VIBRATION

[Daniele]

HEY HEY! It's been a while.

I am at a loss right now with what is going on with my car.

It used to be only apparent at highway speeds but I now notice it even around 40mph.

So what I am feeling is this vibration that basically transfers from the gas pedal, to the steering wheel, to what feels like under my seat to even up front. Not specifically in that order. The vibration has gotten worse over the past week or so. Nothing is loose in the suspension. I am always on top of my fluids. I hear no grinding, no clunking, no noise at all. Turning the wheel left or right doesn't change a thing, but now it almost seems when I am going faster (60+ mph) that when I accelerate, that it does seem to vibrate more. But it doesn't happen 100% of the time. It like comes and goes in a 30 second or so cycle.

Any thoughts are extremely appreciated! Thank you!

 

[GotGrip?]

Jack up the wheels and shake test them all, see if there is any play left/right or top/bottom. If there isn't, you may need to balance wheels or you may even have a bent wheel. Could be a few other things but I'd start there.

Edit: I had a similar issue last year and it ended up being a bent wheel. Shook at 65-70 but not before or after.

 

[jman1200]

The first thing to check is wheel balance.
I've chased vibration on three of my vehicles and this is what I found:
- My brand new Pathfinder had a cycle type vibration (like you said, every 30 seconds) but it only occurred at 60-70 mph. Drive shaft replaced as it was found to be out of balance. Took 18 months to find the culprit.
- Toyota Sienna AWD, drive shaft U-joints were worn, had them replaced.
- My SHO, vibration at any speed under acceleration. One of the front CV axle rubber boots was torn, lost the grease and it wore out. Replaced the CV axle to fix.

Because yours is under load, I'd start by checking any play on all the CV axles and drive shaft.

 

[luigisho]

Agree 1st thing to check is wheel balance, bearing and movement from attachment points to/from the wheels. I would also make sure not front strut/shock is loose or bad mount to the towers.

 

[AlexS925]

HEY HEY! It's been a while.

I am at a loss right now with what is going on with my car.

It used to be only apparent at highway speeds but I now notice it even around 40mph.

So what I am feeling is this vibration that basically transfers from the gas pedal, to the steering wheel, to what feels like under my seat to even up front. Not specifically in that order. The vibration has gotten worse over the past week or so. Nothing is loose in the suspension. I am always on top of my fluids. I hear no grinding, no clunking, no noise at all. Turning the wheel left or right doesn't change a thing, but now it almost seems when I am going faster (60+ mph) that when I accelerate, that it does seem to vibrate more. But it doesn't happen 100% of the time. It like comes and goes in a 30 second or so cycle.

Any thoughts are extremely appreciated! Thank you!

On top of what the others said, check the tire pressures, wear, and also the brakes.
I had a problem with vibration before, and I found out that I had a stuck caliper pin on my brakes. So it would be worth checking out the brakes for warped rotors, worn pads, and that the pins/pistons are sliding smoothly. On top of that, I had a bad wheel bearing on both back wheels. What would happen is no vibration up until 40mph, and on the highway it was a very noticeable shaking in the steering wheel. Fixed the caliper pin and replaced wheel bearings and it drove smooth as ever.

 

[Daniele]

Jack up the wheels and shake test them all, see if there is any play left/right or top/bottom. If there isn't, you may need to balance wheels or you may even have a bent week. Could be a few other things but I'd start there.



Absolutely nothing is loose suspension wise. Wheels are balanced and I have one bent wheel but this is getting worse and actually I just found my rear axle seal leaking yesterday so perhaps that's my issue.

Edit: I had a similar issue last year and it ended up being a bent wheel. Shook at 65-70 but not before or after.

 

[Daniele]

Thank you all! My tires aren't the issue . But I did find a leak on a rear axle seal yesterday during an oil change so getting that replaced tomorrow. But im going to have my boyfriend check if any play on the drive shaft and axles.

 

[ticoscen]

Put car up on four jack stands on frame. Start it up and run it up to speed. Watch the propeller shaft spinning for out of round or vibrations. You'll feel shaft vibration in the drivers seat. My rear propeller shaft carrier bearing was going bad and was dried up causing binding. That carrier bearing and bracket sits above a CAT and gets baked. DORMAN makes an "OE UPGRADE" rear shaft they build to order that is fully serviceable at the U joint and carrier bearing. The stock FORD rear shaft unit is NOT serviceable. Plus, FORD has a 6 month back log on them right now.

 

[ticoscen]

On top of what the others said, check the tire pressures, wear, and also the brakes.
I had a problem with vibration before, and I found out that I had a stuck caliper pin on my brakes. So it would be worth checking out the brakes for warped rotors, worn pads, and that the pins/pistons are sliding smoothly. On top of that, I had a bad wheel bearing on both back wheels. What would happen is no vibration up until 40mph, and on the highway it was a very noticeable shaking in the steering wheel. Fixed the caliper pin and replaced wheel bearings and it drove smooth as ever.

Bad brake lines can cause brake drag and act like one way valves.

 

[2010TaurusSHO]

I hope I'm not too late in this discussion, but I've had that issue too on my 2010 sho.

I had this weird vibration throughout the car. Everything seemed fine. Suspension was great, wheel alignment was great, no worn out suspension bushings, tires were perfectly balanced and pretty new, shocks were in perfect condition... there were absolutely no issues with anything that could cause vibrations.

Turned out to be a worn out engine mount. Engine mount went bad at around 80k-85miles for me.

Worn out engine mounts on our cars really make the engine sink into the engine bay, and it does cause steering wheel vibrations, and all kinds of weirdness.

You might want to check the engine mounts out.

I changed all the engine and transmission mounts, and the vibration went away completely. The engine also sat about 1-2inches higher in the engine bay.

 

[ticoscen]

I had a cracked rear cat case. It let air in and was causing a false LEAN condition making the car run RICH on one bank. That caused vibration under power and was driving me nuts because it wouldn't always throw a code. Vibrations are all gone now that CAT and 02 sensors were replaced on rear bank 01. Launches smooth like a naval carrier catapult.

 

[2010TaurusSHO]

I had a cracked rear cat case. It let air in and was causing a false LEAN condition making the car run RICH on one bank. That causes vibration under power was driving me nuts. All gone now that CAT and 02 sensors were replaced on rear bank 01.

How did the rear cat case crack? Ive never heard of that happening lol

 

[ticoscen]

How did the rear cat case crack? Ive never heard of that happening lol

Probably from when I hit a large tree at 15mph due to ice on an off camber decreasing radius turn one cold day. Tore the left wheel and fender off. But, didn't bend the frame or lose fluid. USAA totaled it out and gave me 9200 bucks. But, I kept the car and fixed it for 3k last year and it's back on the road. The rear CAT was my last bit of weird impact damage parts.

 

[2010TaurusSHO]

Probably from when I hit a large tree at 15mph due to ice on an off camber decreasing radius turn one cold day. Tore the left wheel and fender off. But, didn't bend the frame or lose fluid. USAA totaled it out and gave me 9200 bucks. But, I kept the car and fixed it for 3k last year and it's back on the road. The rear CAT was my last bit of weird impact damage parts.

Oh, I wasn't expecting to hear that. It makes sense now how you cracked the cat.