A bang then grind?

Could use some input.

Driving home Friday I was just coasting down a hill and as another car passed me I heard what sounded like a loud BANG from the front driver side. I damn well thought the person hit my fender.

Stopped and everything looked fine. Drive to get groceries yesterday and as I’m pulling out of our driveway and into the main road (90 degree left),I hear 2 distinct crunches from the driver side front. Then nothing out of the ordinary.

Going to work this morning, the exact same thing happened again. Now I tried several more left turns on the way to work, and could not duplicate the crunch.

Has anyone experienced this before? I’m thinking IWE? Or a wheel bearing? Any suggestions on where I could start? Truck will engage 4H without issue, and go right back into 2H.

Thank you.

I'd guess wheel bearing

I would bet it's the inner wheel bearing, IWE and axle.

I have an appointment for Thursday and my ESP in my back pocket. We will see what happens.

Of note. No grind this morning but more sounds like there is play on the front end and more like a crunchy sound. Happened only on my first left turn leaving the house. Afterwards it sounds like something with play in it. I can hear most contours of the road now as I drive. Then as the truck drives, the sounds decrease more and more. Then it starts again the next morning.

Lower ball joint...

HAP said:

Lower ball joint...

Click to expand...

I was thinking this.

Wanted to update this. Driving home today I noticed my temp gauge changing about 1/5 of the gauge toward COLD while coasting down hills. Then it would go to ABOUT normal when pushing the gas.

So upon getting home I popped the hood. To my immediate surprise I find the cap for the power steering reservoir missing. Standing in the dark with a flashlight I find the cap down in the belly pan. There is fluid on my hood liner and looks to have slashed down my oil filter.

Coolant reservoir is full.

Power steering reservoir is at minimum.

So now it appears I have 2 issues.

Tho I’m speculating here. But seeing the mark on my hood liner, could the pop I heard had been the power steering reservoir cap coming off and hitting the hood? I haven’t noticed any power steering issues but did recently notice a whine upon truck startup. This doesn’t explain my suspension sounds and not sure how this relates to my now found temp issue.

Sigh...glad the appointment is tomorrow.

I know this won't help you but, I had my cap pop off when I was changing my spark plugs. Had it on my lift and moved the wheels by hand to get best access to the lower plugs. After I was finished I noticed my cap was missing. I don't know when it happened (shop stereo was loud) but I had a very hard time finding the cap because the hood was opened when it happened. It ended up in the plate covering the oil pan...

R,
HAP

An update.

A new thermostat has been ordered as the truck is overcooling. The computer output during the drive showed that my temp was moving ALL over the place.

During the drive with the tech, who was a great guy by the way who I will schedule to work on the truck for all things moving forward, we were finally able to recreate the crunch, and he actually believes its coming from the back. So more investigation is going on.

He also heard the sound from the front I talked about, and believes I have a bushing going in the front sway bar. As such, more investigation is going on into that.

So, I have a brand new F150 as a loaner for now. What a boring, underwhelming, vanilla truck haha.

So we will see what happens. I was also interested when I heard a flap, flap, flap from the motor when I started it this morning. It only last 5ish seconds, but was certainly noticable. I mentioned this to the tech and he's hoping it was a fluke, or I have more fun to come in the future....ugh

---------- Post added at 12:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

HAP said:

I know this won't help you but, I had my cap pop off when I was changing my spark plugs. Had it on my lift and moved the wheels by hand to get best access to the lower plugs. After I was finished I noticed my cap was missing. I don't know when it happened (shop stereo was loud) but I had a very hard time finding the cap because the hood was opened when it happened. It ended up in the plate covering the oil pan...

R,
HAP

Click to expand...

Maybe these caps just like to go rogue? I dont know, the tech says he doesn't believe the cap coming off had anything to do with any of my other issues. So I am not sure if I take that as a good or bad?