popeye

I too have been battling the "vibration" thing for a long, long time. I finally took it to a local dealer to get their opinion. As usual, they just balanced the tires (3 new sets and 5 consecutive balances as of Jan. 6 this year) and said that the u joints looked tight etc.. Well, I picked up the truck and found a slight improvement in the vibe, though not gone! Anyway, I came home and found the right rear wheel smoking and ext. hot. Smelled like oil, rubber and the like. Jacked up rear wheel and found that it would not rotate smoothly and there seemed to be a rubbing. I am going back to the dealer tomorrow and would like any help from you guys. Looks like a wheel bearing to me, but I have found the insights from this forum have been invaluable to me. thanks to all.
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'03, 4x4,QC, 3500, 6 sp., short bed, SRW. Many mods but can't type that well. (78,000 miles, replaced rear u joint at 44500)

rockittboy

could be a bearing...after if cooled off was there any play? ALSO...i suffered this fate a few years ago with my toyota. replaced gears, had to bleed brakes, grabbed the bottle of fluid out of my buddies toyota...down the road i went...til my tires started smoking...tried to bleed brakes...could not get ANY fluid to purge...???...wrong DOT fluid swelled all the seals and ruined the whole brake system...just a thought.

1stdodge

Could it be an emergency brake that is partially stuck ?

Nobbe15

It also could be a off balanced tire

Willy91

He said that he got it balanced at the Dealar plus I don't think an off balance wheel would start smoking.

LOWTYD

I had the rear drivers side caliper lock-up very slowly, while on along trip. I had been offroad, and had gotten a small amount of sand into the caliper. The bad thing was that, the hotter it got, the tighter it got. I had to pull into a rest area and hose it down. And yes the wheel was so hot, it would steam when you sprayed it. Not just the caliper or rotor, but the wheel. Our trucks make so much torque that sometimes its hard to notice the brakes dragging, especially when using the cruise control. The engine does'nt care, it just turns up the wick a little.I had this happen several times sometimes after offroading, and once because of sanded and salted roads. Good luck.

CATSNOX900

my 03 did the same thing the caliper seals were shot and the pistons would not suck back in and would stick bad! get it fixed asap so you dont ruin the axel seals from excessive heat like mine did after a run on the highway it stuck and the axel seals went.