I went to my local ford dealer today and drove 3 different 4X4 trucks. 2 lariats and one FX4. All 3 had bad vibrations in them. You could see the bed moving up and down at the tailgate very bad, and floorboards and seats also vibrated bad. Salesman told me that is was probably just the tires out of balance or had flat spots on them from setting.I told him that I have been reading on fordtruck enthusiasts that several peoples trucks have the vibration problem and that ford didn't have a fix, but his answer was that it would be covered under warranty. They all vibrated form 45 mph up to 60 which is the fastest I drove them. I was going to have them locate the exact truck I wanted and the salesman told me if It came in and vibrated that I was not obligated to purchase the truck. So he located me a lariat, (which my wife and I really like the lariat package) and then we set down to deal he priced my trade in $3200. below kelley blue book. I have a 2003 GMC Z71 with 13000 miles, looks like it just came out of the showroom. Anyway I made him an offer on the trade in to see if the salesmanager would accept it and he asked us if his salesmanager would accept it would we guarantee we would take the truck. I said no I want your best deal that you will do. So off he gose to the sales manager and comes back a few minutes later and says his salemanager said that it didn't look like we were ready to buy anything. I hit the roof. I told him that I guess I have been here for the last 2-1/2 just to kill time. I got up and went straight to the salesmanager and he knew I was hot and told him look I don't have time to play games Is this your best deal or will you accept my offer. He still give me some off the wall answer and I shook the salesman hand and walked out. They had already phoned my house before i made it back home. That salemanagers tactics cost them a sale, I already had my money for a truck all i had to do was fax the bank the buyers ageement or whatever they call it and they would have got their money. I will never set foot in that dealership again !! My wife is looking at buying an escape limited so it actually cost them 2 sales!! Sorry for the ranting and I got off the topic. Anyway the town my brother in law lives in is about 75 miles away and they have a truck like we want and he is going to go and test drive it for me and see if it has the vibration in it or not. If not I will make the trip up there to drive it myself . I hope ford can work this out they really have a nice looking truck!

 

Ford I am guessing is like the other 2 of the "Big 3" in that they have an arbitration board set up to work between the customer and the dealership. IF the dealership stonewalls you on a problem that has been a recurrent issue, take it to the arbitration board. Believe it or not Ford really doesn't want people bad mouting their product. Especially if the problem is really more the dealer than the product. There is not such thing that you pay 25-40K for these trucks and a problem in the design is "your problem" to deal with. Call the bozo's at Ford.

 

I have some experience over the years with modifying off road trucks (mostly jeeps but a few pickups too). A couple of things can get speed dependent vibration to happen: 1) out of balance/defective tires; 2) excessive driveshaft angle (not real likely on a showroom stock truck); 3) improperly balanced driveshaft; 4) bad shocks/suspension components.

There are probably a few more but here is the thing. I am beginning to wonder if the driveshaft on some of these trucks was never properly balanced by the supplier to Ford. If Ford is like most companies it outsources as much as it can to the lowest bidder. Maybe a bunch of bad driveshafts got put in these trucks.

Whaddya think?
TV

 

Reblanced driveshaf & new driveshaft did not make any difference. Tires reblanced 4 times & realigment did not make a @$%& difference. The only thing I can say drive the new truck 100+ miles and make sure it doesn't have the driveline vibration before you sign a single paper & give Ford 30,000 + dolllars.

 

my vibration problem was the [E] brake!

 

My vib's was E brake!good luck...

 

M@M.....could you please explain?

 

Sure inside your rear rotors is the parking brake.their are small looking brake shoes.its a sizzor type assy..when your E brake is applyed ..the small shoes are grabed inside your rotors...the problem i had was when E brake was releasd ..the E brake shoes where still grabing just enough to start a vibration!! the cure was to have the pivet rod hole opened wider..its been 800 miles so far smooth as glass..ask your dealer he is there to help!! P.S. what i had done in the past ..forced balanced twice..new tires BFG...damper kit installed....I have a 04 ..5.4 lariat 12700 miles..hope this helps.good luck....

 

M@M-- I'm grasping for straws. Did your e-brake vibration occurr between 45 and 60? Was it extreme-- could be felt in the floor boards?

I've got this intermittent vibration that only pops up once in a while. It's not the tires, and it's not in the front end-- seems to be in the drivetrain or rear.

 

F150 Super Crew Built 2/04 Rear End Noise 45 To 55 Mph Ford Is Engineering Is Working On It Dealer Changed The Oil But The Noise Got Louder Many People Have The Same Problem

 

I have the stx 4x4 4.6, 355 ls, super cab, and yes I got the vibes, its going mon. for a complete new rear axle assy.

 

I keep seeing these threads popping up on vibrations and wanted to throw this out there. I understand the rear end vibs and steering nibble, etc. The SuperCrew roof is notorious for "roof boom" which means the roof geometry is fairly flat and (even with the beads/depressions in the roof) when the wind blows across it, the panel oscillates because of the lack of shape; like a flag blowing in the wind. When the windows are up, no problem because of the "constant" pressure maintained by the "sealed" cabin. Open all 4 windows and you can barely feel a slight vibration. Roll up the front windows, leave the rears down and look out! The entire cab was vibrating like mad and I could feel the pressure in my ears. Crack the front windows, vib goes away. Not saying this is everyones problem, just wanted to throw the info out there incase anyone was in the same situation and thought it was something else.