Vibration Help !!

[Adam Hartman]

Has anyone had vibration problems with a Gen 1 Trac 4x4? I just had my new tires rebalanced thinking it was that. The tire shop said the tires are spot on, only one was out .25oz, but I'm still getting a vibration at 65+ MPH. It feels like it's coming from the rear of the truck. I can feel it in my seat not so much in the steering wheel. Under 65mph it's fine, I don't feel anything driving around town or running 55mph on a 2 lane hwy. My net guess is putting u-joints in and having the drive shaft balanced. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

 

[Igor Smetaniuk]

I know there was a TSB about the driveshaft vibration and mine (2001 Trac) was completely replaced under warranty back in 2003. I told the Tech the vibration starts at 65 and gets real bad at 80 mph - he just smiled.



Also I just replaced my transfer case (nice deal - junkyard one for $150.00 w/2 yr warranty) and the mechanic said the connecting drive shaft joint is bad. I can feel it under driver seat. It comes and goes. That's still original.



Try spraying your joints with W-D40 one at a time to see if you can find a bad one with process of elimination if you can't get it up on a lift to check right away.

 

[swshawaii]

VIBRATION/MOAN DRIVING 75-80 MPH - 4X4 WITH 4.0 AXLE

 

[Adam Hartman]

It gets worse the faster I drive 70-80mph. With a TSB out for this problem that pretty much confirms my theory. Thanks everyone for the help. This is why I love this site.

 

[Igor Smetaniuk]

This message board IS the greatest one that I'm a member of. Everyone here is helpful to each other and there's no arrogance. Most of us have gone through the ropes on figuring out how our Tracs can be repaired in order to go the long haul with an obsolete Model. We're not going down without a fight!



Yeah with me, the Service dude at the Dealer was just slightly hesitant with my vibration claim by his initial remark that it isn't legal to be driving 80 mph. I responded right back, "Then the engines should be governed to 65 mph from the factory by federal mandate and the speedos shouldn't show up to 120 mph." He got my point and knew I wasn't going to just say "Hey you're right so I guess I'll just be on my merry way."



It's good the Tech was aggressive enough to check the TSB's on this. The driveshaft ain't cheap! I think they said that it cost around $500.00. I found my receipt and it was replaced on 3/10/04 and not in 2003 like I thought. It just says Warranty $ 0.00 on there.



Now back to some of my other thoughts here, are you the original Owner? If not, maybe it was already changed out to the aluminum shaft which you'd be able to see under your truck as it would be aluminum gray instead of rusted steel. I couldn't see that someone else lived with this for all these years unless a 70 year Granny owned and never took it over 30 mph. :grin: You may just have a bad joint somewhere.



Here's an old blast from the past thread (2011) with forum members chiming in regarding this same driveshaft issue.

 

[scott degroot]

I still would not count out a tire issue. You would be surprised at how many "techs" can not diagnose a tire issue...seems liek most of them are at dealerships also. A bad u joint could also cause your issue. Another thing I have see a lot on Gen I ST's is the trans mount going bad and causing a vibration. When the vibration happens shift into neutral and see if the vibration goes away right away.

 

[Craig Martin 2]

I have the same issue and have been trying to track it down for a couple years now.....or as money allowed. I have changed both front and back u-joints, front and rear rotors, tires....then brand new rims and tires, both upper and lower ball joints. Had the tires and rims balanced three times at two different shops, I also did the front and rear shocks. I'm looking into getting my drive shaft re balanced to see if that will help. I can't afford an aluminium shaft at the moment.



I've been gathering parts for a while to re-do the front end. I'm planning on doing the ball joints again, this time I will have the moog camber kits put in. New wheel bearings both sides, new inner and outter tie rods, new a-arm bushings, and new cv axles.



I've had the front drive shaft removed to see if this would help, but nothing, so I put it back in. The guy at the 4X4 shop said it "could" be the front diff but I highly doubt that, and at $800-$1000 CDN just to pull it apart and look at it.....no thanks.



l1tech I never thought about looking at the trans mount and see if its going bad....that could be my issue....lol one of many :bwahaha:



I plan on keeping my ST for as long as I can keep her running.....even if it means putting in a new motor! I want an F-150 but it's just not the right time for me.



Good luck with your vibes and post up here if you figure something out!!

 

[EddieS'04]

Ditto on some tire shops. Many arent trained what to look for. They mount and balance.

When I know it is, cause it started with new tires. They tell me all is well. I have them to spin the tires on the ballancer for me. I have found tread runout or high spots or sidewall bubbles. They either missed or just hoping I would go away accepting a faulty tire.

 

[scott degroot]

Eddie,



It's funny, they think as long as it doesn't need anymore weight it's ok. Even with road force balancers, which tell you just about everything you want to know about the tire and rim assembly, they still get it wrong. When we bought our BMW a few years back it had a very slight vibration. I took it back to BMW several times and they kept telling me nothing was wrong. I put all the tires on the balancer at my shop and of course found the bad one. I then took the car back to them and told them exactly which one was the problem. They pulled the tire off the car and put it on their road force balancer with me standing there and spun it and it came up not needing any weight. The service manager was starting to feel really full of himself and started trying to explain how wheel balancing works...he had no idea who he was talking to. I then politely pointed out that the tire and rim assembly had 35 lbs of road force variation(as seen on the machine). He, nor the BMW tech doing the balance, thought this was an issue...then they put a new wheel and tire on the car and apologized to me when the car rode like it should.



You'd be surprised at the number of cars that get sent to me from Discount Tire for a vibration issue. Discount Tire tells them the balance is fine adn it must be an issue with the car...I balance the tires and all is well....you get what you pay for I guess

 

[Yardsale]

In that referenced thread is my laundry-list of attempts to fixing the vibration.



In further reading I found that while double cardan joints can help with angle problems, they can also introduce some vibration.



Question - what gear ratio have you? Mine came with 3.83, but I changed to 4.10 with a tire size change and that's when the vibration got bad (confirming, for me, that the problem is not the drive shaft and the Ford "solution" is merely a mask). It was there from new, but not nearly as noticeable.

 

[Richard L]

I agree with others about some shops not having qualified tire balancing tech's.



I also know that there was a recall for some Gen-1 ST's for bad drive shafts. Ford was replacing the old steel drive shafts for aluminum units under warranty as long as the vibration occurred above 70 MPH. Any speed lower was considered to be a tire/wheel problem. So it really depends upon the speed you are feeling the vibration.



One tip is to take your car to a dealer or a shop, and ask them to find out the cause of the vibration and what it costs to fix it. If you go in and tell them to check the tire balance, that's all they will do, and that may not be the problem.



I always recommend that you go to a shop and tell them you want the problem fixed and that you will only pay for the work that fixes the problem, not for their wild-ass guess. Your contract should be to fix the problem and if they cannot accurately diagnose the problem and know how to fix it, take your vehicle to another shop.



It's too easy for shops to run up the tab by simply replacing parts without doing any diagnostic research into what is causing the problem, as long as you are paying the bill. That does not mean that you do not have to pay for their time doing diagnostics, but it does prevent you from paying for parts and labor that are not directly related to fixing the problem.



...Rich

 

[Richard L]

Oops...I double clutched my previous post. :grin::grin:



...Rich

 

[Yardsale]

It's too easy for shops to run up the tab by simply replacing parts without doing any diagnostic research into what is causing the problem, as long as you are paying the bill.

It's crazy out there. I started doing as Richard notes - "I'm not paying for parts that don't fix the problem - your choice whether you remove them". They sometimes don't like it, but I then tell then it should not be a problem if they have qualified technicians and are confident in their work. And something about on-the-job-training is on them, not me.