Shakes at 55-65 mph

[Ftuttle]

Just started this week: Truck gets up to speed fine - smooth as ever - hit 55 mph, hand on wheel shakes, foot on accelerator shakes, seat shakes. At times, the rearview mirror shakes so bad the cars in it are blurred . No shake after 65 mph (up to 80 mph).



34K miles currently on the truck. Do 50-70 miles a day, 3/4 of it on highway at speed. No regular pulling of trailers (once every couple of months, none recently).



Ideas? Should I check (ok, have checked... ) the u-joints, ball joints, something else? Worth taking to the dealer for warranty?



Any help or ideas appreciated.



-frank

 

[scootergmc]

I suggest the search function. Lots o' threads on this one. Try keywords: wobble, vibration, etc.

 

[WStoops]

Just started this week: Truck gets up to speed fine - smooth as ever - hit 55 mph, hand on wheel shakes, foot on accelerator shakes, seat shakes. At times, the rearview mirror shakes so bad the cars in it are blurred . No shake after 65 mph (up to 80 mph).



34K miles currently on the truck. Do 50-70 miles a day, 3/4 of it on highway at speed. No regular pulling of trailers (once every couple of months, none recently).



Ideas? Should I check (ok, have checked... ) the u-joints, ball joints, something else? Worth taking to the dealer for warranty?



Any help or ideas appreciated.



-frank

You could have picked up some mud inside a wheel, thrown a wheel weight also a possibility. Most problems have a simple solution. I'd try a real tire place and have them check balance. A dry u-joint is a possibilty although it should not go away as speed increases. Good luck. There are some good brains on this site. Before long you will have a list of possibilities as long as your arm. 100 brains are better than 1.

 

[Ftuttle]

scootergmc - yep - been there & searched that - haven't seen any hits on the specifics of speed etc, hence my post - but I'll keep searching. Lots of people have the vibration on their trucks early on, w/ the dreaded "death wobble" - lots of hits on that.



wstoops - hadn't thought of wheel weights - I'll stop by a tire place tomorrow and get them to take a look.



thanks -



frank

 

[Matt400]

Hey Frank,

55-65 is the speed that tire balance is felt the most, I would start with a rebalance while checking inside the wheel for mud/dirt and also while rebalancing they should check the tire runout to make sure they are no more than . 050" out of round.

 

[opjohnny]

My chrome clad/steel wheels hold water in between the chrome and the steel part. If it's cold and you had a big old chunk of ice there it would cause the vibe. The alloys don't appear to have this problem. If you washed the truck in the drive and it got cold and stayed that way I could see it happening. I can drive several miles and the water is still back there. I soak it up with a small sponge.

 

[Ftuttle]

u-joint

Looks like I've got bad u-joints (do ANY of the '03's not have this problem?) - I had the tires balanced - one was very bad, but the vibrations have continued to get worse - now under power I have vibrations at most speeds. Time to call the dealer... .



thanks for the help



-frank

 

[Ftuttle]

Update

Dealer diagnosed 1 bad u-joint (the one to the rear on the rear drive shaft). Of course, they didn't have it in stock, so they are keeping my truck another day.



On the phone they told me the ball joints "are within specs" and "they have a bunch of print-outs" for me when I pick up the truck.



Truck has 34,500 miles on it.



Thanks for the advice.



-frank