Well, I didn’t get my Christmas wish this year, my STX, flareside vibrates (4.6L, 3.55 slip, automatic, Continental CONTITRAC tires). It was the lump of coal in my x-mas stocking! The factory elves in the Kansas City Ford plant made this truck in June of 2005. It shakes like Santa’s big belly when he yells Ho! Ho! Ho!. If Santa’s new sleigh had howling defective Continental CONTITRAC tires on, and it vibrated at 45 mph like my truck does, his sleigh would have crashed and burned over the North Pole with an odometer reading of less than 1,500 miles. The post mortem results would have shown that Rudolph the red nosed reindeer died with the magical vibration damper strapped to the underside off his belly.

Having read through the vib threads at FTE, I’ve come to these conclusions:

On the high side, about 1 in 4 trucks made by Ford have this vibration problem. On the low side, it is less than 1 in 10. In addition, 2004, 2005 and 2006 models can have it. The trucks affected have design, workmanship, and material quality defects in this technical problem area. Most Dealers have service technicians and managers that aren’t adequately trained to fix it. In addition, they don’t read the FTE website postings to get educated on this problem. Too many vibration fishing trip expeditions are taking place in the field.

This is an onion type problem. After you peel one vibration problem skin off of the onion, there is another vibration problem skin to peel.

Ford appears to have tried every TSB trick that there is, including the installation of the magical damper on the driver’s rear underside of the truck. Others include:
Spin balance the tires
Road force balance the tires
Replace the tires with the same bad brand name
Replace bent and out of round rims
Balance and/or replace the drive shaft
Rebuild the differential
Rebuild the steering rack
Replace front brake rotors, install redesigned pads, install new calipers
Replace exhaust system (good grief)!
Psychological warfare (tell the Owner that the vibration problems are normal)

So if your new Ford F150 has body or truck bed re-bounce vibration, or steering wheel shimmy (side to side), or steering wheel oscillations (back and forth motion) that you can feel in your hands. Join the crowd. If it has strong first and second order resonance vibrations at speeds of around 45 mph and 70+ mph that you can hear (bass like humming wah wah sound, also called driveline shudder), and you can feel the vibrations on your butt as you drive, your merry X-MAS toast to the F150 truck won’t be with eggnog. It will be with lemonade. In summary, has anyone out there been successful in having the Dealer resolve this vibration problem completely with a fix that lasted? If so, how long has it lasted? Please provide the golden bolt fixes from you service repair invoice so that the rest of us can pass it on to our Dealer. You may be our only hope for a Merry F150 X-MAS in 2006. If someone never had these vibration problems and now has more than 36,000 miles on their 2004 or 2005 F150 truck and it is still vibration free, please advise. Pass along this glimmer of hope to the rest of us. Thanks!

Confucius say: The fact that FORD can make a quality vehicle is not and was not the issue for me, it was the fact that I did not receive a QUALITY vehicle and Ford could not figure out how to make it one.

Many thanks to FTE and its Members for helping us frustrated F150 Owners keep their sanity over this patch rough road.

 

I test drove three new leftover '05 F150 Lariat 4x4s this month. Two of the three F150s had issues with tires out of round or out of balance. The other was a leftover '05 demo. Rode perfectly. The other F150ss had steering wheel shake, vibrations, it was simply pitiful!! All had the BF Goodrich tires.

On the other hand BOTH the new '06 Chevy Silverado LT 4x4 trucks I test drove had WORSE problems than the Fords with the factory tires. One was a new '06 the other a demo '06.

Easy fix? Not so easy. Considering how much time and effort it takes to finally get a good set or after 10 rebalancing jobs. I'm not up for that.

The demo F150 that I bought had the best ride and the most perfectly balanced tires out of all the new trucks I drove. What are the odds I'd get true tires?? very low, but I hit the lottery with a good set.

What has happened to the tire companies? What has happened to quality checks at the plant to catch these problems? It is simply sad when out of the five american trucks I test drove with different brand tires, only one had balanced tires/wheels.

I'm very happy with the F150 Lariat itself, great looks, stylish, but dang! Bad tires ruin your entire driving experience. Ford, you guys listening?

 

Bluebaker--Great list but you missed replace u-joints,sadly I have had most of your list done to my truck. I had the vibe issue and I KNOW your frustration. There is no one quick fix to this as you said this is an onion problem "After you peel one vibration problem skin off of the onion, there is another vibration problem skin to peel." Just keep bringing it back to the dealer and be sure to test drive it up to all speed ranges, my last vibe only happened at 80mph and above. That vibe was solve by replacing the driveshaft again(this was shaft #3). I have since put on about 10,000 vibration free miles. Good luck!

 

Well I guess I'll give you my glimmer of hope, although I know it won't help with the problem. 2004 FX4 s.cab, B.F.Goodrich 18" tires, 40,000 miles and still no vibration. I truely hope Ford will solve your problem. Best regards and Happy New Year.

 

On tires I have a new 06 KR model. It has the pirelli tires. When drove for a test
drive felt a bounce. But no telling how long it has been sitting. I still have so
few miles under 300 hard to tell but still have a slight bounce till warmed up.
Once warm nice ride.

My Avalanche had michelins, good ride from time installed, same with the factory
goodyears. The lexus has dunlops good ride from day one.

?? why Ford is having so much trouble with tires.

 

I have a 05 SCrew F-150 Lariat 4X2 with BFG 18 in tires. They are perfect so far. Truck has 13,000 miles and I love it. No vibrations. Cut your losses and buy yourself a set of Goodyear or BFG's. It will be worth the $$$ to start enjoying what a great truck the F-150 really is! Conti's SUCK!!!

 

I just bought a used 2004 FX4 with 15K miles on it - rides as smooth as glass. It's got the 18" wheels and the BFG tires.

I sure was nwevous about finding one that didn't have the driveline vibe.

I got lucky. This thing is great.

Oh yeah, my local service departmant says he'll do the latest flash for me tomorrow. Whoo-hoo!

CMOS

 

What are these "flashes" I hear you and others talking about on these forums? I don't think I have ever had one done. I assume it means upgrading the software on the truck's computer thaat controls everything. My truck runs great and I am reluctant to change anything. Don't fix it if it ain't broke! I have been into my dealership three times for oil changes and nobody has ever mentioned anything about this. I hate to sound stupid but I would really like to know what these are and why would anyone have them done if their truck is running good? Maybe there are advantages I don't know about but it seems from reading posts here that many times the trucks run worse after the "flashes" than before. Thanks for the help!

 

timcpa,

I'll IM you. I don't want to hijack this thread...

CMOS

 

my brother feels for you. he bought his first new truck several months ago. a 2005 f150 crew cab. he has had all the tires replaced, along with the shocks-i think acouple of other things-too .he has had weight added to the rear frame( i never heard of this before!!) but he still has vibrations while driving plus, he has a problem with the brakes applying themselves!!!. he says the rims get so hot- he can't even touch them!! i believe an engineer from ford out of michigan came down a couple of weeks ago to look at his truck at the dealership. he hasn't heard back from them yet! i have a feeling they are going to buy the truck back!

 

Please don't feel alone, us in the Expy section are feeling your pain. 14 tires, rebuild the rear, too many road force balances to count. Still jiggiling down the road for 26000 miles. Yeah, baby, yeah!!!!!!!!!

Dave

 

bluebaker,

 

...Welcome BDiehl, to Ford Truck Enthusiasts!
Stick around someone will be by shortly to answer your question.
We are happy you have chosen the best source for Fords!

Enjoy FTE....and
JOIN CLUB FTE -SUPPORT THE FORUMS!
…..See you on the boards.

 

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Quote:

I received my 2005 Ford F-150 SuperCab as a XMAS gift this year and I concur it has the vibration issue. I have the same Continental CONTITRAC tires on it (which let you feel every bump in the road). I have 2000 miles on my truck right now and have had it in the shop twice now for the vibration issues. First it was very noticeable around 65 to 70 MPH. They road force balanced the tires and replaced the driveshaft in the vehicle. This time when I got it back the vibration lowered to 45 to 60 with 55 MPH being the absolute worse! I took it back to the same dealer and they replaced the ring and pinion in the rear end. Now I get vibrations on the low end consistently (25 MPH shakes the steering wheel every time) and occasionally I will feel it shutter at 55 or even higher once when I floored it on the interstate. I know that 25 MPH doesnt sound bad but I spent 15 miles in traffic the other day at 25 mph. I am so upset at this 29K dollar vibration. I am getting ready to take it back now to them to see what they can come up with. This is my first time seeing this forum and responding so I hope to learn alot from the postings on here. Please feel free to email me any thoughts on this subject.



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I'm convinced that its difficult to properly peel the onion when you have the Continental CONTRITRAC tires on your truck. New tires shouldn’t "howl’ like an old snow tire. In addition, good quality tires can be road force balanced and all steering wheel shimmy can be eliminated. I’ve had this done on my cars several times over the years and know it to be a fact. The Continental tires have a design and manufacturing defect! In support of this, see Ford’s recall notification (on the FTE website) for this tire. They support the fact that the Continental tire is defective.

The problem I’ve had is that I can’t get the Ford Dealer to replace them with a good set of tires, as the Michelin Pilot LTX without paying an arm and a leg. The problem is that after the Ford Explorer/Firestone Tire debacle, Ford changed their vehicle warranty strategy. When I bought my truck, I got a separate warranty for the tires! Ford has wrung their hands of any tire problems that the tire manufacture may have downstream after the sale of the vehicle. The Vehicle Owner now has to work and negotiate a settlement with the tire manufacture directly instead of through Ford! (This is utterly ridiculous!) Continental will only replace the defective tires on this truck with Continental or General Tire types. In short, with another set of defective Continental CONTRITRAC tires. For the Consumer, you feel like a cat chasing its tail. I’ve checked with tire retailers in my area that only do tires for a living. They all have the latest and best balance equipment such as the Hunter GSP-9700 road force balancer. Their opinion is that it is impossible to balance the Continental CONTRITRAC tires to the point where you eliminate steering wheel shimmy. They will flat out tell you that this is a "bad" tire. Go to the TIRERACK website and read the very poor reviews that this tire is getting.

Wrt driveline vibrations, in 2004 and 2005, Ford’s combined F150 trucks sales were close to 1 million units. If 1% of these had the driveline vibration problems (a low estimate), that’s 10,000 trucks that needed their drive shafts replaced. Question I have is what does Ford do with all of the defective driveshafts? Most likely, the replacement driveshaft that they put into your truck was one that was returned for a suspect problem from another truck. Most likely Ford is playing musical chairs with these old suspect driveshafts. Good luck ever getting a good one for your truck. The new driveshafts are going into Ford’s new trucks, not the lemon trucks.

In addition, the driveshafts and differentials have to be balanced as a set to get rid of driveline vibration problems. This is done at the factory. Crawl under your truck. You will see two bright yellow paint marks. One mark is on the driveshaft’s rear end, and the other is on the differential’s mating flange surface where the driveshaft bolts to it. These two paint marks have to be aligned or indexed to each other. If they aren’t, the set won’t be matched and you will have vibration problems. On my truck, there were numerous old (faded) markings on the driveshaft and differential. With so many old markings, I suspect that the factory had a very difficult time balancing the driveshaft/differential set, and just gave up.

If the Dealer that replaced your driveshaft didn’t re-balance it properly prior to installing it, most likely all that happened is that the frequency and magnitude of the vibration changed. To properly balance the driveshaft, you need sophisticated equipment. See below URL

http://www.schenck-usa.com/auto_aft_driveshaft.html <https://www.ford-trucks.com/lc/lc.ph...riveshaft.html

Most Dealers don’t have this equipment. They simply trust that the "Motor Craft" part they received is balanced and good. WRONG ASSUMPTION when you dealing with musical chair type parts!!!!

To balance the differential flange, you also need sophisticated equipment. See below URL;

http://www.froudehofmann.com/product_family_27.htm <https://www.ford-trucks.com/lc/lc.ph..._family_27.htm

To get up to speed on driveline theory and balance, see the below URL.

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/driveline/ <https://www.ford-trucks.com/lc/lc.ph...h%2Fdriveline%

For information on how to troubleshoot driveline problems see;

http://www.procarcare.com/icarumba/resourcecenter/encyclopedia/icar_resourcecenter_encyclopedia_driveshaft1.asp <https://www.ford-trucks.com/lc/lc.ph...riveshaft1.asp

Only one positive point can be made thus far. Some of the replies posted on this thread indicate that this driveline vibration problem can be fixed if you have a first class Service Dealer working the problem. In addition, new trucks that don’t have this problem seem to stay that way.

Bottom line, the driveline vibration resonances will reduce the lifetime of bearings and mechanical connections. This is a fact of physics. Unfortunately, I am dealing with a third rate Dealer and Ford Zone Manager. They are playing the psychological warfare game that the vibration problem is " normal". All they have been willing to do is to sell me extended warranty service (dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). As a consequence, I’ve reached the point where enough is enough. I have decided to get my money back. I am opening a lemon law case with the BBB Auto Line. Note, don’t confuse the BBB with the DSB. They are apples and oranges. See page 26 of your warranty guide for information on the DSB. Ford runs the DSB, while a Consumer advocate group runs the BBB. Ford fears the BBB for several reasons. As a result, the Ford Relationship Center will always try to get you to go the DSB path. When you bought your vehicle, you should have signed a "Lemon Law Rights Notification and Acknowledgement form". I suspect this form is slightly different for each state. It has instructions on how to file a case with the BBB.

Good luck. Hope the above info helps.

 

Hello my name is Rob

I own a 2005 F150 STX 4.2cyl automatic with vibrations.
Its been in the shop 4 times and still isnt fixed.

1st trip- tires rotated and balanced.

2nd- New drive shaft, sent home to wait 4 weeks for 2 new tires.

3rd- 2 new tires.

4th- Had the tires and wheels road forced and found a bent wheel?
Wheel replaced.

Still have vibrations at 52mph 63 and on and on.
Ive even noticed a vibration idling in the driveway, Service Manager
tells me its "cam rollover". You know that big 4.2 V6 has a monster cam .

They try selling me on that fact thats its not going to have a smooth
ride and all trucks do it.
Well my dad had a 98 F250 powerstroke that didnt vibrate,my friend has
a 2004 F250 5.4 and it doesnt vibrate.

My next thing is to talk to the Zone Manager, probably wont
get me anywhere. But im not giving up.
Any advice much appreciated.
Rob-