Vibration at speed?

[DeerHunter]

I have a problem with a 93 4X4 X that maybe someone here can help me with. I am getting a vibration at anything over 63 to 64 miles per hour. It feels like a wheel out of balance, but I took it in today and had all of the wheels balanced and rotated and nothing changed. At 63 or under it rides perfectly smooth but over that is starts to vibrate. I feel it in the steering wheel the most but like an unbalanced wheel it will actually shake the whole X. It has brand new shocks and radius arm bushings in the front and the guy I bought it from says he just had new bearings put in the front.
Seems like if it was a bent wheel or axle it would do it all of the time, and it isn't high pitched enough to be a U-joint. I'm at a loss.
Anybody else had this problem?
DeerHunter

 

[thewishkah]

now im not sure if this will help anything but ill give it a shot
1)wheel bearings grease or replace
2)wheel is bent or out of round
3)axle vibration have them checked dont know to much about them
4)maybe bad or low differential fluid

now i dont know how helpful any of this might be but those are just some thing i could think of good luck post back on what it was when u find out so i know for feautre refference

 

[Albino 94LTD]

Many have the same problem, few if any have found anything to fix it.

Start with the search function, read ALL of the associated threads, then choose which course of action you can afford to take.

I have probably spent over $1,500 looking for the cure. I'm close, but I haven't solved it either.

Here is some info I have found. I forget who said it, but if you search, you will see it sooner or later.

"Do a search for this. I have a 91 with the same vibration. This was a design flaw with the frame and the harmonic vibrations of the other components. In 91 to 94 ford actually offered new engine mounts designed by Porche to replace the vibration. Some people reported it worked some didn't. The other problem was the 8.8" rear end that was used. It vibrated in the same frequency as the front of the truck causing vibration. That problem was taken care of by hanging a counter weight on the right lower side of the housing and on the 95+ models putting a 5th shock that is attached on the axle to the right hand frame rail. All 95+ explorers have this fix up until the new body style of 02. I, as you are some of the unlucky persons that own an explorer that has this vibration that will not go away until we get rid of the vehicle.



I am just getting prepared to make a lot of noise regarding this problem. A lot of Explorer owners are spending a lot of money to cover over an engineering defect. In 1996 Ford issued a sercive Bulletin 95-21-8 describing the problem we are all experiencing. The fix involves replacement of all engine mounts with new design and a rear axle to frame lateral shock absorber kit. I took mine to the dealer along with a copy of this bulletin and they said it was expensive and they wouldn't repair it under any warranty. I understand there is a hidden warranty and I think if enough noise is made to the right people we can at the very least get this repaired. It seems very interesting that the Firestone tires lose their tread at the same speeds we experience the shake. I replaced tires and installed IAS shocks and still shakes. I had all front end inspected and all brakes done. The balance was done on the latest equipment which loads the tire to account for any manufacturing fluctuations. Still shakes. Anybody want to join in a letter writing campaign?"

 

[DeerHunter]

I have owned two other explorers, a 91 and a 94. Bought both of those new and put over 300K miles on both of them and they never gave me a problem. They were both 2 wheel drive though. I bought this one just to drive back and forth when I go hunting and this vibration has me puzzled to say the least.
DeerHunter

 

[Rhett]

I have a problem with a 93 4X4 X that maybe someone here can help me with. I am getting a vibration at anything over 63 to 64 miles per hour. Anybody else had this problem?
DeerHunter

This vibe at 63-67 mph is VERY VERY common on 91-94 Explorers. If you have never experienced it with your other trucks then you were lucky.

I fixed it in my truck by replacing the radius arm bushings. I advise you to do that. Do a search here for "vibration" and 65 mph vibration and you should get a huge amount of information.

Check all the typical things, like driveshaft play, wheel play, etc. If your truck's radius arm bushings have more than 80,000 miles on them, they are probably due for replacement. Stock ones are rubber and will wear out.

 

[axionplaya]

Almost sure of some sort of tire or axle problem

Roy
________________________
1996 Ford Explorer XLT
4WD
4.0L SOHC V6
K&N Filter
Flowmaster

 

[Rhett]

radius arm bushings is first choice.
u-joint second.
tire third.
bearings fourth.

 

[Jason94sport]

I had a 94 Sport that did it. My current 94 XLT does it. I have driven other & they do it. It's normal for the 91-94 4WD X's. You can try many things that may or may not work, or you can live with it. I'm living with it. Afterall, I didn't buy an 11 year old used X for it's ride quailty.

 

[DeerHunter]

The front shocks and radius arm bushing are new, I put them in less than two weeks ago. I just had the tires rebalanced yesterday. The front bearings were replaced less than 6 months ago.
I really didn't buy it for ride quality either, I bought it to drive back and forth to the deer lease and it is 250 miles each way. With this kind of vibration it will shake its self apart in a few trips.
I'll check the wheels, axles and u-joints this weekend.
DeerHunter

 

[thewishkah]

you know i never noticed said vibration but im going to see if i get it at those speeds not is it while acceling slowly? or at normal accel speeds

 

[DeerHunter]

It really doesn't matter how you get there, either slowly climbing to speed or under full accelletation. Once it passes 64 or 65 it starts and it sure feels like a wheel or bearing problem. I guess it could be a ball joint problem too. I didn't get to mess with it this weekend so maybe I will get it figured out before to long.
DeerHunter

 

[Albino 94LTD]

My latest, successful attempt

After replacing many things, including wheels that had curb rash, I decided to try replacing the tranny mount.

$42 from Ford, BUT I did a little modification before I installed it.

I had some parts left over from a poly bushing kit, so in an attempt to make the mount firmer, I shoved a couple of pieces of bushing in the mount. I also took the dampener off the transfer case. Now the vibration is barely noticable and almost acceptable.

You might want to try this next before you spend a lot of money on things like;
Poly bushings all around
New rear wheel bearings
New front wheel bearings
New Brake drums
New rotors
New rims to replace the ones with curb rash
New steering linkage (everything!)
New tires
Several alignments

Let's see, what else did I replace?

I haven't replaced;
Ball joints
Motor mounts
U joints

 

[Rhett]

It really doesn't matter how you get there, either slowly climbing to speed or under full accelletation. Once it passes 64 or 65 it starts and it sure feels like a wheel or bearing problem. I guess it could be a ball joint problem too. I didn't get to mess with it this weekend so maybe I will get it figured out before to long.
DeerHunter

Does it vibrate once you get past 65-67 mph? If you go 73 mph, does it smooth out?

 

[DeerHunter]

I haven't had it over 75 but it is still there at 75. It doesn't get any worse once it starts but it doesn't get any better at least up to 75.
DeerHunter

 

[Rhett]

The front shocks and radius arm bushing are new, I put them in less than two weeks ago. I just had the tires rebalanced yesterday. The front bearings were replaced less than 6 months ago.

I'll check the wheels, axles and u-joints this weekend.
DeerHunter

If a wheel is out-of-round, I personally don't know of any good way to tell. Sometimes they can look fine when rotated, but still be out-of-round. Can you borrow someone's wheels already mounted? Put them on your truck and see how it goes.

How are your tires?

What I would do next is grease the slip yoke and replace the u-joints on the rear driveshaft. This is a pretty easy job.

The ball joints aren't easy (In my opinion) but that's also a possible cause.

If you still get the shakes, take a long look at Albino 94LTD's post about the transmission mount. I have never had a tranny mount cause a 67 mph vibration in all my TTB trucks, but it's worth a try. A user here, 410Fortune has a nice post about an aftermarket tranny mount.

 

[DeerHunter]

The lower ball joint on the passengers side is bad. I bought the new one today to replace it with. The auto locking hubs are probably not the cause of the problem but are also questionable so I bought the kit for conversion to manual hubs today also along with new u-joints. If all of these fixes don't help my next step is to swap one tire at a time with the spare and see if one of the tires or wheels is out of round or bent. The tires have about 85% of the rubber left on them so they aren't that old. The search continues.
DeerHunter

 

[Overkil]

I ahve the same problem - I was told by Discount Tire that the tires are "cupped" and that replacing the tires should solve the problem. Tires all balanaced fine. My vibrations start at around 65mph and are gone at about 72mph. I can cruise all day long at 75-80mph with no vibration. Just sucks because any in town freeway driving is usually between 65-70mph. Oh well.....

 

[Albino 94LTD]

If you still get the shakes, take a long look at Albino 94LTD's post about the transmission mount. I have never had a tranny mount cause a 67 mph vibration in all my TTB trucks, but it's worth a try. A user here, 410Fortune has a nice post about an aftermarket tranny mount.

Thanks Rhett. The tranny mount won't cause the vibration. It is caused by the drive train setting up a harmonic vibration in the frame. All of the Ford fixes, Porsche dampener disc's, 5th shock absorber from the diff to the frame, have had mixed results. I have copies of two Ford Service Bullitins at home addressing this issue. One recommends replacement of the tranny mount as well as the motor mounts. This was an expensive attempt and it too, had mixed results.

I found that the vibration felt like it was coming from the center of the truck and was speed related, not RPM related, so it's source has to be after the tranny output shaft. I confirmed this when I bought new tires and went from stock size with the vibration starting at 62mph/GPS to my new 31's. The vibration still started at 62 indicated, but GPS said I was really going 68mph.

I also found that it didn't change when going around a long sweeping curve, where the outside tires would travel a longer distance. If it were the tires, the vibration would have intensified and subsided as the tires rotated at different speeds.

I have my tires balanced every 5k as well as rotated and that made no difference either.

The most improvement has been with the tranny mount. The Poly pieces have a dampening affect (Poly has been used in several mountain bicycle fork components for their dampening qualities. The Poly is injected with nitrogen bubbles of various sizes to provide different spring rates).

I did the tire rotation thing, I even bought 2 new rims ($186ea) thinking the curb rash they had was somehow a cause,,,,, no on both.

The tranny mount is easy to do, I recommend you put it near the top of your list of things to try!

 

[thewishkah]

tried this today and i didnt notice any vibration that isnt there at 25 or 30 mph but then again my truck always is being worked on and i might just not notice it cause i assume its normal and cant decipher it lol

 

[spindlecone]

Find a shop with the equipment to force balance your tires, worked for me