whirring sound from '08 Fusion

Probably your fuel pump.

I don't think its the fuel pump. The pitch of the sound seems related to the speed of the car. If I put it in neutral at low speeds the pitch is the same. If I rev up the engine while while coasting the pitch also doesn't change. I hope its nothing major going.

Cooling fans are usually disabled over 35mph and make a "whirring sound".

The noise persists. Its not the cooling fan. I can turn the engine off and coast and still hear it. I can even hear the noise now at road speed if there are no other cars around making noise. I have a feeling its something in the AWD system that isn't right. I should probably have Ford check it before my warantee runs out!

My first guess is a wheel bearing.

I recall once, when driving in rain, a noise like yours started, after checking a few parts of the car i found a piece of cardboard stuck with bubble gum and the noise was the cardboard hitting the moving air. A deal of road noise could be tyres, a slipping fan belt or your thermo fans coming on at high speed. You could try jacking your car up on stands and move the wheels by hand, sounds like something has worn a fan belt or air hitting some thing causing your noise and any noise seems to magnify as you drive along. Check also your power steering belt, ac belt and any other belt, i spray mine with belt lube, trial and error done quickly could not see you forking out dollars over some thing that could be in the end so small a thing.

Hope i have helped

Peter Australia

Since the OP says the noise is still tere coasting with the engine shut off, that eliminates ALL belts, fans, power steering pumps etc.

Does the sound change at all when the steering wheel is turned? I suspect there will be a difference in pitch or intensity when the steering is worked side to side moving down the road. If so, it is almost 100% sure to be a bad wheel bearing - but anyone who tells you you can tell which one by whether it gets louder or quieter in one direction is more sure of his diagnostic skills than he has a right to be, as I've seen them go both ways.

I will have to check this by working the wheel side to side and get back to you. This might be related to the problem I had in September of last year. I kept hearing a odd noise from the front around that time. I jacked up the car then and took off the tires one by one but I din't see anything. Not until I grabbed the right front wheel with it jacked up and tried to wiggle it. To my surprise the whole wheel and hub was very loose! It was causing the brake rotor to hit the caliper and gouged big scratches in the rotor for the outer 1.5 inches of it. I had it towed to Ford. They said it was a loose front axel nut. They tightened it up and said everything was ok. I didn't hear the present noise after that, but a couple of months later.

I checked this week if the noise changes when I work the wheel side to side. No change! So its not getting any worse which is good. It might in fact be the tires themselves have developed this noise with a little over 50K miles on them. I say this because I could have sworn than when I drove over the last snow I didn't hear the noise! There still seems to be lots of thread left and Ford blessed them so they will probably be good for 1 or 2 more years. Then when I change tires the noise might stop hopefully.