First of All... this is a great place to get information and have read everything that I could on this subject. Thanks...

Second - I have an '04 F-250 SD Crew Cab that is less that 3 months old and under 7K miles. When we took delivery of the truck, we noticed that there was a vibration in the hands and seat, especially in the rear passenger seat. Not liking the stock tires that came with the truck and thinking they were the problem, we upgraded to a set of Cooper 265R75-16 which only made the problem amplified. After two rounds of "indexing" on a computerized tire balancer, the vibration in the hands is completely gone, but the rear vibration continues. The vibration starts around 46 and quiets down a bit at 58, then comes again at 66 and fades, but never stops up to about 75 - between 78 and 82 it is tolerable, but I can't drive all day at that rate around town.

I have had it in the dealership two more times, it is there now. They have put 4 new tires/wheels from a F-250 on the lot and said it made no difference. They have added a frame weight kit, and have installed a shim kit - heaven knows what that is. They have inspected the suspension (could it be as simple as a bad shock?) and have had the regional Ford technician in to drive the vehicle. All parties concerned, FMC, the dealership and myself agree there is a problem there.

Tomorrow they are going to take a closer look and possible replace the driveshaft. They have had the vehicle up on a lift and can see the tires vibrating when running them off the ground, then removed the tires and did not see the same vibration - which may or may not mean anything. The problem has been escalated up the channel for a technical resolution but so far nothing has come back.

The vehicle is driveable but not comfortable *except below 46 and above 78* and for the $$ invested, it should perform much better.

Any ideas or suggestions that the dealership has not attempted would be greatly appreciated.

Would love to get "the Beast" back on the road.....

Thanks

 

My first thought was Drive Shaft, maybe got a woo to it, or missing a balancing Wieght.

One bad rim could cause something like that...

Sounds like they hit most of the "trouble" spots already...

Let us know what they / you find out tomorrow...

 

Forgot to mention... not that it is of any importance in resolving the problem, but from the factory the truck came with 3 steel wheels and 1 aluminum cast wheel... no one notice (I washed the truck 3 times and didn't notice) until we upgraded the tires.... all were embarassed...

We replaced the aluminum with steel to match the other 3 (could not convince the dealer that they were all supposed to be the aluminum wheels) and found that the opposite side wheel was very "out of round" and that was replaced also. This was on the first attempt to "index" the tires. So with 4 new tires and two new wheels the journey continues...

Will update with news from the replaced driveshaft this weekend...

 

Sully,

Looking forward to hearing what the fix is!!!

 

I'll bet the farm its the drive shaft. And its not out of balance. Its out of faze. I have seen about 2 out of 10 superduties do this right off the showroom floor. Everytime it was the wrong faze on the drive shaft. THe Factory welds the u-joints in and thay arnt even close to being lined up. Its not lined up right from the factory. Have the dealership replace the driveshaft and the carrier bearing and the problem should be gone. Just my 2 cents..

 

Just replaced rear u-joint in 2002 F250 SD 4x4 with 53000 miles. Had it on a jack and had the same vibration out of rear tire. Could not feel anything wrong with the u-joints until i took the driveshaft loose and rear joint was very stiff.

 

Well, the dealership took the drive shaft apart, balanced, shimmed, put it back in and didn't phase the demons at all.

SO the next step is to replace the two-piece steel wheels with solid cast aluminum wheels and wait for FMC Engineers to figure this one out... now I understand that there are two more in the shop for the same thing...

Can anyone say - Recall.......

I don't want to invoke the Lemon Law... I really like my Ford Trucks... but sometimes there is a bad batch and you just have to do some moving and shakin....

More later....

 

How much more can you take?
With all the people you have involved already, they have to be thinking
lemon law already. You may want to "mention" lemon law and see what happens.
Don't be Mr Nice Guy too long......

 

I think, based upon everything that has be changed, that Donahoe is correct.
U-joints do not spin at a constant speed they speed up and slow down twice per rev. This is cancelled by A Ujoint at the other end doing the reverse. It gets worse with two piece shafts. The Ujoint caps should line up on the shaft
like this O--------O if they do not vibrations can happen.
Steve

 

Thanks to all for your input... believe me I had the dealership look at all the suggestions.... what seems to have resolved the problem is a new set of aluminum wheels replacing the stock two piece steel and chrome wheels.

The vehicle can now be driven properly with just the feel of the road underneath. The hands are calm and my pants don't vibrate me out of the seat.

I would have thought the drive shaft or something else, but the wheels were the last things changed and now it is driveable again for the first time - if that makes any sense...

Thanks again for all of your input and theories....

Sully 22

 

you ripped my avatar!,poolman

 

thats very interesting that the wheels fixed the problem, since they claimed they had swapped wheels off another 250, and claimed that wasnt it.

glad to hear its fixed

 

What they did was take wheels (steel) and tires off another truck to see if it made any difference... they "said" they put my wheels and tires on the other truck.

My truck got worse and the "lot" truck drove just fine... so "they" say...

The aluminum look better anyway... so I am pleased... but I am still puzzled as to did that really fix it or did they put the wheels on, found out it did not fix it... made some other adjustment (drive shaft, which looks the same) and left the wheels on to "appease" me.... don't know and at this point don't care...it is there loss and their time... I got a loaner car / truck everytime, so they definitely lost money on this deal and I am a happy consumer again...

The cool thing is that I got through this without threatening, yelling, or writing nasty letters to FORD... now my wife.... well......that is another story for another time.....

 

I am really glad I found this thread. I have a 2003 XLT SC F250 4X4 5.4 auto. The truck has the chrome steel wheels and had the 235.85.16 General Ameritrac's on it. Not liking the size, I went to Sams club at 6800 miles and had 285 BFG's mounted. Loved the way it looked but I had a noticeable out of balance shake from 60 mph up mainly in the rear. I went back to Sams 4 times and they tried to rebalance them. At 13,000 miles on the truck, I noticed the rears were noticeably down and I went to have them rotated and rebalanced. They unmounted the tires and spun them on the rims and rebalanced them. No good. I called the manager and they agreed to give me a full refund if I tried Michelin. Well I did. Got 285 Michelins put on and not much better. I went back to the dealer and they rebalanced them and roadtested the truck. Needless to say , they have ordered me two rims. Both were bent. They said it was a factory defect and that they have replaced a few of them.
I assume with the smaller factory tires it wasnt as noticeable (I vaguely remember an out of balance feel). I know I will never have Sams club balance my tires again. Even with two bent rims, my truck is pretty much smooth with Ford balancing them.

 

Well, I have had the aluminum wheels on the truck for about 3 weeks now and althought there is still a very small vibration at 46 - 48 MPH, the rest of the ride is almost perfect. Did some towing of household goods with a U-Haul covered trailer (12 x 6) and did not even notice it was back there - and it was packed full.

Don't know the story behind the two part steel wheels, but I am sure that I am not the only one that has had this problem. I would be interested to know how Ford is addressing this issue globally or if they are just staying quiet for now and handling it as it comes up.

I guess some consumers would never see this problem if they left the factory tires on the wheels. but one you upgrade - it is a real issue.