Slightly going crazy - highway vibration (1 Viewer)

[drbobbysaget]

Okay, so I need have some group troubleshooting for my 2001 LX470.

I have a slight vibration at highway speeds. Can fill it in the steering wheel, and see my phone on it's mount vibrating. Its not horrible, but it is bugging me. In the last couple of months I have replaced all the u joints, new front driveshaft, new front diff bushings, tires have been rotated and balanced. Readjusted/tightened the front hub bearings. Ball joints are tight, tie rods are tight. Shocks are good.

I was thinking it could be the CV shafts, but I removed the front driveshaft and have been driving around with no load on the front driveline... it's still there.

Thinking it can only be so many things. Should I have the tires balanced again? Moving them front to back has no impact. Should I have my rear driveshaft checked for balance? I may remove the rear one and drive around on the front only and see if it persists.

Anyone else had a similar vibration, and did you find the culprit?

 

[jsloden]

These can be tricky to find. In my experience it's usually the tires, but not always. Normally, if you feel it in the steering wheel then it's something in the front end, like the cv's or tires. If it feels like the front end but you don't feel it in the steering the it could be front drive shaft. If you feel it more in your or butt or in the middle of the car then it's usually either the rear driveshaft or the rear wheels. Just because a tire store said they balanced the tires doesn't necessarily mean that they did. It means they balanced them to the best of the ability of the 15 year old kid working there. Abilities vary. There are probably 15 tire stores in my town and I only actually trust one of them.

 

[Patron100LC]

I get a slight vibration at exactly 72 mph. Feels like a drivetrain vibration and not in the steering wheel. Did a few things chasing it including tires and suspension, still there. Kind of annoying when on long trips but I live with it. Don't feel like spending thousands shotgunning parts at the car without a result.

Hope that you find it and post here with an update if you do.

 

[LJE]

I've got an ongoing 8-page thread on this FWIW: Painful low frequency drone/pressure in cabin - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/painful-low-frequency-drone-pressure-in-cabin.1344485/

 

[Patron100LC]

I've got an ongoing 8-page thread on this FWIW: Painful low frequency drone/pressure in cabin - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/painful-low-frequency-drone-pressure-in-cabin.1344485/

Went through that thread while you were diagnosing it.
Gotta tell you, you have LOTS of patience!

 

[Import Driver]

I have a similar vibration but I feel like it's intermittent. Just like you said - I feel it in the wheel and see it in my phone mount. Mine seems to currently be around 75mph+. But i was pulling an empty trailer this last time so that's a variable too. Sometimes I wonder if it's just the road, but that doesn't really make sense because I doubt all the new cars are vibrating.

I have a wheel balancer so I would often balance my OEM wheels that I was using with 1.5" wheel spacers. I always felt that once I balanced the wheels the vibration would go away for awhile, then return.

Then I got new wheels and tires and the vibration was gone! That made me assume that it was somehow the wheel spacers. But now the vibration is back so it was not the wheel spacers.

Maybe I'll balance the tires/wheels again before my next road trip.

 

[drbobbysaget]

Took it back to Discount and asked them to road force balance it and it make sure it was right. They were able to get 3 of 4 pretty much perfect and one gave them a little trouble. They dismounted it and turned it to align it as close as possible before balancing again. I’d say this corrected about 90% of the vibration. It’s barely noticeable now.

 

[zgfiredude]

If and when you look at CVs, don't forget the drive flanges. When you drove without the front shaft, that eliminated the load, but the CVs were still turning, albeit with no drive load on them.