80-85 Vibration
 

Thanks for accepting me into the fold fellas. I have a 07 limited 2wd and love it to no end. Bought it used in March and notice a vibration right way at highway speeds in the middle and back towards the rearend, nothing in the steering wheel. Searching, searching and more searching. This is what I came up with. Everything's good with tires-rims-rearend-yoke-driveaxles. The question and my findings are with the driveshaft center support bearing. Has anyone felt this vibration or has heard of these bearings going out this early(87,000 miles). All it is is a U shape bracket with rubber around a bearing. That hard dense rubber seems to me softer than it should be. I got it up on a lift yesterday. Pushed the speed upwards to 80-83 and saw the driveshaft coming from the transmission, walking and moving around that support bearing alittle more than I thought it should. Maybe it is normal, I'm not for sure. It seems like alot of movement for a support bearing that's directly bolted to a crossbrace of the frame. Thanks to all who read and comment to help me and others that I'm sure are experiencing the same issue.

Andrew

Maybe you were feeling the beginning effects of time travel....5 more mph it would have sent you Back to to the Future....You might want to check your Flux Capacitor... <= :-lamesign


Sorry I had too... if its any help, I've got 75k on my '07 and no vibration at those speeds when I feel to tempt fate.

Put the rear tires in front and see if it moves the vibration. Then you can 100% eliminate the tires.

Calm down Mr. Simpson. It's not like I'm putting my family's life in jeopardy on every trip to the grocery store. Here in Georgia it's 70 mph and I'm really noticing it between 76-83. On a hard acceleration it's even more noticeable. I talking it really shakes the cabin.
Mr. Berry...I did try that with using my spare on one trial run, came back, put the spare on the opposite side for the second run and it continued to have that shake. I then checked both rear tires and rims on the vehicle lift. Again, it checked out fine. So I feel pretty certain that it's not in them.

Coincidentally I spoke to a friend of a friends brother today that works for a metro Atlanta Ford dealership. Speaking to him put me at ease about my findings. He mentioned that the driveshaft from the transmission to the slip yoke needs to be greased(mentioned Teflon grease and TSB on that) because of it heating up a catching. Also having less than 1 degree difference between the front and back of the shaft coming from the transmission. Which means the center support is shimmed from the factory but may need to be reshimmed because of everything settling possibly. Which may explain why the rubber around my bearing seems softer than I feel it should. Losing it's elasticity. Also, he rotates the driveshaft as well. The yoke has 8 holes while the driveshaft has 4. It should have paint marks where it was lined up from the factory. He turns the shaft 45 degrees at a time and road tests it to get it as good as he can.
I purchased the center support bearing today and it had to be ordered. I should get it in Friday or Monday. I'll report back on everything I find. In the mean time...please feel free to continue to add to or have me try any thing else.

Sounds like your on the right road. Also, could you have the driveshaft balanced?

same prob
 

Hey Georgia: I too have a similar problem... I went for a test drive at the dealership 3 2010 Expy MAX's and they ALL had vibrations... The mechanics were not able to figure it out and told me I should be happy that my vibes weren't as bad as some of the vibes on the brand new 2010's!!!

I'm going to show them this thread and see if they can fix this annoyance once and for all!!!

PS - did you get the vibes out finally?

Well I thought I had mine fixed. It is much better, but I still get a up and down vibration in the steering wheel at these speeds 77-85 or so. Must be the way the truck in engineered-crapily. Can't be so many-even brand new-to be a fluke.

I agree... it seems so odd that its only in the EL version... I have a 2004 Expy Eddie Bauer and it rides like a dream...so much so that I decided to jump up to the MAX (or EL) for the ever growing family!

I showed the shop foreman your post on what could be the problem and they are going to try and re-shim the driveshaft to see if it gets better... Problem is that my vibe is at ALL speeds and gets worse when the speedo goes past 70mph!

I wonder how they plan on selling brand new trucks that vibrate...maybe they will say its for 'therapeutic' sessions!

Does the steering wheel vibrate at all during this?

No steering wheel vibe at all... when I first bought it there was some, but I re-set the calipers by driving backwards with the brake on for 20 feet and that fixed the steering wheel shake... every possibility was covered except for re-shimming the drive shaft... the guru mechanics are having a big meeting at the dealership to try and fix the problem, especially on the new ones!!!

Ah, might be a different problem then I have.