vibes at 70

[SandyHelton]

I have had my truck for a few months now and drive it primarily to work and back at about 70MPH. I did not experience any form of vibration during this period that I had not attributed to road condition. But lately, I have dropped my speed - in a valiant attempt to see if that would improve my poor mileage (don't mean to start another discussion) and now I am starting to feel the vibes. At 60 MPH they are even stronger. Like I said before, at first I thought that this was road condition and I have not been on a known good stretch where I could vary my speed and check it out for sure.

 

[Briman]

My '03 with the vibe was a 6 speed long bed quad cab. Removing the front drive shaft made it go away. Unfortunatly, that was not the fix I was looking for. It could have been front pumpking carrier bearings, front pumpkin input shaft, or a transfer case problem. I have heard of all three of these things being the problem. My dealer shimmed the driveline, balanced and replaced driveshafts, installed adjustable ball joints, and a couple of other failed attempts to fix the vibe. They did not try the first three things I mentioned though. My new truck came in before they got to that.

 

[mtnranger]

My vibrating 04.5 3500 DRW vibrates NO MORE

I posted resently that my 3500, DRW, 6sp vibrated at 65+. Dealers 1st attempt failed, they said they looked at everything that Dodge told them to try and could only find unbalanced tires. They said that fixed most of it and that anything left was inherant with diesels :-{} . I said that wasn't good enough #@$%! , I rescheduled and this time for some reason the mechanic pulled the front drive shaft (which was what I told them to do after reading you folks post) and guess what :-laf , vibration gone. They pulled one off of a another new truck and vibration came back but not as bad. They ordered another new one, put it on and now vibs are gone after 3 trips to dealer. After that 1st trip and them saying it vibs cause it is a diesel I blew up emailed Dodge Oo. at their web site, talk about imediate response, I had the district rep. , my dealerships customer relation all wanting to take care of me. Well I guess it worked

 

[jungledave]

I might have been the one who refered it as the drone vibration. Cause that is what the service manager called it when i took it in for the first time, yes he refered to it as the, "drone vibration". He also said that out of the seven trucks that he was aware with the problem that mine was the ,"most significant". My truck was so bad that you could feel it on roads that had been rotomilled. I drove it home on a 55 Mph road on the way home from buying it and didn't feel it until the next day. About a week later I learned about TDR and read some of the pasts about the problem. I also had my truck bought back on June 30th. If I had heard of TDR before I traded in my 02 Cummins, I would still be driving my 02 cause I would already had known about the drone ibration before I started looking at 04s. One thing I have learned is that nothing brought out the vibe like a new asphault road at 70 mph. So to anyone out there thinking obout a new one, find anopen asphault road and if it has the drone it will be obvious. You should be able to feel it on concrete but the smoothness of blacktop really brings out the sound and the vibe

 

[WStoops]

Dave, we talked about this before but I picked up my truck and drove it a week before I got a chance to get on the highway. I noticed it first thing and called the dealer when I got home. I had 880 miles on it at that point. That was 1 week to the day after I picked it up. It was only after I noticed it that I did a search here and discovered so many posts about the same problem. I'm guessing that it won't be long before we start hearing the same reports about the 05's. That would REALLY be a disappointment. To me that would say they have no intention of fixing it as the fix for the problem must really be expensive. Waiting for a date for my arbitration hearing. Boy are they going to get an earfull.

 

[mtnranger]

Vibrations

The front drive shaft appears to be to be the most reasons for vibs on our 04's. It was on mine (04, 3500, 6 spd dually 4x4) even though dodge had my service folks checking the transfer case, transmission, axels, etc. because of their computer diagnostics. Lucky the mechanic who on his own I was told, pulled the front driveshaft (like I had asked them to check originally), test drove it and found that was the ONLY problem. Push the shaft issue before you let them pull everything apart. I don't know why they will not check it first anyway it is the easiest to do and they should know by now even if it takes several shafts to find a straight one.

Main thing is don't except the vibrations or droning as normal for diesels. If they refuse futher action, do as I did and email Dodge. That was about 2 weeks ago and I'm still getting phone calls from Dodge and my Dealer wanting to know my satisfaction. What more could you ask for? Now I look forward to driving it where as before it made me sick, literally, thinking it was the biggest ($40,000) mistake I had ever made. The worst part was having to listen to my buddies with F's, and C's saying I told you so. Now lets see who has the last laugh. Now, if I can just keep those damn injectors from plugging I might have a decent truck.

 

[GTX]

The dealer has put 2 new front drive shafts in mine and claimed a front tire needed to be spun 180 degrees on the rim and the vib is still there. With the dealers ok I had the last drive shaft balanced. It was not off by much and it was not bent. I still have the vib. With the drive shaft out the vib is gone. I need to contact the dealer and see what they want to do next.

 

[SRH]

Lemon lawing two trucks

If anybody would like some good info and a name ,number and the lawyers name for DC call me I have the same crap two times I have an 04 & 04. 5 thats in lemon right now. I'll be done sometime this wk. just send a pm Steve

As far as the drone I had to on the 04. 5 change the muffler to a Allied fixed it.

 

[SHyans]

How about letting us all know that email address for Dodge that got you somewhere? Sounds productive.

 

[jhyatt]

i think is the output bearing on transfer case mine seems very loose

 

[kblranch]

I had the vibration starting at 72 mph . They balanced the tires which did nothing. I took it back and they replaced the front drive shaft and the problem was gone.

 

[jungledave]

After having my 04 Laramie bought back in June, Carlin Dodges service manager {colorado Springs ,co}told me that chrysler has a new t-case mount that slightly lowers the t-case and corrects the driviline geometry and it should be available soon if not already. They tried everythong possible on my truck, front and rear shafts, ect. ect. ect. I am convinced it was in the rear shaft t-case area. My jeep did the excact same thing when I added a leaf to the rear. So drive line angle is what seems to be the biggest and most common cause and. Sorry for the grammar I am in a hurry and have to go.

 

[jhyatt]

i think that the new front drive shaft fix is a band aid fix. because the joints are tight it lessens the vibe over time the bearing comes in to play maybe it is drive line angle thats why they put a double ujoint at the case ether way the bearing cant take the extra mass. on my 05 there is a balancer on front of rear drive shaft is this the same on 04? maybe the front shaft needs a balancer

 

[jungledave]

They all had the dampener. GM puts theirs on the rear end yoke instead of the front of the shaft. Like I told the dealer over and over again, I am convinced it was in the t-case rear shaft. They took my front shaft out and no difference. They repalced the rear shaft and the front shaft after I told them there was no difference. I put one extra leaf in my 95 cherokee and it raised the rear about one inch and caused a almost identical problem. I have been otld that they will have a new mount but it can't be much because there isn't much room between the t-case and the crossmember. this fix makes more sence than anything else they have come up with. My membership has expired so I may not be able to reply much more. I now own a Dakota so no more Diesel for a while, bummer.

 

[Giachino]

Not sure if this is the same issue, but here's what I just noticed on my drive today... Very new Road, nice smooth asphault... . on the freeway between 65-80, I can feel a vibration on the gas pedal... I would slow down to 50 and it would disappear, speed back up and there it was again... . cant really hear anything, just a minor vibration of the gas pedal... . pretty much occurs when the RPMs are around 2k... is this what everyone is talking about? To me it's the same feeling (on the gas pedal) you get when you're accelerating moderately from a stop... . thought it was just motor vibes (which you can definately feel when your on it... ) Or are you guys talking about something much more sever?

 

[Giachino]

The last issue of TDR had a variety of fixes for the vibes. Maybe one of these will be your magic bullet?

As a new member, I didnt get this issue, is there any way to get a back issue? If so, what month? Thanks

 

[MHirst]

I have been dealing with this issue since December 04 the Dealer has been really trying to solve this problem, new drivelines twice and a new set of tires and wheels no success, I have talked to Dodge costumer service no help!! they are not concernend with the end user the dealers a stuck trying to solve this issue, I believe that the major part of this trouble is related to the Cummins motor, I just sold my 2000 Cummins. what a mistake I agree that the older trucks are noisy and have other issues but they drive down the road smoothly, I am takeing my truck in today for the third time Dodge has agreed to get me a Dodge Cummins rental in the mean time I am planning to keep it as long as it takes maybe paying $125 a day for a rental will get them moving who knows, I just think that the fact of Dodge knowing this issue is there and them wanting it to go away quietly is not acceptable, please get on the phone and call them and lets start rattling some chains. here is the phone number for customer service/ 1-800-992-1997 please plan to wait on hold before you can actually talk with a live person but you will get through.

My truck is a 2005 QC SB Auto 4X4 with the Michelin Tires truck came with the BFGs

 

[TTubb]

Here was my vibration fix

Quote:

Originally Posted by JVolkmann

I have 03 QC 4x4 SO with 48RE, 36,000 miles. I noticed on my recent trip to Outter Banks I have a vibration around 1900 rpms and 69 mph. This is the first I have noticed this. Any ideas, please let me know. Thanks in advance for your help.



Jeff





I have a 04. 5 QC SWB 48RE with 3. 73 gears that started the 68-72 vibration about 5K ago. Now have 10500. I fixed this myself this weekend, however I am not certain there are not multiple causes given the comments of others.

First visit to the dealership they reindexed the drive shafts, both front and rear. No help.

Next visit, removed both and sent to be balanced. Actually worse.

Next visit, tried new shafts for both front and rear. Still bad.

The dealer had reindexed the drive shaft on the rear, first 180 degrees then an additional 90 degrees - no help.



Here is what I did. I had them remove the front driveshaft and drove the truck for a week. This confirmed to me the problem was in the rear. I will caution this is not just a drive shaft problem, but a harmonic problem with drive shaft and engine pulses on the single piece drive shaft of the short wheelbase. The Long Wheelbase versions have two-piece shafts and are having carrier bearing issue causing there problems.

By accelerating to 80mph and placing the transmission in neutral, the vibration was substantially less. Also, sitting static and running the engine to 2000 rpm produced no significant vibration. I discovered the dealer was reindexing the rear shaft by removing it from the yoke on the differential only. I had a suspicion the problem may be with the forward end of the shaft which slides onto the spline in the transfer case. This is also where the large dynamic balance ring is on the shaft.

The fix - Removing the rear shaft (front shaft is still off the truck) from the differential yoke, carefully sliding it off the splines on the front end and rotating 180 then reinstalling on the same location on the rear yoke (park brake, truck in neutral, remove yoke, truck in park to lock transfer case position, pull shaft off spline, rotate 180 and slide on spline, truck in neutral to release transfer case, rotate shaft to realign on same location of diff yoke, reinstall bolts on yoke) produced less vibration, but still existed. Back in the garage, repeat the procedure and rotated an additional 90 degrees CW (facing FWD). Test drive and I feels like a new gasser! No vibrations up to 90 mph. Note, the first 180 may do it, or a 90 CW or CCW, you will just have to experiment. This is what worked for me. Sorry for the length, but I know the frustration of not finding the problem. Hope this helps. Terry

__________________

04. 5 2500 SLT Laramie 4x4 SWB ETH/48RE 3. 73 A/S White/Taupe

 

[sag2]

TTubb

I have fixed quite a few now, and this is the first step. The only difference is I dial indicate them after each 90 degree move and put it back at the spot with the least runout. I index both shafts if required, front and rear of each shaft. With the rear output, I mark the shaft on the outside, and the output shaft gets marked on the inside on the end. Most technicians will not take the time to do it right. Most want to order shafts and throw them in.

 

[swalls]

Test drove 2 brand-new 05 4wd's last week, and they both hit the vibe at about 65 MPH plus. Told salesman that any new truck will have to pass the vibe test BEFORE I sign any papers.

Told the service mgr he had better get them in the shop and get to fixin' if he wanted to move either one of them to me. Hah, that went over like a lead balloon.