Holy Cow, It's getting worse. Quickly too. - Diesel Forum

GFisherman · 05-11-2005, 12:58 PM

I wasa driving home the other day, about 55 MPH when the front end started vibrating. I slowed down, turned the radio down and tried with all my senses to figure out the cause. I got nothin'.
Speeded up to 70 [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/phoney.gif[/img] and it seemed to be less noticable,(speed related=tires?) and assumed that it was just a higher frequency vibration and therefore, less noticable.

Planned to have the tires re-balanced the next day but never got a chance. I still have the stock General tires with the stock chrome steel wheels, about 59K miles on them both. Tires in good shape still, I rotate every oil change.

Last evening the vibration got worse and worse. I slowed way down. Rounding a gentle curve to the left I thought I'd be seeing 1 of my front tires pass me. Alone!

If it was a balancing problem, would it get worse so quickly? Elapsed mileage since I first felt the problem until I got home the second day - about 160 miles.

I pulled the center caps, and jacked the truck up once I got home. All lug nuts tight, no in/out play in tire/wheel (hubs, bearing seem OK) and tire spins normally with no excess resistance.
I'm not a suspension guy, but everything looked OK there too as far as loose, hanging things. I checked the rear tires/wheels for in/out play as well as the driveshaft for general tightness and foreign objects.

I'm stumped and feel I cannot drive it at highway speeds until this is resolved.

Any tips, observations or experiences anyone can share?

noa1794 · 05-11-2005, 01:21 PM

Sounds dangerous to even drive it. Let an expert look at it. If you rotate, do it front to rear. If it is a bad tire, e.g. tire separation or broken belt, you should notice a big difference.

Do it now. A wheel could litterally fall off.

062283 · 05-11-2005, 01:23 PM

Front driveshaft maybe?

stuckinMUD · 05-11-2005, 01:42 PM

Look at the inside and outside rim of the tires. Look to see if a wheel weight has been tossed. You will know because it will look like one was there.

Doug

GFisherman · 05-11-2005, 03:19 PM

Thanks for your suggestions.

Dan - I truly was worried that the wheel would fall off. But it feels tight, no undue "wiggle". I didn't see any tire ply separation but a broken belt...? Never would have thought of that. I assume that would be hidden within the tire.

Rescue - driveshaft looked and felt solid but couldn't see in the pumpkin. Wouild a turn make the condition worse if that were the culprit?

Stuck - hard to say. It's been raining and therefore hard to tell if I lost a weight recently. I did look for that.

All in all, it seems like the best (read: cheapest and first) thing is to have the wheels taken off and re-balanced. They'd know right away if balancing was the culprit and assume they'd find a tire defect such as Dan suggested..

Always open for more thoughts though....

Thanks again for your help so far.

G

djousma · 05-11-2005, 03:40 PM

Sounds like it might be a bad U-Joint either on the hubs or drive shaft. If the bearings are gone, you will get bad vibration.

dave

CalWaterboy · 05-11-2005, 10:22 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I wasa driving home the other day, about 55 MPH when the front end started vibrating. I slowed down, turned the radio down and tried with all my senses to figure out the cause. I got nothin'.

Last evening the vibration got worse and worse. I slowed way down. Rounding a gentle curve to the left I thought I'd be seeing 1 of my front tires pass me. Alone!

[/ QUOTE ]

Dang boy, sounds like a suspension problem. Djousma....would a tossed weight get worse? Maybe so if a 2nd weight went....

062283 · 05-12-2005, 08:52 AM

I would bet money on a U-joint or front drive shaft that is out of balance. These would be amplified under higher speeds, and less so during turning and low speed driving.

GFisherman · 05-12-2005, 11:33 AM

I looked again last night and didn't find any obvious signs that a weight was tossed.
I feel I don't have enough miles to be having axle/driveshaft or ball joint problems but I'm no expert. I'm tending toward the "internal defect/ply separation" theory within the tire(s) itself.

I'll be first in line at West Schlob on Saturday morning for a balance job/inspection.

Wish me luck. I can't afford an axle or suspension job right now.

Thanks for all of your help, I'll let you know what I come up with.

G

djousma · 05-12-2005, 03:17 PM

Let us know what it turns out to be.....I have $5 bet, so I want to know....hahaha just kidding.

Dave

compman72 · 05-12-2005, 04:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]

If it was a balancing problem, would it get worse so quickly? Elapsed mileage since I first felt the problem until I got home the second day - about 160 miles.

Any tips, observations or experiences anyone can share?

[/ QUOTE ]

I had about that many miles on my truck and installed new shocks and factory General tires were fine however a belt broke in a rear tire. I believe the tires breakdown over time. Or may be you hit a pot hole and that softened the belts till they got to the right temp to snap??????? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

GFisherman · 05-16-2005, 11:09 AM

Well, all the vibration was a broken belt in the front left tire. The bulge was very gradual, so I missed it when looking at first. I was looking for something much smaller; this defect covered about 1/4th of the whole tire's diameter.

I took the truck in for re-balanceing on Sat morning and knew someting was wrong with the tire when I heard the kid say "Holy $hit, come and look at this." I looked over and saw the balancing machine shaking like a washing machine spin drying a rug.

Relieved to find it wasn't suspension or axle problems.

Thanks to you all for your input and keep up the good work.

G

dt_diesel · 05-16-2005, 09:45 PM

Wow. Thank goodness it didn't blow out on you!

Years ago, I purchased a small car for college that had odd-sized tires on it. They were leftovers that the former owner had stored for a few years (!) and installed on the car to sell it. I had perhaps four flat tires within the next two months, the fourth time when I took just the tire in to have it repaired, we discovered that there were eight good sized "lumps" on the back side of the tire and a stress line running the entire diameter of the tire. I put it back on, and drove 2 miles straight to a Goodyear shop, and bought the best tires they made for the car.

biginch · 05-17-2005, 12:37 AM

Glad it wasn't anything too expensive.

For future reference, the front driveshaft and axles aren't turning when you are in 2wd.