My husband’s 04 F150 has an occasional ticking/clicking sound that comes from the right rear tire. It occurs in both drive and reverse, while braking or while driving and will stop with braking. We cannot establish a pattern. Brakes are good, we just checked them and they do not need to be replaced. We took it in to be evaluated, of course it did not make the clicking while they had it and they did not see anything to indicate an issue.
Any thoughts?
Rotate tires and see if the noise follows the tire. A rock stuck in the thread could cause it too as it tries to come out and the road pushes it back in most of the time they get slung out, but there is always that one that needs to be puled. May be there is a metal object stuck to the tire, like a bolt, screw or wire that you may have run over. This type of scenarios will always produce a consistent noise.
Simply rotate that tire, or replace with the spare and see if noise goes away would be the easiest first step.
IS THE NOISE IN PITCH WITH TIRE ROTATION SPEED OR DOES IT HAPPEN WHEN YOU GO OVER A BUMP, IN TURN.
Did you check the parking brake shoes? Maybe the clicking is coming from that.
I was thinking the driveshaft U-joint may be on it’s way out. Normally it’s the rear joint closest to the differential.
Wgen they dry out from a lack of grease the bearings get ground up and they can make a clicking sound.
Not too difficult a fix if your husband is at all handy. He could remove the driveshaft and take it somewhere to have the new u-joint pressed in, then return home to put it back in the truck.
They can also be pressed in…in a large vise.
Yosemite