2007 driveline vibration
08-20-2014, 01:53 PM
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2007 driveline vibration
First time post but long time lurker. This forum has helped me out a lot over the years but I need some help with this one. A little background information...
The truck is a 2007 XLT with a 5.4 and 4 speed auto. It’s an Screw w/ the 6.5’ bed. Silver in color. Really fun to look at and in pretty good shape overall.
I purchased the car from a mom and pop chain in Northern MI about a month ago at just over 96k miles. All was well until the next morning when the bottom anchor bolt worked its way out of the front driver side caliper. The next time I applied the brakes the caliper cammed up into the wheel and locked the front end up. My girlfriend and I were going about 30-35 MPH when this happened and it was quite jarring. We weren’t immediately sure what had happened but were able to diagnose it without doing much, if any more damage, and limp the car home via engine braking and the parking brake as we rolled up to stops.
Regarding damage, the caliper was a bit worn and the rim was fairly scored. The dealer, in an act of extreme professionalism, told me to get bent when I asked if they would help me out with the diagnosis and any repairs (this was less than 24 hours and 100 miles off the lot). They did have the courtesy to put a bolt back into the caliper after I paid to have it towed to their shop but wasn’t able to get anything other than a visual inspection and bolt out of them. Awesome people to deal with.
While the above is fairly long winded, the meat of my problem is as follows. In the weeks since, I’ve been fighting a slew of problems which I have a feeling are the result of said incident. The first of which was a severe shake between 40 and 50 MPH. The second was an intermittent mechanical feedback from what I suspected was the front end. I could feel this in the driving behavior as well as from the feedback in the pedal. The last was issue was the 4wd trying to actuate at random times which I believe ties into the second issue. This seemed to happen to only the driver side hub but I can’t say this with absolute certainly. It sure sounded like it though.
From what I was reading online, I was able to discern that the rear parking brakes have a tendency to catch on the hub ID of the rear rotors. I inspected mine and they were shot. I pulled them out and the problem cleared up a little bit.
I soon noticed that the CV shaft on the front drivers side had failed. Grease was all over the wheel well so I replaced the CV axle. This helped clear up some of the wobble and feedback as well.
The 4WD issue really started acting up after the above two items were fixed. I ran a vacuum gauge through the system and ended up replacing the check valves and solenoid – everything else seemed to be ok. This was Monday and so far the 4wd hasn’t tried to actuate on me. The truck drives MUCH better and has me thinking that I may have been driving around with one hub engaged for the past couple of weeks.
The only thing that remains is that shake between 40 and 50 MPH. It’s not always present but when it does show up I can throttle through it. Braking seems to cause the same shake effect but only intermittently. I’ve checked the drive shafts for worn/loose joints and those check out. I’ve tried to have the tires balanced but they are so worn no one will do the work for me (I know I need to get these changed but I’m fighting different battles right now). The rear rim is deformed a bit from the caliper scoring it but I don’t think it’s enough to cause this shake from any rotating imbalance. I did notice an excess of brake dust on the front driver’s wheel. Did I mess up the brakes/rotor somehow during all of this? Could they be warped? What about the hub and actuators inside the knuckles? Did I smoke something in there which is causing this? How would you check this (just visual inspection for any glaring wear)? This sure is a long string of questions…
Has anyone else encountered this? Based on the information above, where would you suggest checking for the culprit of this? It’s driving me nuts!
Thanks
The truck is a 2007 XLT with a 5.4 and 4 speed auto. It’s an Screw w/ the 6.5’ bed. Silver in color. Really fun to look at and in pretty good shape overall.
I purchased the car from a mom and pop chain in Northern MI about a month ago at just over 96k miles. All was well until the next morning when the bottom anchor bolt worked its way out of the front driver side caliper. The next time I applied the brakes the caliper cammed up into the wheel and locked the front end up. My girlfriend and I were going about 30-35 MPH when this happened and it was quite jarring. We weren’t immediately sure what had happened but were able to diagnose it without doing much, if any more damage, and limp the car home via engine braking and the parking brake as we rolled up to stops.
Regarding damage, the caliper was a bit worn and the rim was fairly scored. The dealer, in an act of extreme professionalism, told me to get bent when I asked if they would help me out with the diagnosis and any repairs (this was less than 24 hours and 100 miles off the lot). They did have the courtesy to put a bolt back into the caliper after I paid to have it towed to their shop but wasn’t able to get anything other than a visual inspection and bolt out of them. Awesome people to deal with.
While the above is fairly long winded, the meat of my problem is as follows. In the weeks since, I’ve been fighting a slew of problems which I have a feeling are the result of said incident. The first of which was a severe shake between 40 and 50 MPH. The second was an intermittent mechanical feedback from what I suspected was the front end. I could feel this in the driving behavior as well as from the feedback in the pedal. The last was issue was the 4wd trying to actuate at random times which I believe ties into the second issue. This seemed to happen to only the driver side hub but I can’t say this with absolute certainly. It sure sounded like it though.
From what I was reading online, I was able to discern that the rear parking brakes have a tendency to catch on the hub ID of the rear rotors. I inspected mine and they were shot. I pulled them out and the problem cleared up a little bit.
I soon noticed that the CV shaft on the front drivers side had failed. Grease was all over the wheel well so I replaced the CV axle. This helped clear up some of the wobble and feedback as well.
The 4WD issue really started acting up after the above two items were fixed. I ran a vacuum gauge through the system and ended up replacing the check valves and solenoid – everything else seemed to be ok. This was Monday and so far the 4wd hasn’t tried to actuate on me. The truck drives MUCH better and has me thinking that I may have been driving around with one hub engaged for the past couple of weeks.
The only thing that remains is that shake between 40 and 50 MPH. It’s not always present but when it does show up I can throttle through it. Braking seems to cause the same shake effect but only intermittently. I’ve checked the drive shafts for worn/loose joints and those check out. I’ve tried to have the tires balanced but they are so worn no one will do the work for me (I know I need to get these changed but I’m fighting different battles right now). The rear rim is deformed a bit from the caliper scoring it but I don’t think it’s enough to cause this shake from any rotating imbalance. I did notice an excess of brake dust on the front driver’s wheel. Did I mess up the brakes/rotor somehow during all of this? Could they be warped? What about the hub and actuators inside the knuckles? Did I smoke something in there which is causing this? How would you check this (just visual inspection for any glaring wear)? This sure is a long string of questions…
Has anyone else encountered this? Based on the information above, where would you suggest checking for the culprit of this? It’s driving me nuts!
Thanks
Last edited by JonLancewood; 08-20-2014 at 04:47 PM.
08-20-2014, 03:06 PM
#2
Mark
iTrader: (1)
new rubber may solve the remaiming problem...if it were your rotors ..you would feel it when you applied your brakes and in your steering wheel...unless you have a caliper stuck aginst your brake pad.. a shake at a certian speed tells me it's more than likely the bald tires or balance issue.. I would start there...hope you got a killer deal from those jackasses you bought it from..
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techrep (08-22-2014)
08-22-2014, 11:10 AM
#4
I thought my u-joints were good too until I just got fed up with the vibration problem and drove the truck to a driveline shop. They pulled the joints out of the shaft and saw that two of the pins had fallen over, making it not spin freely at high speeds, and the shaft wasn't balanced. They gave me new pins (didn't need new joints, just pins) and re-balanced the shaft for less than $100. Problem cured.