2002 mountaineer awd vibration

[Lulachalupa]

My steering wheel has started vibrating, but only when making slow turns on gravelly surface. It does it a little in pavement. To start from the beginning......twice in the last month when I was leaving the parking lot at work and braking to stop before turning into the street it felt as though my truck was "skipping". I've also also had a low hum, like oversized tires, which I do not have. This past Friday while on my way home I started smelling something horrible, all my gauges were fine. I pulled over and the front driver side wheel well was covered in gear oil. Ended up replacing the gasket for the front axle and replacing the gear oil with fully synthetic. That's when the bad vibrating began. When pulling out and turning in the circle drive it felt as though the steering wheel was going to vibrate right out of my hands. Got out on the highway and it was fine going straight, coming back in the drive, turning the wheel in the other direction the vibrating was back. Also we changed the ball joint on the driver side and will change the other this weekend. Replaced all 4 tires with 245/70R16, it had 235/70R16 on it but was 2 different brands, tread and wear. Still vibrates but not as bad.

 

[Lulachalupa]

Any ideas at all in this vibrating

 

[esclamada]

lots of things to check;

your front diff might be toast due to the leak
the rack and pinion might be having problems, is there a whine sound when you turn the steering?
transfer case might be bad on the front axle side, try disconnecting the front axle shaft from the transfer case and see if the binding goes away.

not ideal to replace your tires with different brands, it will damage your transfer case over time. they should be the same (same pattern and thickness) if it's an AWD.



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[Lulachalupa]

Yea I found out about the tires the hard way I guess. 1st AWD I've had. It only had 2 different brands since February. All for are brand new, same brand as of yesterday. The vibrating has pretty much stopped. Now it just has a full hum, maybe that's just because it's awd? Anyways the OD light is flashing and since the tranny is still under warranty it's going back to shop tomorrow.

 

[Lulachalupa]

Yea I found out about the tires the hard way I guess. 1st AWD I've had. It only had 2 different brands since February. All four are brand new, same brand as of yesterday. The vibrating has pretty much stopped. Now it just has a dull hum, maybe that's just because it's awd? Anyways the OD light is flashing and since the tranny is still under warranty it's going back to shop tomorrow.