Why does the Trac vibrate so badly?

[Dave Tabata]

The wifey has an 05 ST 4X4 loaded with everything and the 4.10's. The thing is a blast to drive. Are the Goodyear tires this bad? The dealer replaced the first set at 50 miles (now at 3100) due to them being out of round. This set vibrates too. Starts at 65. They now say that the tires are balanced and cannot tell if they are out of round. There are times they are fairly smooth and then it starts to get a gradual vibration. Also, there is a low pitch "hum" vibration from the drivetrain at higher speeds. Keep in mind, most of our driving is interstate. I went through this in my Mustang and it took an aluminum driveshaft to fix it. The dealer says Ford does not put aluminum ones in the Trac now. They even sent mine to a driveline shop to verify the balance was correct. Yep, vibration still there too. As I was in for the last round of tire rebalance, they gave me another Trac to drive. The tires shook on it too and the hum was there at about 80 mph. So after ranting, are these complaints too picky? Will new tires get rid of the shake? Thanks in advance. BTW, otherwise the ST is awesome and fun to drive. Best mpg so far is only 15, but we hope to see better. I just gave it a first oil change of Mobil 1 and removed the intake silencer. We'll see if these two things help.

 

[Bill Ellis]

My 04 has an aluminum drive shaft. Get under it and look. If it looks like unpainted aluminum, then you have an aluminum drive shaft. First thing to do is get rid of the Goodyear tires. Ask your dealer to exchange them for just about any other brand. You will find lots of opinions here about which are best, but you will also find unanamous distain for Goodyears. My 04 2x4, 3.73 came with Michelin Cross Terrain tires. By far these are the best tires I've ever had on a vehicle. Good ride, quiet and stick to a wet road like glue. Lot of folks here like the Bridgestone Duelers and Revo something or others. Check the link and you can get user ratings for various tires that will be worlds better than Goodyear.

 

[Bill Ellis]

Try this link and look at chart. Note that Goodyear is way down on the list. Also note the Miles Driven column and you'll see what tires are used the most.

 

[Gary L]

I do, agree with Bill E i went out and and bought a set of BFgoodwich, which is much better than those Goodyear

 

[Todd Z]

I noticed air pressure has a lot to do with vibrations with the good years.

Also There have been issues with the 4.10 rear carrier being out of balance and causing the vibration....



Real only way is to jack up the truck remove the tires, Install a lug nut to hold the rotor on and run the truck to over 65... It is dangerous, But it will eliminate any thing with the drive line of the truck..

Todd Z

 

[Yardsale]

I do not believe that you are being picky when expecting a car to ride smoothly (this is why things are balanced).



(Not so) random thoughts:



Bad rim

U-joints

Lateral or radial runout (hub, rim, wheel (rim with tire))

 

[Richard L]

I have had two Sport Tracs with GoodYear tires and never have had any vibration problems.



Early Sport Trac's had problems with vibrations due to bad driveshafts. The driveshafts were replaced by aluminum driveshafts and that appears to have cured the problem.



If you are gettin vibrations on a newer Sport Trac, I would first suspect the tires. If you get the vibration through the steering wheel, it's probably one of the front tires or rims, so try changing the tires front to back, one tire at a time. If the steering vibration stops and you now get the vibration in the seat of your pants, it's a problem with the tire/wheel that was just moved to the rear.



Just the opposite is true if you feel the vibration in the seat of your pants but moving a tire/wheel to the front causes the vibration to move to the steering wheel.



Also, you may want to have your wheel balancing checked on an accurate wheel balancer. Also beware of any tire/wheel that has excessive amounts of wheel weights after balancing. Usually the tire is mounted out of sync with the balance of the wheel and make it nearly impossible to balance properly. Rotating the tire on the rim can improve the balance and eliminate a lot of vibration problems caused by wheel balancing problems.



...Rich

 

[Ernie Longino]

After some research on this site, I had a trusted mechanic check the drive shaft, which was OK. Had tires balanced ... no luck.



I replaced the junk OEM shocks with Monroe Reflex's; Replaced the Goodyears (which were cupped --- produces a loud whomp, whomp, whomp noise) with BFG LongTrail T/A's and had the front end aligned (one year warranty). The ride in the Trac has NEVER been as smooth as it is now ... not even on day one with 8 miles on it.



I plan to add the EE Swaybar once my bank account recovers some.

 

[Gavin Allan]

I got the aluminum driveshaft installed (tsb) on my '03, which helped a bunch. The goodyears have been balanced a few times, but the tire guy said they have runout and slight cupping which is causing the rest of the vibration. He says that getting rid of the goodyears will solve the vibration--and he recommends BF goodrich or Michelin.