Hey Scotty,
My girlfriend's 2017 EcoBoost Mustang recently started making an odd scraping sound in the front right wheel when she slows down. The scraping isn't a constant noise, like a bad brake pad. Etc. Would be. The front pads were replaced 6 months ago. This is more of a pulsating sound whose frequency varies with wheel speed when slowing down. Her steering wheel doesn't vibrate or pull, etc. And it makes the noise until you come to a complete stop. The noise almost sounds like marbles rolling in a track would. My initial reaction was perhaps the rotors and pads to be need replaced, since we used cheaper ceramic pads on the original rotors. After thinking I about it, I am leaning toward a damaged wheel bearing.
Yup pretty sure it’s a wheel bearing. Awful quality to have it go out at 4yrs!
I'm actually surprised she didn't need to replace them two years ago. She has the low profile tires option and a pothole on the Interstate blew out her right rear tire 2 years ago. That wheel is fine, something in the suspension squeaks, haven't been able to figure out what it is. This is on the same side, only the front wheel is doing it. She thinks she may have hit a pothole recently. It shouldn't have taken 30,000 miles between the tire blowout and a wheel bearing on another wheel to make noise. Both tires when through the hole 2 years ago, and so did the tires on my 2017 V6 Mustang. I have normal tires, never had a problem from it.
I would agree.. pretty sure it's a wheel bearing...how many miles?
Just over 61k, mostly highway and country road driving. She has the low profile factory wheels, so any holes, etc. in the road are much more likely to trash a bearing. She hit a pothole going 75 mph on the highway two years ago on the same side. That incident actually blew out the right rear tire, though that wheel bearing was unaffected. Something back there still squeaks when it's wet. This one was either damaged and it took 30k mi to start appearing, or she hit another pothole recently. She thinks the latter may have happened.
Well, should be fairly affordable and easy to fix
I have a '16 Pony with the factory option 18" low profiles, & I would jack up the front end to get the wheels off the ground & spin them to listen for that sound...one wheel at a time. If you hear that sound on the passenger side & not the driver's side, there's your answer.
Hitting a pothole at 75 mph will almost certainly do damage, especially with today's "planned obsolescence", made cheaply. All it takes for a wheel bearing to go out is a hard enough hit (75 mph pothole!) & a steel bearing inside the track can easily get scored enough in that hit to wear out faster than the others when you drive.
/On a side note, I cringed when you mentioned cheaper brake pads...but yeah I know...COVID & all...tough times...etc. A Pony car has lots of "get up & go", so you need a whole lotta WHOAH! with good pads. I may buy cheaper aftermarket things for my own Pony, but never on brake pads. Stopping is the most important thing your car can do. Trust me...been there, done that!
What's interesting is my 2017 'Stang has the base model wheels, we both slammed through the same pothole, her before I, and it did absolutely nothing to my car. I certainly felt it, but that was it. I also have an extra 2-3" of sidewall to help absorb impact, so that probably made all the difference. Neither of us saw that hole, cuz it was pretty much dark, and it had just stormed. I remember seeing her tire blasting out stuff from the hole, wondering what that was, and by the time I registered what happened, I was going through it, lol.
She has the same wheels you do. We used Duralast ceramic pads, so they're cheap, but not TOO cheap, lol. The main issue with those was they made scraping noises for the first couple hundred miles. Scotty said we should have replaced rotors too, if we didn't want noise on cheaper ceramic pads. Duralast ceramics aren't great about noise on old rotors, I guess. We're probably gonna order Scotty's recommended pads and new rotors for her car when it warms back up. All of the local auto parts stores had no ceramic pads for her car, only AutoZone only had one set in stock, and I've always thought Duralast stuff is decent for the price.
She actually doesn't drive her car enthusiastically like you and I probably do. She's relatively conservative on the gas pedal until she's up to speed, then she likes to do 80 in the 65. Haha. I do the opposite, I like to get up and go, the last V6s they built are surprisingly quick, but I stay around the speed limit. She's going to have the dealership look at it on Friday, cuz it's wet and cold where we live. I'd be all over this if it were summer time. She paid for that silly extended warranty, so she's getting use out of it.