I believe what's going on is between 40 and 60 I can feel a mechanical vibration, seems worse with a balanced throttle, I believe that this is setting up a resonance or reverberation in the cab when the windows are down, and You get what sounds like a subwoofer going off in the cab, also You can feel a vibration in the steering wheel and to a smaller effect in the seat.. ocasionally I get a simaler vibration just before stopping.

the truck has less than 700 miles on it and most of that was highway where this problem doesn't occur, so I'm still nailing it down when it does it and when it doesn't..

I was at the dealer and they were trying to say that it was wind buffeting, and that they were going to contact a problem resolving specialist or something like that, plus a couple of engineers.

so until I can figure out exactly what's going on, at least I've got some type of complaint registered, in my mind documentation is the key to resolution of most problems.. especially when it comes time to call in the lawyers.

Chris

anyone know how to contact the Dispute Regulatory Board, the was slight body damage on the roof of the vehicle, that maybe I can leverage into some action

04 FX4 150
build date 8/04
Reg Cab
Flareside
5.4
3.73 LS
18" 275/65 BFG

 

tires plan and simple? mite try a rebalance but if you are running the a/t's with the semi aggressive tread good luck, short of putting on street tread not much you can do.

 

On My other truck when I went to get tires a couple of years ago, I was offered a setup for balancing tires whereas a measured bag of powder is emptied into the tire when mounting, the idea behind this is that the powder automatically positions itself at the point of imbalance, thereby pefectly balancing not only the tire, but the entire assembly, also the powder falls to the bottom whenever You stop, then the process repeats, so the tire is constantly being rebalanced

it worked great except for the powder would clog the air valve when adjusting air presure, and would start leaking, but I have talked to him recently and he told me that they put a screen on the shraeder valve so the powder wouldn't affect it..
from what i understand this process has been used on large rigs for some time, and I would gladly just go do it, but I'm not sure this is the problem.

thanks for the responce
Chris

 

I have a screw and get the same buffeting when I open one of the back windows, especially without one of the front windows being open. It does sound kind of like a really big subwoofer. I don't have any other vibration issues so I think this part of your problem is just wind buffeting. I had a friend that had a '68 Charger and it did it so bad at times that it felt like it was going to blow one of the windows out.

 

I've got nearly the same truck as you.......My Problem was Rear End,,,plus bad tires...I had to get 4 new ones, plus balancing on these trucks is more important than on any other Models before. Also my dealership ran a program that ran frequency test. That's how the rearend my determined to be bad. I would push for the Goodyear ATS's. I'm getting mind next week (even though the 4 new BFG's) did help. Your going to have to log more trips to the dealer and several more shop days to do anygood with DSB. By the way you can find where to reach them in your owner's manual. Good Luck.

 

just to note, everything I'm talking about is at relatively low speeds [40-60 ] I expect when speeds get higher that wind noise will be a major issue,
but when Your cruising down a nice smooth country road at 45 or 50, and it's a gourgeus 70 degree day I would like to have my windows down without having my eardrums blownout .
[and yes we actually have some very smooth country roads around my house ]

the reason I say that the booming and the vibration are related, is that they seem to happen at the same time and frequency, You can feel the vibration in the steering wheel and armrest, and also hear it..

I'm really glad to hear about the vibration test, believe it or not I was trying to come up with a way to connect a vibration meter and a sound meter to My laptop, the sound meter is easy just a microphone into the sound card, but I don't know where I could get a vibration meter..

but I also could be absolutely wrong , and like 79REK said they may be 2 differrent problems.

as far as the drb, I don't think that would help me, after looking at it, it looks like it won't cover a business purchase, and I put this in My LLC's name, but I did call ford and got this documented with there complaint board, and that get's e-mailed to the complaint manager, and I'm going to try and see if the "business prefered network" has some kind of rules or options that pertain to business people who have major issue's with there truck..

I thought You bought a new truck so You wouldn't have to have all this crap to deal with, I think I'll park my new 30,000$ ride and go out cruising in my beater Dodge with 200K on it, it doesnt have any vibration and the windows can stay down all the way to around 70..

and the fun begins.

thanks
Chris

 

I agree that the "sub-woofer" sound that you're hearing is just the wind. My truck does the same thing at certain speeds. I've also experienced this in other trucks and cars. I don't know if there is really anything you can do about it although rain guards on the windows may help. The vibration is most likely totally unrelated to this sound.

 

This mourning when I took off it was pretty cold, so I had the windows up tight, and I could feel the vibrations in the whole truck at about the same speeds and also hear a slight remnant of the sound coinciding with the vibration,
but time will tell, I'm not perfect and could ber wrong..

 

We have a 04 F-150 that has a vibration/noise in the rear te pitch getts higher with the speed. The dealership said it's coming from the the Rear diff. Which has been replaced 3 times, the tires have been replaced many times as well as most of the rear end. The noise is still there and now the dealership (and ford factory rep) says sorry deal with it.
This could get messy.

 

Crazybilly - I would take it higher than the dealer. If it has been replaced 3 times then I think it's flirting with Lemon Law (depending on the law in your state). I'm sure the dealer doesn't want to hear it but I bet you would get some results once you mention it. Take it higher and make sure you have everything documented.

 

I had a high pitched whine on My dodge at 130k, and I couldn't tell where the sound was comming from so I went to a dealer and had the head tech drive it, [30$ ] He said it was the pinion bearing and they told me they would have to rebuild the whole rearend at a cost of 1000$, so i went to a parts store bought the bearing for 30$ and put it in, 70k later everything is fine,
there is also a post on this site, where a tech inspected the rearend of a 150 and found that all the machined surfaces were out of tolerances, bad machining or castings I don't know,

But if they've been in there 3 times and can't fix it then I would definetly go for the lemon law hard and fast.

they got a lot of guts telling You to live with it.
Good Luck

 

W're looking into that. They have replace the whole rearend (twice I think) and everything from the tranmisson back once...To no avail oh the noise goes away for 3 -15 days (mixed driving Country roads /highway No Rough 4 wheeling or anything, call it a yuppy comute!) then it comes back. Just looking to see if this is a design defect or just a lemon.

 

I just drove my secretary's 2004 F150 Crew Cab (2800 miles) to try to listen to a noise for her. Almost sounds like a harmonic whine between 40 and 60 ONLY when on the throttle. If you lift, the whine disappears. Sound familiar? Tires were just replaced, no physical vibration.

 

That's not really what I'm talking about, but that sounds like the rearend, maybe pinion bearing, or incorect pinion gear interaction with the ring gear,

chris

 

Sounds a lot like the problem I am having with my 04 scab 4x4. I have the noise, but the vibration as well. Going to the dealership next week for the 3rd time. I hate that they can't fix it. I love everything else about this truck.