Our truck has a nasty vibration that we can't figure out. It's been to two dealers and they haven't been able to find it.

The vibration happens when parked, reversing, or going forward with no apparent cause. The first time we noticed it was in November, but after being in at the dealer, it quit for a while. All the dealer did was chip out some mud and look at it.

Then it came back in January. Really bad at cold outside temps, but the engine temperature had no effect. Had an appointment a week ago to have it looked at, but it stopped 2 days before the appointment and this dealer couldn't find anything either. Started back up again the next day.

The vibration is noticeable at all speeds, but worse at low speeds. You feel it mainly through the seats, but it is also apparent in the floor and steering wheel, with the steering wheel more noticeable than the floor.

The truck is always plugged in at night at temperatures below 0 celcius, and has a stainless winterfront and cardboard behind. It is an '04 3500, has 80,000km on it. The first vibration started at about 58,000km.

I've looked through this forum for similar issues, but I can't seem to find any. Do any of you have this problem? Any ideas on how to fix it?

 

Have you balanced the tires?

 

Just got them replaced/balanced/aligned. Hasn't helped any.

 

Check the power steering hoses & pump, see if they touching anything. It may be avibration from that

 

Are they really that solid? This feels like the truck might fall apart. I've been trying to find a good way to describe this. It's the same feeling you would get driving on rumble strips at maybe 35-40 mph. Except that it isn't rumble strips.

I'll look into that though, thanks for the suggestion. Let you know what I find out.

 

No luck.

 

Is the vibration occuring at all speeds?

 

You don't mention which trans you have, If it is an automatic you may have a torque converter going bad, You did say it does this when parked, reverse and going foreward, right? As long as it does this vibration while parked it has to be engine flywheel/trq conv related. Check out the harmonic balancer on the front of the eng. too.

 

Is the exhaust rubbing anywhere?
Has anybody checked the motor mounts?
Has anybody checked the mount for the transfer case?
Other than these three items I'd have to agree with Hemi Cat except that if it was drivetrain related it would probably always have the vibration. You said it may do it at any time, even parked, but it doesn't do it all the time..

There was a vibration issue a couple of years ago, as Super gewl stated, that was caused by the Power steering hose.

 

It is an automatic.
We had all the engine/tranny mounts checked when it was in the shop a couple weeks ago.
Not sure about the exhaust. But we'll check that and anything else we can when Hubby gets home from work with the truck.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.