roaring coming from front end

cbordea · 03-12-2009, 04:01 PM

98 xj 4x4 completely stock. there is a roaring coming from the front end.
It sounds like I have a set of big mud tires on it going down the highway.
The tires themselves look fine, no bumps, even treadwear.

when you go around a curve it goes away(or you can't hear it).
if you let off the accel, you still hear it, the sound is related to how fast you are going. You still hear it when braking and I don't feel anything unusual in the pedal.

we jacked up the front wheels and they don't spin freely, is that normal?
They don't seem to rock back and forth(top and bottom) too much.

I also noticed there appears to be a leak coming from the "hog head".

Any ideas? I'm going to check the fluid, if it was fluid and it is roaring, is it toast?

my 16you has been driving it and with his music blaring who knows how long it has been going on. I haven't driven it in a month or so.

thanks, for your help

bikedude189 · 03-12-2009, 04:20 PM

since it goes away in turns, i would suspect hub bearings. the pinion leak could be unrelated

cbordea · 03-12-2009, 04:50 PM

would you expect both to happen at the same time? The noise seems to be evenly distributed to the front, not one side or the other.

**xjfever** · 03-12-2009, 04:54 PM

I would go ahead and pull the front cover, to have a look inside. See if there is an abnormal amount of metal shavings in there. Most likely it is the hub bearings, or a bearing in the diff.

jontz · 03-12-2009, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbordea

98 xj 4x4 completely stock. there is a roaring coming from the front end.

That's just your badass 4.0L I-6 doing its thing

cbordea · 03-12-2009, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jontz

That's just your badass 4.0L I-6 doing its thing

LOL, we thought about selling it to get my son something better on gas to drive but I'm not sure anything else could take the abuse!

cbordea · 03-12-2009, 10:29 PM

ok, I jacked her up, put her on stands and pulled the drain plug and there was a good sized shaving there and some cruddy silver stuff on the end of the plug so I was thinking oh brother. I pulled the cover off however to find it actually really clean. There was even the red RTV gasket stuff on there like someone had actually changed the fluid before (154k miles).
I spun the wheels with cover off to see if I could feel or hear anything and everything felt and sounded fine. I turned them as fast by hand as I could and couldn't hear anything I thought was unusual. I know I might not even be able to turn it 1mph but everything seemed ok so I started wiggling them. first top and bottom, then side to side. when wiggling side to side I noticed a tie-rod end was loose. I figured it was bad but the nut was actually loose, even with the key through it. I pulled the key out, tightened her up, put the cover back on the diff and filled her back up with fluid.

I drove her down the road and still hear some noise but it isn't nearly as loud. I figure I need to change that tie-rod end and I might as well price and replace the others if the cost isn't too bad. With 154k, it is likely time. Then I'll go get it aligned.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Tweeternpi · 03-12-2009, 10:42 PM

Sounds like the Hubs need to be changed.