Hi all I'm new to the board. I just picked up my first Ram diesel 2 days ago! I bought from the original owner(co-worker) and I know he took pretty good care of it. He went back to a gas GMC pickup. He told me it needs rear wheel hub bearings. Now I'm not new to car. I've been drag racing for years. My question about the noise is that its not your usual bearing humming noise. It makes a clunking noise when you hit bumps in the road. If your on a smooth road it wont make a sound. The truck has 100,200 miles on it. It has the american axle 11.5 rearend. He had itr checked out and the shop told him its fine, its just a truck with 100,000 miles on it. He said he jacked it up and the tire has some slight up and down movement but only at certain spots when you rotate it. He said he checked out the shocks and he also said its not the new flowmaster exhaust he pt on. the exhaust is only a few months old and the noise started shortly after the exhaust was put on. Any ideas if it is actually a wheel bearing? I just put plate and insurance on it today and its been snowing since I got it so I haven't had much time to really look into it.

Thanks
Mike

 

Sounds like something is loose under there. Could be a lot of things. Once the weather clears, crawl under and start shaking things, and banging on things with your fist until you find it.

 

I just spent allot of time (and some $$$) looking for a bearing roar in the rear of my truck. Do you're self a favor and jack the whole truck up and spin all four wheels. My noise in the rear was actually a bad bearing in the front. The only thing we can figure is the tubular frame makes the noise sound like it's somewhere it's not. Also, fill in your signature so we know what you're working on, welcome to the forum and good luck with the problem. Keep us up to date with the fix if you would.

 

Thanks for the replies! I'll be looking into it this week. I'm still driving my 1500 for now till I know what this is. I was thinking something was loose too but everything looks good from my quick inspection. I'm use to a bearing making a howl or a hum of some sort not a clunk. It's not consistent which make me think its not a bearing. I'll report back once I know what it is.

 

make sure spare tire is tight. mine started making a clunking noise after being in the shop where they aligned the bed. I found the spare tire had been loosened and was swaying/bouncing on turns and bumps Randy

 

Good idea! I didn't even think of that. That could easily be the problem. I pray thats it!! Here's a picture of it!

 

let us know if you find it randy

 

any luck finding the noise randy

 

No luck yet Randy I had it taken for a test drive by a guy I know that does transmissions and rearends and he said its not a the rearend. Spare tire is tight. Had the frontend checked out and they said everything was good and tight. I hear a rattle now when I turn it off. I'm gonna check the heat shield if there is one lol. Besides that its a great truck

 

mine developed a random pinging noise around 55-60 mph It took awhile to find that someone had thrown a coke can in the bed of the truck and I could hear it rattle and blow around at highway speeds. Hope its something simple.
My ranger had a rattle and it was a loose clamp on the exhaust shield. So find a good day to crawl under there and shake things maybe you will get lucky Randy

 

Thanks Randy. I'm gonna take a good look next week. I'm gonna put it on a buddies hoist and see what I can find.

 

did you ever find the noise? Randy

 

I had a weird noise on my truck, only at low rolling speeds, turned out to be the heat shield on the fuel tank. Take a rubber hammer and start tapping the exhaust, different hangers, etc in different locations. Also, have a friend stand by a bump when you drive by. Rattles, etc sound different outside the vehicle than inside.

 

Give the rear calipers a shake. The slide bushings can deteriorate and make the calipers loose and rattly on bumps. Also you can toe the brake pedal lightly while driving on a rough road. As the caliper grips the rotor it will stop the rattle.