Intermittent vibration at highway speeds

[biz999]

At highway speeds (realistically 75-80mph) I notice an intermittent vibration or shake. It seems to be from the passenger side. It'll occur for a few seconds then go away for a little while, then occur for a few seconds. Pretty repeating pattern. I have recently balanced and rotated my tires (rotated way, way past when I should have, ignorance).

I'm going to get an alignment once I know I have the time this weekend as I don't remember one ever being done. Any other ideas? I checked the lug nuts but I'll check them again.

 

[M38 Bob]

Did you bal & Rotate because of this issue, or did it appear after?

Alignment ain't gonna fix your issue, though if done with proper inspection for bad/worn parts that might turn up the cause. I'd be looking long and hard at driveline. CV's, Ujoints, Etc. Sounds like it could possibly be Ujoint cap dry. Even torque converter can cause what you describe.

Good luck.

Bob

 

[biz999]

It appeared after the balance and rotate I think. Any resources on checking the drive? I don't really know what to look for.

I took it for another spin down the highway and the vibration definitely builds up an dies down like a sin/cosin wave function. With the vibration comes a pulsing like noise almost which also builds up and dies down. If I had to guess it feels like the vibration is coming from the rear.

 

[biz999]

Crawling under the car picture taking extravaganza. The transfer case was hot to the touch about 20 minutes after driving. I'm assuming that's somewhat normal?

Both cv boots appeared to be intact.

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Both ujoints are rusty but I didn't know visual signs of damage.

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Interesting leak marks at the ****** pan and transfer case...

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[M38 Bob]

Visual of Ujoint failure is usually tell tale rust streaks coming out of caps.

If it only developed after rot & rebal, I'd look for some issue there. wear pattern on one or more tire not liking the change? Tech didn't get weights on well and one's fallen off? Failure to balance at all? Usually when an issue shows up after a procedure, there's a connection.

Bob

 

[biz999]

My front tires did have some noticeable heel/toe wear before prior to the rotation. My ignorance had left them on their way too long. It's possible it's a tire wear issue though I find it strange that the vibration would build up and die down like that. I would've thought a tire wear issue would be constant vibration.

 

[M38 Bob]

Harmonics. Not so much out of balance, as the wear patterns are creating out-of-harmony sound waves that you're hearing and associating with out of balance.

Simple enough to fix,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,just buy a new set of tires!

Bob

 

[biz999]

Leak/spray pattern at the rear end of the transfer case. I was able to wiggle the ujoint near here by hand. Not a lot, but enough to see visually. It seemed more like the whole transfer case moved with it. The rear ujoint going into the rear diff didn't move at all when I pulled on it. For more information there's also sometimes a clunk right when I put it into gear from park. Or into park. Actually I'm forgot. I also hit an exploded semi tire while going 75mph last weekend. Is that enough to bend the rear driveshaft?

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[ltd02]

Have you checked the fluid in the Tcase, ******, diffs?

 

[biz999]

The ****** fluids appears to be okay. It was just running for a long time and the dipstick showed just a touch above the top hot hole. I'll have to wait for the transfer case to cool down. It's quite hot to the touch right now which makes me wonder. I just changed the diffs a couple of weeks ago. I checked the rear because it's easy access and it's at the fill hole. The front requires taking off the skid plate so I didn't get at it right now.

Possibly nothing and/or unrelated. A clunk when shifting into park, and a buzzing when shifting into reverse or drive.

The front driveshaft won't wiggle side to side when pulling on it but it will move forward and back a little bit.

 

[ltd02]

The ****** fluids appears to be okay. It was just running for a long time and the dipstick showed just a touch above the top hot hole. I'll have to wait for the transfer case to cool down. It's quite hot to the touch right now which makes me wonder. I just changed the diffs a couple of weeks ago. I checked the rear because it's easy access and it's at the fill hole. The front requires taking off the skid plate so I didn't get at it right now.

Possibly nothing and/or unrelated. A clunk when shifting into park, and a buzzing when shifting into reverse or drive.

Clunk would be something to check carefully. The buzzing might just be the solenoids in the ******. My 45rfe does that too. Wonder if the tcase fluid is "toast". When was it changed last?

 

[biz999]

The last documented change I can find is 5 years and 35,000 miles ago sooo at worst quite a while. I only got into actually maintaining my Jeep above two months ago so I've been working through the list, kind of brought this on myself. I'll do the transfer case ATF4+ this week.

I made a stop at a Pennzoil in February this year and they marked transfer case fluid as "inspected". I'll inspect it myself.

 

[CzarKJ]

The last documented change I can find is 5 years and 35,000 miles ago sooo at worst quite a while. I only got into actually maintaining my Jeep above two months ago so I've been working through the list, kind of brought this on myself. I'll do the transfer case ATF4+ this week.

I made a stop at a Pennzoil in February this year and they marked transfer case fluid as "inspected". I'll inspect it myself.

Its a cheap change if you do it yourself. Would highly recomend it. Mine acted funny for a little bit until I changed it. Worked it out then changed it a few more times after working it out until it finally looked good when I inspected it.