Front End Mystery
 

My 2000 Ford Explorer Sport (2 Door) 4x4 has developed a deep, loud vibration in the front end. It sounds like it is coming from underneath the front floorboards or the engine, but its tough to make out.

You can hear the beginnings of the vibration at slow speeds and it picks up the faster I go. Its at its worst at around 45-55 MPH, then it dies down a bit from 55-65 (but still very prominent) and it picks up again after 65 MPH. I tried to narrow the problem down by placing the truck in neutral when at around 50 MPH, which made no change to the noise. It seems to change in frequency to how fast the truck is going. Oddly enough, however, the noise goes away completely when I take left hand turns hard enough to unload the weight from the left side. A friend of mine told me it was most likely a wheel bearing and I should replace the entire hub assembly on the left front wheel, which I did. Unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem. I have also eliminated the possibility of the tires making the noise.

Any thoughts? Please feel free to ask me anything you may need to help out.

were you able to find out what it was?
 

I have a similar problem on a 2006 explorer and I was looking on here for others with the same type of issue. Did you figure out what this noise was?