Noise and Vibration

[fordborn]

I have a 98 Explorer sport with 4.0, auto and AWD. Lately I have started getting a lot of vibration or shake when driving at speeds of 60-70mph. It feels like the tires are out of balance but have had them not only checked but replaced. There are times this is real bad and other times it seems almost smooth. Also at slow speeds I can feel a vibration then not then a vibration again at equal and steady intervals. When I drive at speeds around 20 and listen real close I can often hear noises like clanking, clicking and ticking that all seem to come from the passenger side front. I have checked and cannot seem to find anything loose under the front end anywhere. Thanks

 

[Rottie]

Bad CV shaft??? Check for torn boots and/or looseness in the front driveshafts. If the grease gets slung out of the joints on the shaft they will quickly fail and start to get loose, causing noise and vibration. Even if the boots are intact you could still have a bad joint in the shaft.

 

[fordborn]

I wondered about that. I had checked and the boots looked good and I didn't really notice a looseness in the shafts but then again I couldn't get a good grip on them. Will look those over again. Thanks

 

[Rottie]

You might not notice a looseness until you remove one side from the spindle. Being crammed in there attached on both ends might make it still feel tight even if the joint has some wear in it. I had a ZR2 with CV's up front and one of them felt fine until I removed it from one side. It was just making a clicking/clunking sound (especially on turns), but I guess they could also do what yours is doing. PITA to check, but it might be worth a try.

 

[fordborn]

Well changed the ball joints and it made no difference at all. Checked the CV joints and they felt tight, the boots were in good shape and secured. Still not sure what might be causing this. It starts at about 65mph and continues as long as you are over 65. I tried it with the transmission in OD and in direct and there was still no difference. So it seems to be a speed thing and not a RPM.

On another note, while I was under the truck I looked at the tags on the torsion bars. One ended in a B and the other was a D. Different colored tags too. Not sure if that makes any difference but thought I'd ask.

 

[takem2war]

well i really dont know much about explorers but my '99 XLT did the same thing and sometimes it got so bad that i had to almost come to a stop before being able to drive again because of the vibrations.
it ended up being the wheel bearings.
i think to check them you can jack up the car so the tire is off the ground and if you can wiggle the tire back and forth then that is a sign of it.

just a suggestion, could be wrong though.