Ugh...I'm sick and tired of the vibrations I'm getting. I've got a feeling they're coming from multiple sources, and everyone is blaming different components each time I take it to the service dept. I had 295's put on, and as soon as I got on the highway, there was a vibration. Took it back to the tire shop, they re-balanced, test drove, and vibes were still there. Left the truck with them for the day to run down the problem, and they came back saying I had a twisted driveshaft. I accepted this, because I had done a huge burnout the day before, and decided to take it to Ford to see what they could do.

Two dealerships later (first one blamed the tires and didn't do jack, 2nd one replaced all four wheels ((too out of round for Ford specs supposedly))), but I've still got the vibes. The 2nd dealer said two tires were flat spotted, and the other two had radial runout. I was hoping for this answer from Ford, because that's what I thought too! I really doubt it's the driveshaft, the steering wheel shakes with the vibration.

From reading Jpatter's post, I decided to take my truck to a shop that had a road force balancer. Discount Tire was the closest shop, and I had bought tires there before without any problems. Well $90 later, the tech tells me all of my tires are coming up fine on the balancer. There was one tire barely off-balance, but nothing too severe. He ride matched the tire with the rim, and I've still got the damn vibrations!!

I posted Mystery Vibration in the Suspension, Tires, Etc, forum. Today, I checked the wheel bearings using the 'lift and rock' test. I almost made the truck slide off my my Hi-Lift cause I was'a liftin' and a-rockin' so dang hard. I spun the RF tire, and eyeballed the tire, using the line the shock body & cover make. The tire is out of round for sure!! It's about 1/4" variation!! Makes Discount Tire's results bunk! I moved over to the LF tire, spun it, tire didn't seem to be out-of round, but I did hear a ratcheting sound coming from the hub!! I made sure both of my hubs were unlocked, spun the u-joints to double check, and spun the tires again. Still ratcheting. It's not a constant ratchet, it only does it once the tire gets to a certain part of it's rotation.

I'm going freaking crazy with this problem. I'm going to head over to a tire truck center (18-wheeler tires, tractor tires, etc) and see if they can find anything out of whack with the tires or wheels.

You guys got any other suggestions on where I should look next??

 

Sounds like you got a possible lf hub /bearing assm going bad . Thats the noise you hear when spinning.

Munkey ,I would also chk those u-joints you may have flat spotted them doing the burn out .
Also chk your rear flange on the rear diff to make sure its not loose ,burnouts tend to really stress
the connections of the driveline .
Are you getting vibes through the steering wheel when just touching the brake lightly also ?

Rich

 

Can you get hold of a stock set of tires and rims? Friend maybe. that might be the eaisiest way to weed this out.

 

The thing that gets me is that the first dealer switched out my hubs because the RF hub was rattling over bumps..I took the truck in for other problems besides the vibes the first time. Don't know exactly what was done because I never got a service invoice because that dealer was waiting for parts to come in (**** for the jack stripped,) and no invoice can be given until all service is done, so he says. I called the first dealer many times asking for them to mail, fax, or just explain what service they did to my truck, and each time I'll be put on hold, or they'll call me back. I flat out refuse to deal with them anymore!! On another note...this dealership was bought out by some mega-dealership congolmerate...they used to be top notch in the service department.

Back to the problem at hand...no vibes when braking at all. If the dang truck tire guys can't find anything, I'm going to call the guys at the tire shop and see what we can do. They're actually pretty great guys and have gone the distance for me in the past, thats why I don't want to throw up "I've got bad tires!" I want to make sure, mainly for my peace of mind.

As of today, I'm past 36,000, so bye bye warranty. I flipped through the warranty booklet and..if I understand correctly..I don't have a powertrain warranty?!? PSD trucks do...but the booklet was vague (or maybe I just didn't read well enough) on gas engine trucks!

 

If the vibration happened as soon as you put on some new tires, that's likely the culprit. I had my tires rotated at discount tire when my truck hit 7,500 miles and I started getting a vibration. I had to bring it back two more times before they got the situation corrected. After I complained about the vibration, the mgr road matched the tires and replaced two that were out of round. He then said everything checked out perfect, but I still got a vibration. What he finally did was moved the tires to the rims on the other side of the truck (from left to right) and road matched them again. Another tire kicked out of specs. They replaced that tire and no more vibration. Like you said the guys at discount tire are usually real helpful. It might be worth giving them another shot at it.

 

FINALLY someone balanced my tires who knew what they were doing!! I took it to a little hole-in-the-wall tire shop that had a road force balancer, and my vibrations are almost gone!! All I get now is a shimmy that's barely noticeable. I can feel a hint of a shimmy on super smooth roads. It's like I'm driving a new truck!! Apparently, Discount Tire had balanced two tires perfectly (according to the tire tech at the new shop), and the other two were WAY out of whack. They put too much weight on both the left tires. He gave me an open invitation to come back if I feel anymore vibrations, and he'll balance them again for free. His balance was $20 cheaper than Discount Tire too!! WOOHOO I'm happy now!!

I did notice my steering damper is leaking oil down the shock tube, thats next on my list to replace and maybe that'll even get rid of the rest of the vibrations.