i have a annoying problem i drive a 2000 xlt supercab 2 wheel drive 60k auto.recently i felt a vibration on the steering wheel which seem to get worse as speed increased and disappeared after 110km/hr. new tires, balanced alignment performed still vibrating. could it be in the rear end? or drive shaft? any help would be great vibration starts after 70km.

 

Bent rim maybe?

 

I know of cases where the final cure was to true the tires. A machine is used to trim off a small amount of rubber.

 

Nothing says that it's not bad tires. Not all new tires are perfect. I recently had 4 new BFG AT KO tires that came on my Ranger from the factory that were defective. Every time they were balanced (4 times in the first 4500 miles) they took more weights than the last balance and they STILL would have a vibration problem! First they replaced 2 but there still was a vibration issue (but less) then the final 2 original tires. Now, with the same tire brand/model/size as OEM NO vibrations and 1/3 the ounces of weight to balance.

 

thanks for the helpfull advice i plan to take it in to the dealer monday and check to see if there are any service recalls.None of these problems started till after the new tires were put on.

 

If it didn't vibrate before & if they didn't bend a wheel removing & installing the new rubber & they did a good job balancing the new rubber then that leaves us looking at the new tires.

First, look for lots of weight on any one wheel, this would suggest a poorly made tire.

They also may not have orientated the tire properly on the wheel. The tire mfg puts marks on the tire that are supposed to be aligned with positions on the wheel, to minimize out of roundness & counterbalance heavy spots between the wheel & tire, BEFORE the tire/wheel balance is done.

All this doesn't preclude a poorly made tire, which may be out of round as has been suggested, or a poorly aligned belt or badly made splice, which can be seen as ripples in the sidewall.

Hope some of these suggestions will help you isolate the problem.

The key here, for the tire dealer to KNOW, is that the problem DIDN"T EXIST, until the new rubber was put on!!!!

 

thanks pawpaw i made an appointment with the ford dealership they mention that the rear end maybe the cause and may have to change fluid and add friction modifier.

 

Whoever put the new tires on an (truck dealer or tire store) is the one who will have to be involved in any tire replacement under a tire warranty. Under a new truck warranty the auto dealer wants you to go to a dealer of the brand of tires that came on the new truck (or auto) for any tire warranty replacement.

 

thanks gaffer every bit of ammo helps before frustration sets in.

 

I would like to thank everyone for their help in trying to fix my steering vibrations.I eventually found the cure from one of the suggestions made by pawpaw a senior user who asked if i had the tire and rim matched to each other. Tire and rim are set on a machine that measures road force to tell if tire is true round or rim is round. Come to find out i had a bad tire left front that normal balancing couldn`t detect eventhough it looked ok on the balancer. Returned to the tire shop they replaced the tire had the truck realigned and it rides great. Thanks to the Fairley & Stevens Ford dealer guys for all their help and this great site.

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed. I don't understand the "road force" thing.

 

a simple brief description is that the normal balancer cannot apply the same force as the road it self.So the tire is put on a balancer that has a steel roller that comes in contact with your tire to apply force as the pavement does and prints out a data sheet like when you get an alingment done. It shows if there is any run out on the tire sidewall and if the rim is true round. I hope this helps there is lots of info if you type road force balancing on the net and even shows a few videos. sorry for the delay.

 

VERY GOOD FEEDBACK Zamboni guy.

Plased to hear you ran this one down & successfully put it to bed.

Sounds like your dealer is on the ball there, that too is good to hear.

This aspect of tire/wheel balancing isn't widely known nor much attention paid to it, how ever it is important & somthing we all should know about & understand.

For an easy read, with pictures, on the subject of tire force balancing, try the Hunter web site at http://128.242.141.111/pub/features/intro.cfm

 

If none of the above posts work, try this. I had the same problem for 5 years on my Ranger and just stumbled upon the cause and solution about 2 weeks ago. Surprisingly the problem was the lug nut covers. They were so unbalanced that at high speed they caused my whole front end to vibrate. I had the tires balanced and rotated previously and the vibration just seemed to move around the truck. Changed the tires completely thinking a bad belt and no fix. 2 weeks ago, popped off the lug covers and the problem disappeared. It is so obvious to me now, I don't know why it took me 5 years to figure it out. The tires are never balanced with that lug cover installed.

 

That's probably an "on car" high speed balancing machine. They are supposed to better simulate real world driving conditions to balance issues that may be caused by tires that have uneven tread, etc. I only know of a couple of tire shops around Atlanta that use them, probably due to the higher cost vs. a conventional high speed balancing machine.