My '99 Taurus recently started making a rather strange noise. It sounds almost like a hard grinding sound when I'm going slowly. Not steady but more like if you struck a rock against another rock. At higher speeds it starts to sound like popcorn popping. The noise is not consistant, sometimes it goes away for a while. It also does not change when I brake, or accellerate other than happening faster or slower.
Seems like a wheel bearing problem. Brake problems usually change when braking or not and a CV joint will almost always be pronounced when turning fairly sharp with some acceleration. I'd start with the wheel bearing check and go from there,
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