I have a 2003 2WD explorer with 195k miles. Been a pretty good vehicle for several years and in the past, anything that went wrong with it was usually something I could fix myself. But this problem has me stumped. -
with the car on jack stands and in neutral and turning the rear passenger wheel by hand I get a grinding noise once per rotation.
Trying to wobble the tire by had with my hands at 12 and 6 and at 9 and 3 there is no play at all.
driving the car I get a barely noticeable hum at about 50 mph but when I go from 65 to 70 it sounds like a jet engine howling
after driving some distance the RP wheel will smell like burning brakes but
brake pads appear to have normal and even wear and there is no noticable pull when braking
i had rotors checked and the shop didn’t even charge me cuz they said they had no grooves or abnormal warping at all
I rotated the tires and
I changed out the fluid in the rear end but that didn’t change anything.
cant afford to start replacing things just to see if it fixes the problem so I’d like some suggestions of the most likely culprit from anyone who had similar situation.
thanks

 

Hi Jesse,
Unfortunately, whoever checked your rear brakes didn't tell you or didn't check the parking brake assemblies because from what you describe it sounds like a problem with a possible broken return or brake shoe hold down spring that is getting rolled around the inside of the rotor surface that is used for the parking brakes.
The best thing you might consider would be to remove that particular rear wheel , caliper and rotor and look at the parking brake shoes. If there is anything wrong there you will see it right away..Watch for any pieces to fall out when you remove the rotor.

 

Thanks for the tips. I could not see anything out of whack with the e brake but after taking the calipers and rotor off, I noticed when I turned the hub by hand there was no more noise so I sprung for a new caliper and pads and so far that seems to have fixed it. My wife says it rides better than ever which is a high compliment because she generally hates SUVs.