FX4life

After a wheel rebalance and rotation something appears to have broken loose and is causing a slight but prevalent vibration and roughness when driving. I have chased it through most of the usual suspects... Tires rebalanced then road force balanced, IWE's, u-joints, and the far possibility of the TQ. It is worst in the mornings when cold and had a rough feel up through 30mph then the shake starts and it is still noticeable but smoother from 55-70, over 75 it is going again just like at 30mph. It's not a terrible vibration by any means, but noticeable and annoying as this truck was smooth as glass 1000 miles ago. I noticed tonight while picking through the rear axle it has the 'card in the spokes' hum commonly associated with wheel bearing issues. But I do not notice any odd noises when driving, just a slight uptick in road noise that I may have falsely attributed to the tires being on the downhill side toward replacement. Driveshaft goes for professional inspection Monday and I may take it Tuesday to see if the dealer or independent mechanic can check the bearing as I am strapped for time. It just seems odd to have something beak loose at 75k with no other issues leading up to this and after a rebalance/rotation we get a failure... Any ideas or similar experiences? I'll get the axle noise video uploaded here shortly..

http://s335.photobucket.com/user/05_...m6gvb.mp4.html

Daniejw

The video sounds like the IWE, but they're not really know for causing vibration issues.
A wheel bearing could makes similar sounds as well, and may cause vibrations.
Put that wheel up in the air again, and shake it side to side to see if there's play in the bearings.

Hammer65

The vibration is a real problem, that Ford has not fixed. They reolaced the driveshaft in mine and it still vibrates at cruising speed. Vibrates worse in the A.M. after sitting, but it is the tires. After they warm up good the vibration is far less.
Search on this site and you will see a lot of complaints about vibration.

FX4life

Not IWE's, forgot to mention the video is the drivers side rear axle. I have poured through the front end components and the rear suspension.. Everything checks out. With a second set of eyes and ears today we worked from the trans back and believe we have ruled out everything down to the rear axle components (bearings) or tires. We think we ruled out the driveshaft as it has zero play but I have a second driveshaft from my 05 we may pop in and try. Also going to swap wheels with another factory F150 to see if it is the tires, odd though since they came out of a road force balance nearly spot on. I'm pulling the pumpkin cover tonight and doing a quick inspection of the axle internals since a sample of the fluid came out dark gray with a fair amount of fine particles in it. The truck was smooth as glass prior to the tire rotation and rebalance about 1000 miles ago. I intend to restore that condition as I know it's not normal for this truck that has been vibration free for 75k. If the toyo at2's did have a failure that would be a first I have heard of for that tire and I have been a loyal toyo customer for some years from the MT line down to the AT2. Vibration is speed specific, 25-40 and then about 75 if I drive normally. If I baby it the vibration is just about non-existent until over 60. The roughness and vibration are both cyclical and seem to have to reach a certain harmonic before it gets going real good. We swapped rear tires to the front and front to rear and the vibration improved slightly, inconclusive on how it helped though as no feedback started coming through the front end.