Help! Severe phantom rubbing/grinding

Hi all,
I bought a 2011 trail edition with ~260k miles about a month ago, and I am experiencing a severe rubbing or grinding that I cannot track down. The truck came with 285/65r17 tires that are brand new on the stock trail wheels. It has a 1.5 or 2" leveling lift on the front, otherwise the suspension is stock.
In the city and on highways the truck drives great. The problem comes when I am driving tight twisty mountain roads, especially downhill. When I am braking going down hill and turning to the right, I sometimes experience a very sudden and intense rubbing or grinding. The truck slows down and the steering pulls in that direction. After I slow down enough the sound/sensation stops. At first I thought shit the tires are rubbing on the body mount or upper control arm when the suspension cycles.
Just to be sure though, I got some masking tape and applied it to the areas where it could rub, and reproduced the behavior. What is shocking to me is that the tape is completely undamaged. The tires are not rubbing on the body mount or upper control arm. I checked the tires and looked under the truck to see if I could find any obvious places where something is rubbing or grinding but there is nothing.
I really only get this problem occasionally, and if I slow down significantly before entering the turn I dont get the effect. Just today the problem happened when I was coming downhill, turning into a right corner at about 25 or 30mph and my steering wheel was at about 1/4th of a turn to the right from center. Maybe its my imagination, but it seems that when this happens, it is much more likely to happen again in a short period of time.

I'm really stumped at this point. I want to avoid dumping more and more cash into a high mileage vehicle chasing this problem, so if anyone has a lead I would greatly appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

 

What tires do you have?

Don't need to put tape anywhere. Look for clean spots in the wheel well. Tires rubbing against stuff will clean off dirt and make it obvious where its rubbing.

 

Ok sure, but the tape helped me definitely eliminate rubbing as the cause.

The tires are back country at2. Wouldn't be my first choice but hey thats what it came with.

 

Are you at full steering lock when you hear the grinding?

 

Thanks for the input, I will give those things a shot. I doubt it is the steering stops though, as the noise happens when I am nowhere near being at full lock. Brakes are definitely a good place to look, but I would have thought the problem would happen more frequently

 

You still have front mud flaps?

Not even sure those had.

 

No front mudflaps, Not sure if they ever existed either.

 

Loose LCA shifting under load?

 

I was thinking this as well. A 2011 with 260K is VERY likely to have worn out LCA bushings. How do I know? I have a 2011 with 190K. They are close to being done, and I get rubbing at weird times. I have a set sitting in my garage ready to go. I just need the weather to cool off here in AZ before I tear into it.

 

i replaced m 2011’s at 160k because you could see the bushings splitting and cam bolts were all frozen up.

 

Are they loose at all? How can one tell by looking at them?

 

Just like any other rubber bushing, they are cracked and sort of a gray color.

 

Keep applying tape.. you will eventually reveal where tire is touching

 

Could it be a wheel bearing? Have you checked wheels for any play if jack it up?

 

Thread title makes it sound like you’re dealing with a freaky ghost

 

As others mentioned-have you checked bearings and all brake components? Something on the wheel may be loose. Does it happen in both directions-left and right?

 

If it's fine around town and only happens on twisty downhill, I wonder about brakes or wheel bearings. That kind of driving is likely building more heat in those 2 areas than what normal driving would do. Check the slide pins on the brake pads for worn gouged spots. At that mileage, maybe just do front wheel bearings to be sure anyway? You might also want to do LCA bushings anyway, again just because of mileage you know they are worn.

How does power steering fluid look? Could it be steering freaking out that you feel? Twisty road would be working steering fluid pretty good. Fluid change is easy enough. I use a turkey baster with a piece of tubing to suck old fluid out of reservoir then pour in maxlife ATF. 1 time won't get all the fluid swapped out but once may be enough to feel a difference if old fluid is burnt. You can always go back a week or month or more later and repeat to get more fresher fluid in.