i just bought a 01 explorer sport 4x4 and it seems to shake pretty bad at 70 it has decent tires on it and i jst had them balanced thought for sure it was the problem but it still shakes at 70 didnt fix the problem does anyone have this problem btw it haas 114000 miles ...?????? it doenst shake at ne other speed either 70 andfaster

 

Usually tires. Rear or front? May be the front wheel bearings but sounds like a tire to me....


Dick

 

Have you looked at the rotors?

 

did you have an alignment when you had the tires new or balanced? that would be a good start, and then, they can check to see if anything is loose, like a wheel bearing, or ball joint, or tie rod end...

if all that is tight, try a tire rotation and see if the problem is exactly the same.

 

Do you feel the vibration in the steering wheel or in your seat??

 

i just got it last tuesday i got the tires balanced and it seems alot better but like when you get up to 70 -75 it doesnt do it for bout 1 mile then it just starts and keeps gettin worse but if you go 80 it basecally all goes away now soo i dont know i was thinkin about gettin a alighment check and all that stuff and the brakes doenst shake when you hit them soo i dont know i hope its not a bent rim

 

If you want help answer the questions, otherwise all you will receive is guesswork...P

 

You may have an alignment issue but thats not gonna cause your shake..You have a tire wheel issue or remote chance of a bearing bad. very remote. Could easily be a bent wheel.


Dick

 

if he had a bad wheel bearing, a decent place that does alignments would turn it away until it was fixed, since you can't do an alignment correctly with loose suspension...

in my experience, and opinion, a bent wheel would be something to look for, but only after you'd rule out that the front end is fine and tight... if something caused the wheel to bend, that much force would have caused other problems too.

I bet it's a wheel bearing or a tire - he said when he hits the brakes, it lessens...

you can actually just check out the front end on your own - jack it up, wheel just off the ground, and see if you have left and right play, or top and bottom play - if you have both, it's a wheel bearing - if you have left and right only, usually a tie rod end, top and bottom only is usually a bad ball joint... but it could be more than one thing too... hard to say without seeing it.

if you do this test, and both front wheels are tight and don't move at all in any direction, then I'd try rotating the tires and see if it's the same exact ride - if not, then it's either a bad tire or bent rim

I wouldn't rule out a warped rotor - but usually, it's the other way around, where you have no shake or shimmy until you hit the brakes - and then you feel it in the petal too most of the time if it's really bad.

do the wheel movement test first to rule out suspension parts. takes 10 mins at most, and is free to do...

 

ok sorry it doenst shake the steering wheel its more just shakes the whole truck what scares me i another truck and it does it at 60 sept it shakes the wheel alitle and the tire place told me i have a 3 bent rims ( from off roading) because i took it back 4times tellin them it still shakes im going to look at it today and check the ball joints anyways cuz it has 11300 im guessin there proly warn out

 

I meant play in the front wheels of the truck, not the steering wheel... raise them off the ground with a jack, and grab each wheel itself and see if they are tight - if you they move, or have play, then you know it's not the rims as much or the tires...- if you are that hard on them, off roading, etc - might could be bent rims... I was assuming that you didn't go off road with them - I guess you wouldn't know that though, if you just got the truck, but did the previous owner use it off road much?

 

I heard in my thread with a similar problem that just because there isn't any noticeable play in the wheel with the top and bottom test, that the wheel bearings aren't bad....I guess they could still be bad.

Wouldnt the ABS light go on if you have a bad bearing? I mean, whats that connector for any way? I assume to assist the ABS system when braking, but shouldnt it send a warning to the ABS system that the bearings are going bad? Bad bearings could cause the wheel to fall off, you'd think Ford would at least let the ABS connector on it send a warning when the bearing is going out..... and from what I read on other complaint oriented websites, bad bearings on Explorers from all years are a popular problem. Just about recall worthy....

 

While you've got the tires up in the air, give them a spin while looking at the circumference. If it is not makeing a true circle you should be able to notice it. I have found several Goodyear tires from Wally World that were not round when viewed from the side while rotating. Also give them a turn while you are looking at the tread. Pick out a row of tread blocks near the center of the tire and see if it varies while it is rotated. It should run verry straight. This checks for tread separation. I haven't seen this for some time, since I started keeping higher quality tires on the vehicles. With the higher gas prices, I keep the tires inflated to their maximum. as do most people. When they reduce air pressure to get a softer ride, it can be lowered too much and cause more heat build up, and therefore more tread separation and subsequent tire shake. check the rear tires too. They will cause the same problem, only you will feel it as a seat of the pants shake instead of a through the steering wheel shake. Just my $.02

 

RE: ABS -

yeah, if the sensor is built into the hub, you would think that if it was bad enough, it would throw a code for ABS

Some ABS, like on my wife's GM though, use sensors that are not part of the wheel bearing itself... so, the wheel could wobble all day long, and as long as the sensor sees it moving, it won't throw a code...

RE: tread - if you do Explorangers test, this may also show you if you have a bent rim too, but not always - I would be surprised if they could do a proper wheel balance on a bent rim, but maybe if it's only slightly bent, they would still be ok to balance, but not ok that you'd feel something....

get it up in the air, and do the wiggle test...

RE: to beast - sometimes it's good to be sure the tire rotates freely first, as any tighness in brakes, etc can hide it a bit - if the wheel rolls fine, and you do the top and bottom, and left/right test, and there is no play at all, the bearing is most likely not causing the problem, but yeah, might still could be - if you are lucky, it will be obvious.