2004 front end vibration!!!.. please read...

[hwoolfolk]

I know this topic has been beaten to death.. I have read post after post. Here is what I have done... anyone have any ideas? Im supposed to drive to Montreal on Friday Morn.

Symptoms: At 60 mph plus there is a noticable and annoying hum/vibration in the front end. I thought it was a bearing or half shaft for sure.

Replaced:

All 4 wheel bearings
Front drive shaft
U-joint in rear axle
Drivers side front CV shaft (half shaft)
4 brand new tires
New TC fluid (eh.. it was worth a shot)

I am thinking of maybe an allignment.. it doesnt pull or do anything...l am grasping!!

Thanks!!

 

[jakedrew]

I am sorta in the same boat as you and replaced a few different parts.

Now I have a humming noise and it isnt the tires..

So I will be watching your post also.!

 

[jrford]

Front Pinion bearing? Does the noise change when in 4wd when the front diff is under loads, pitch change in coast vs acceleration?

I couldn't do this myself but with my old heep had a bad vibration at 70mph and they way they figured it out was by putting it on a hoist and tried to duplicate it, little scary but they ran it up to 70mph while in the air. Vib/noise was still there so they removed the drive-line components one by one till it was gone, but in this case only when they removed the xfr case did it disappear. . .

 

[hwoolfolk]

took the car to my local guru's... the kind of mechanics that really know their stuff.. problem is.. they stop working when they have made a days pay and then start working on the race cars.

We took the car to the Hi-way... ran it up to 60 then to 70 ... 75. Sure enough the vibration was there. The guy looked at me and said "this sucks! right at hi-way cruising speed". Vibration doesnt change with a turn either way.. or if you take the car out of gear. We got back to the shop and he got under it. He said the play from the TC to the front drive shaft was too much.. suspects a chain in the TC jumped or is stretched or something. Anyway, he has a TC which we are going to swap out to see if the vibration goes away.

I think, and he concurred, that the problem was caused when I had 2 new tires put on the front end. You know these automatic 4X4 engaging trucks... if all 4 wheels are not the same then you have some grabbing and others not. We suspect that that caused the chain in the TC to go foul.

Make sense?

 

[jrford]

Make sense?

yep, perfect sense. . .thats what happen (jeep select-trac) to mine but it was 110k on the clock. xfr case bearings where shot. Rebuilt better than new.

If you had two different sized tires f/r, the xfr case will engage thinking the tires are slipping, but when it does, its in a full lock thus no give but something has to . .ford's method is turn it off briefly to allow them to spin at different rates. With the AWD they add a center differential to do the job. . .

 

[hwoolfolk]

exactly.. the car thought a wheel was slipping so it locked them up causing it to jump. I noticed it right away and a day or 2 took it back for 2 MORE tires! Now the dang thing is out of wack and at the high speed it isnt perfect.. causing a vibration. Sucks.

There should be a sticky (if there isnt one already) about the fact that all 4 tires need to be VERY similar in their diameter or else the drivetrain will engauge.

I will have this swap done next week... will post my results.

 

[rhouli]

worst problem ever

i've had my truck at the dealer three times in two months - spent over $6,000 and it's still not fixed

replaced cv joints, spindles, xfr case

they said they put it on a vibration analyzer and replaced 4 good continental tires with only 25k on them and that didn't work

then they said it was the drive shaft

still not fixed

i told them it was the bearings which notoriously go bad on AWD - they say they're fine

am I the biggest idiot in the world are are they criminals?

 

[Ronin8002]

exactly.. the car thought a wheel was slipping so it locked them up causing it to jump. I noticed it right away and a day or 2 took it back for 2 MORE tires! Now the dang thing is out of wack and at the high speed it isnt perfect.. causing a vibration. Sucks.

There should be a sticky (if there isnt one already) about the fact that all 4 tires need to be VERY similar in their diameter or else the drivetrain will engauge.

I will have this swap done next week... will post my results.

Have you tried pulling the #17 and #18 fuses (which disables the auto 4x4) to see if the problem goes away? Doesn't narrow things down too much but maybe it is related to the 4x4 module or a speed sensor.

 

[RickM]

Sounds like the same symptoms as when the rack has air in it. Any other noise with steering? Perhaps a PS flush and bleed?