Vibration over 60mph

[SilverBolt]

Has anyone ever dealt with or heard of a vibration that occurs over 60 mph? Our '05 has one you can feel in your butt kind of like tires out of balance. The dealer has had it a week (and counting) it still doesn't know what's wrong. They are treating us well, even gave us a loaner car but I'd like our Sport Trac back. They replaced all the tires and balanced them with a road force balancer. They also replaced two of the u-joints they said were a little tight. They said everything checks fine but the vibration is still there. Below 60 mph it drives wonderful.

Anyone have a idea's I can pass along to them?

Thanks for any help you can give us.

 

[Dingo]

Driveshaft.

 

[Bosoxfan 02]

i have the same problem with vibration. idk what does it. im assuming it is from the lack of weight in the bed. my dad's silverado doesnt vibrate but maybe that's b/c his bes is made of metal and our is made of plastic or something. i just had a tool box put in and that has reduced it slightly. my ST has been vibratin since i bought it used in march of 07. does any one know what causes this?





how does the drive shaft affect this?

 

[Dingo]

Uh, a long crooked thing spinning really fast will vibrate.

 

[Tom Schindler]

There were issues with some 4x4's with steel driveshafts causing vibrations.



There is a TSB on this issue.





Tom

 

[LoriMaury Kimbrough]

We had a rear axel that was "out of round". We had taken it in to have the drive shaft checked. The guy put the truck up on blocks and you could see the right rear tire bouncing. We took it to Ford and it was replaced under our extended warrantee.

 

[Yardsale]

It doesn't have to be crooked to vibrate - out of balance will do it (uneven welds or tube wall thickness).



Could be an axle.



Look a the vibration chart in the Vibration Chart folder in my library.



Cayman, can the steel driveshaft be balanced to not vibrate or should it be replaced?

 

[Kevin Palmer]

The 01, 02 and mid 03 had a steel drive shaft that is an issue. There is a TSB to replace it with an aluminum. Some how???? Later Tracks ended up with the steel shaft. My bet, they were in inventory and used them.



Look to see if yours is aluminum or steel.



Other commom causes are rims and tires. If you swap the front and rear and the vibration changes, you will at least know it is your tires or rims...

 

[Yardsale]

Not sure if that was for me, but I have a '01 (Job 1) with steel. I had it balanced and the U-joints replaced about 50,000 miles ago (did the front too). I was told that the rear was not significantly out of balance (and that the front was okay). It didn't seem to help with the vibration. I now have some play in the rear U-joint and a vibration.



I'm curious whether the steel driveshaft can be balanced or if it is somehow not straight and cannot be corrected.

 

[2]

Yardsale, yes a steel driveshaft can be balanced. Someone on here that were our of warranty had theirs balanced, it wasn't even that much money (less than 100 bucks if I remember correctly). I think they went to a big rig shop to get the balancing done. . .

 

[SilverBolt]

Thanks for the replies. We got our Trac back last night and below 60 it's wonderful but it still has some vibration above 60. They had it for over a week and replaced two tires and two u-joints and ran a bunch of tests with some Rotunda vibration meter hooked up to it. They gave us an '07 Jeep Liberty loaner to drive. One thing we found out is we'd never buy one of those. Anyway... I asked them about the drive shaft TSB and he said they checked that but our date code wasn't covered by it. They took our Adrenalin wheels off and put on regular Trac wheels to test it. I drove it that way and it was smooth at all speeds. They said they have an $18,000 machine they use for wheel and tire testing and it said the wheels are fine so it must be the GoodYear RT/S tires. They do balance out fine and road force test fine. I'm thinking I may try replacing the factory shocks with a set of 4 Bilstein shocks and see if that helps. I just don't know what else to do about it.

 

[Dingo]

Go to a tire shop. Tell them to dismount and remount your tires and balance them. Here's the important part: Ask to talk to the specific tech that'll be doing it. Ask him to bounce the tire on the floor 10-15 times from chest level before balancing.

 

[SilverBolt]

There's always one in every group..........

 

[Tom Watson]

Well... I just took my '01 Trac in for a boatload of maint. last week.



I knew the rear universal was bad, as I had both... the dreaded "click-click-click" as you began moving at slow speed, and the vibration above 50 mph.



I've had the truck back for about a week now, and everything is good except for a vibration AFTER letting off the gas. Under "load", while I'm accelerating, all's good. But when I "coast", I feel it.



Though I've not been participating in the discussions here for a long time... reading this thread was the first time I've seen anything about the driveshaft TSB... and I'm wondering if this is related.



If I recall correctly, there used to be a place where all of the TSB's for the various vehicle years were listed, right? If so, can someone post that web link, so I can have a reference when I take it back to the shop next time?



Thanks,

Tom

 

[Kevin Palmer]

Ron, I agree that your Trac SHOULD NOT be covered by the date of the drive shaft TSB, however, in many cases they DID get the steel shaft even though they should not have.



Do me a favor, simply look under the track and see if you have a steel or aluminum shaft???

 

[Ron N]

here is the link to the tsb and recalls._Ron

 

[Tom Watson]

Thanks!





Tom