Well, I finally had it today. I had already planned to stop at my old mechanic to have them listen to the noise, and complain about the braking.
Got some really bad personal news on my way home, which did nothing for my mood.
Went to the mechanic, but they were eyebrow deep in vehicles, and there was a line. So I left. Remember when I was asking about my battery a while back? Well, quite suddenly in the last couple of days it had become harder to start the truck in the morning, so I stopped at Sears to get a new battery (Die Hard Platinum [something, I think]).
They were pretty slow, so against my better judgment (never heard anything either way about Sears as a decent auto shop), I decided to let them diagnose the truck's noises.
Meanwhile I went to the mall and tried to get my prepaid phone service switched over to a non-contract data plan, but for the second time utterly failed. Maybe I need a new cell company too... but that's another story, just inserting this to show just how wonderful my evening's been.
Went back to the Sears Auto Center, verdict was bad wheel bearings on both front wheels, bad tie rods (tie rod ends were newer - were the rods themselves part of a recall?), and improperly turned drums.
They sensed I was a skeptic so they showed me the play in the front tire. Yup.
They charged me what I think was Way Too Much for the bearings; after nearly having a heart attack at the total charge for just the battery and wheel bearings, I decided not to have them deal with the drums and tie rods. Still, cost me a grand just for that - nearly $600 for the wheel bearings "because they're 4x4 and had to match them". National is the brand. Pretty sure I got taken but by that time I was more than a little distraught, so I said go ahead and do it, since they were willing to stay late to do it right then. A little Japanese guy with broken English did the work; he was very nice though and willing to show me the problems and talk about options. He stayed an hour past their usual closing time to do my truck for me, so can't complain about that!
He seemed mighty surprised that my mechanic hadn't noticed the wheel bearings were bad. Considering I had complained about the grinding feel in the gas pedal before, so am I.
The good news is - all the bad stuff went away! No noise when turning, no grinding sensation in the gas pedal!
It's too short a drive home from Sears to really be sure all is well, but felt pretty good. I'll test the brakes on my ride to work tomorrow, and see if the other noise I was getting when going straight at speed is gone too.
What would be the symptoms of bad tie rods though?
jmc