Vibration at 60-73mph. Stumped! What could it be???

[BTR]

2000 Explorer XLT 4-Door 4.0 SOHC 2WD 146,000 miles.

New tires were put on 2 months ago; they have less than 1,000 miles on them; they're General Grabber HTS. The previous tires were Michelin LTX M/S2 XL.

Ever since the new tires were put on, I've had tremendous vibration between 60-73mph. The vibration comes through the seat, not the steering wheel. I've had the tires balanced 3 times. The balancing machines are dynamic balancers, not road-force balancers. The vibration still occurs.

Alignment is good. Suspension parts are in good shape... front shocks, control arms, ball joints, sway bar links all replaced a few years ago. The truck is not driven off road; all miles are highway or in-town driving.

I"m at a loss as to what is causing the vibration. Do you have any ideas? Recommendations? Please advise. Thanks for your help!

 

[94Eddie]

I had a stubborn balancing problem with my Mountaineer. I ended up having them road force balanced and then torqued the lug nuts myself when I got home. It rides very smooth now. It seems that the road force balance information indicated one of my tires was more out of balance than the other three. By spinning it on the rim they were able to get it to zero out. Another interesting thing was I would have swore the problem was with one of the front tires. It turned out that the driver's side rear was to culprit. Also, I guess the issue could be the rim or a combination of the tire and rim. One last thing, my vibration would start around 65mph and get worse until close to 80mph. Under 65mph and it was smooth.

 

[RickOTR]

Michelin to Genral tires? I think your Explorer is rebelling. I've always had Michelin Tires on my vehicles and will never put anything else on them but Michelins. Make them rebalance the tires again. Sometimes you get a tech who is not as good at balancing tires as another tech.

 

[EB4X]

Those are good tires.... I'm on my second set of them on my Jeep SUV.... ride like a dream.... as Rick stated maybe tire tech didn't do a good job balancing them or a weight popped off? .... or of course there's always a chance one tire is a dud and some flaw happened during manufacturing process.

 

[jwrezz]

5th shock?

believe me, i try to search the forum for the info i am looking for, sometimes i just cant find it... i did read that there was a 5th shock on the explorers? was this only for certain years? I cant say i saw one under my truck... what years? where is it located? thanks!

www.explorerforum.com

 

[jwrezz]

Although, I think the 2000 models didn't have them.

 

[toypaseo]

I would have them road forced balanced as @94Eddie mentioned. I had a balance issue with some slightly used tires from Discount Tire on eBay. They told me to find the closest place that uses a Hunter GSP9700, which there used to be a website for that. Went to a local place, had it done, vibration gone. It has been a while, so I would guess there are newer and better Hunter machines by now...

 

[Terry Long Sr.]

2000 Explorer XLT 4-Door 4.0 SOHC 2WD 146,000 miles.

New tires were put on 2 months ago; they have less than 1,000 miles on them; they're General Grabber HTS. The previous tires were Michelin LTX M/S2 XL.

Ever since the new tires were put on, I've had tremendous vibration between 60-73mph. The vibration comes through the seat, not the steering wheel. I've had the tires balanced 3 times. The balancing machines are dynamic balancers, not road-force balancers. The vibration still occurs.

Alignment is good. Suspension parts are in good shape... front shocks, control arms, ball joints, sway bar links all replaced a few years ago. The truck is not driven off road; all miles are highway or in-town driving.

I"m at a loss as to what is causing the vibration. Do you have any ideas? Recommendations? Please advise. Thanks for your help!

Universal joints are likely going bad, my 96 4 wheel drive was slowly developing a vibration, I had the entire front end rebuilt which was needed but the vibration got worse, checked the u-joints and they were completely shot, so if you haven't had them checked I would recommend doing so, my explorer now has no vibration at all!

 

[CheryliVA]

2000 Explorer XLT 4-Door 4.0 SOHC 2WD 146,000 miles.

New tires were put on 2 months ago; they have less than 1,000 miles on them; they're General Grabber HTS. The previous tires were Michelin LTX M/S2 XL.

Ever since the new tires were put on, I've had tremendous vibration between 60-73mph. The vibration comes through the seat, not the steering wheel. I've had the tires balanced 3 times. The balancing machines are dynamic balancers, not road-force balancers. The vibration still occurs.

Alignment is good. Suspension parts are in good shape... front shocks, control arms, ball joints, sway bar links all replaced a few years ago. The truck is not driven off road; all miles are highway or in-town driving.

I"m at a loss as to what is causing the vibration. Do you have any ideas? Recommendations? Please advise. Thanks for your help!

The new tires may not have been balanced correctly.

 

[fireftr]

Michelin to Genral tires? I think your Explorer is rebelling. I've always had Michelin Tires on my vehicles and will never put anything else on them but Michelins. Make them rebalance the tires again. Sometimes you get a tech who is not as good at balancing tires as another tech.