Bill: > Humming sounds like drive train, not valve train. I agree. Makes me nervous. > If oil not lubricating, valve train should clatter and bang, not hum. Never had that in this truck, fortunately. > (Note: could be stopped up oil passages rather than watery oil). > > I'd check wheel bearings, U joints, differential, and transmission. > Could also simply be tires -- all season and off road treads > significantly noisier than touring tread. I did get new tires recently, but the humming follows RPMs precisely regardless of gear. I can sometimes feel the humming through the steering wheel at idle because of the low frequency. To make a dorky music analogy, the humming is in the Tenor range. :\ Perhaps I should describe it as a whirring noise instead of a hum. It goes "errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" like a blonde girl trying to decide between Bud Light and Michelob Light while being stared down by a spiky-haired waiter named Jim. In neutral or park, when the accelerator pedal is depressed, the whirring gets higher-pitched, and when I let off the pedal, the pitch drops. When in forward or reverse, same happens, plus it holds steady while the car is at speed, unless I have to go up a hill, in which case the pitch goes up as the revs go up, or when I'm coasting, in which case the pitch goes down as the revs go down. Hang on, I have a thought ... do they still use harmonic balancers in vehicles? > Re: light weight oil -- SAE 30 generally recommended by manufacturers > down to 32 degrees. That pretty much covers all of us southerners. > IMHO no real problem for few nights it drops into 20's. 10W-30 is what it says on that little sticker just in front of the engine. Hm. > FWIW: racing crowd generally runs single viscosity 40 and 50 weights. > But their engines operating in totally different environment. True. I feed my truck 89 octane fuel anyhow. Runs like a rickshaw on crack if I give it anything higher or lower octane. > Do you change own oil? Need to, especially on a (full size) truck. > Don't even jack up. Can change mine less than 20 minutes. Motorcraft > FL1 filter costs less than even a house brand. City recycles old oil > back in bottles to burn in garage furnace (curbside pickup). Only > procedure easier to perform is filling gas tank (but costs nearly 4 > times as much!). I do, but the trick is to remember to back into the space. Our parking is "off-street" but that really means "perpendicular to street, facing sidewalk." And after a few oil changes, I have to buy a new shirt. :P Bill, it'd be nice to troubleshoot this off-list so the moderators don't kick ... oh, wait. Never mind. :) Thanks, Farrar Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT <http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=12ceoonjt/M=267637.4116732.5333197.1261774/D=egro upweb/S=1705126215:HM/EXP=1071258617/A=1853618/R=0/*http://www.netflix.com /Default?mqso=60178338&partid=4116732> click here <http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=267637.4116732.5333197.1261774/D=egroupm ail/S=:HM/A=1853618/rand=497279654> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
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