Not related to my MB (as it has been put to bed for the winter) but I thought this interesting enough to post. My 98 F150 (which I just acquired at the end of August )started making a noise over the weekend. I had run it through a car wash late last week and it is cold here now. It sounded to me like a chunk of ice moving around and I wondered if it was in the box under the bed liner or in the roll top tonneau (is that spelled right?) cover box as the drains may have frozen shut as well. In any event it sounded like it was getting worse and a new sound had also arrived - a clicking sound whenever the truck was under braking. I called a shop that I deal with and asked if they had time to put it on the hoist and have a quick look under it. I did something to my shoulder last week and the thought of crawling around under the truck in the cold did not appeal to me. They had time and I ran by there yesterday afternoon. They suspected universal joints and started there. Prying with a big screwdriver did not indicate any looseness in the u joints. Then one fellow got in and drove it back and forth a wee bit while the mechanic watched the driveshaft. It was immediately apparent that there was a problem. The drive shaft would start to turn and then skip an inch or more before the truck started to move. They thought the diff was a goner. Wierd as there was no roughness in driveing and no howling noise etc. They pulled the diff cover expecting chunks to fall out. The oil didn't look very good but there were no chunks. The mechanic turned the gears and examined each tooth and could see nothing broken and nothing obviously worn. He commented that it might be a problem with the splines on the axle and popped a centre cap off of the lr wheel in preparation to remove the wheel and then the axle. The wheel nuts were all loose enough to remove with one's fingers and the aluminum wheel now has slots instead of holes around the lugs. I have had the truck for 3 months and have driven it about 3K miles and have not had the wheels off of it since I got it. This wheel must have been loose for the whole time and moving back and forth a bit. All of the other wheels were fine. The mechanic checked them all with his torque wrench. I don't think anyone has been messing with it as it has the wheel lock and that one was loose as well. The shop is going to see if the wheel can be repaired but if not, I will need a new one. Guess it pays to periodically check the torque on the wheel nuts, especially with alloy wheels.
Randy
