steering shaft was welded?!?! Why would the steering shaft be welded what am I looking at in replacing it (cost for parts and labor time) and are there any other additional parts that will have to be replaced as well?
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I had heard clunking when hard accelerating or hard stopping my 2003 Explorer, also heard it from Park to Reverse/Drive. I suspected u-joints, was correct, those were replaced.
After I received my car back I noticed the clunk was louder when hard accelerating or hard stopping; again from Park to Reverse/Drive. I suspected rear differential. I called my mechanic who said they noticed some play in the rear end - a little loose, that the noise would be noticeable...but that if it were him he wouldn't worry about it. He said the drive shaft was tight, that I wasn't in danger of it falling out, etc.
These are the only symptoms I have that something is wrong with the SUV. Just that clunk. If I come off slow from a stop and not hit the gas, there is no clunk. If I do not hard stop, again I can avoid the clunk. The vehicle does not vibrate or make noise on the freeway, shifts well between gears.
I was going to have my mechanic open the rear end up and see what needed to be replaced when the cold weather brakes. In the meantime, is there anything I need to be keeping an eye on, or something else I should check? My mechanic said the checked it over and couldn't find any other problems. I just want to be prepared for expenses.
It's a 2W, not 4WD. I had all the fluids done, a drain and refill on rear. Not sure if that's important to know or not.
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I recently purchased a 2001 excursion 7.3 after driving it for a while I have noticed a significant clunk and vibrate in the rear end. I have read a lot of people saying it could be the slip yoke needing lube which I intend to do but most are saying that their clunk is at start and stop.
Mine is between 30 and 60mph when I let off the accelerator I get a clunk followed by a vibration and when I get on the accelerator it is just the clunk. Does this sound like the slip yoke to yall or am I looking at something more? I have tried turning the drive saft and there is no play in it at all.
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I've had this problem for years but is now getting worse. It used to only happen when it was really cold out, subzero, but is now happening as we now approach 50 degrees out. If I hit a pothole or pop over a small curb, I get a clunk in the rear. I replaced the shocks about 3 months ago which seemed to work briefly but the problem is back and is worse than ever.
I have the original springs and it looks like the recall was done by the previous owner (rubber bumber stops installed).
230k miles. Do I need new springs?
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My 2002 F-150 with the 5.4 has an issue with a high rev (1000 RPM for a few seconds) while at a stop sign, along with a clunking/banging sound coming from under the truck. This is when I have the brake mashed all the way, and this all happens at the same time, almost every time I come to a stop at a stop sign or light. I do have an intake manifold leak, which i have recently determined, but I do not know if the high rev at a stop sign has to do with the manifold leak or to do with the transmission sounding thump I hear. Could this be a torque converter not unlocking, and then suddenly unlocking? Because after the thump sound, the RPM's go down to around 650 from 1000 every time.
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