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Vibration at HWY Speeds

JB3

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I started this thread in general realizing this might be the more appropriate sub-forum.

I have a JLUR with BFG 35s and Mopar lift; I have 5k miles on it now and I’ve developed a vibration that the dealership cannot seem to isolate.

As backstory, I had a vibration that caused me to go into the dealer to see if I could do the obvious “fix” of a rebalance. This didn’t help. The day after the balance work was done, I have a u-joint complete fail at the driver front wheel. This failure caused some collateral damaged to the front axel and the I believe the ABS system was partially or fully damaged. The vehicle was at the dealer for 20 days and I just got it back yesterday after being told they warranty replaced the damaged parts above and I need to pay for an alignment. The dealer also called about a potential issue over the phone saying I has a small dent in the rear drive shaft but it was not replaced under warranty.

So I finally get the vehicle back after paying for a balance and an alignment and having warranty replacement work done and the net result is the vibration is still present. The problem shows itself around 45+ mph and seems to be at it’s worse between 50-65mph. The vibration is coupled with an increase in “noise” at HWY speeds.

The dealership is saying well it “might be” my rear drive shaft but looking at it, the “damage” seems to be minimal or non-existent. Clearly, I don’t want to replace the rear drive shift on my dollar especially if it isn’t the issue.

To the forum, does this sound like this could be a rear drive shaft issue? Is a small dent, smaller than a quarter and with barely noticeable depth, capable of producing this symptom? Are there other likely sources of the vibration and noise? What are the thoughts about pushing harder for warranty replacement? Lastly, if you had to pay for the shaft out of pocket, I would assume it would be the best time to upgrade that component and it seems like a lot of JK people like Tom Wood’s shafts.
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Rubiconnoisseur

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Are your axles centered? Do all tires appear to equal distance from center?

Until I installed adjustable track bars, we were unable to center axles after lift was installed. It was “crab walking”. Driver side front stuck out further than passenger side front. Passenger rear tire stuck out further than all 3 others. The track bars fixed it.

Some others had this exact same problem. Not sure if this is your problem or not, but worth a look......
 
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JB3

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Visually it looks like everything is equal distance from center. I can get exact measures on Sunday. Is there a central point you are measuring from?
 
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JB3

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Another member had suggested that I could drop the rear drive shaft, put it in 4H and see if the vibration still exist. If the vibration is there after dropping the shaft then I can rule out the rear drive shaft as the culprit.
 

jeepdriver99

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JB3

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I wouldn't say it's harmonic in nature. The vibration and the corresponding noise increases around 45mph and seems to slightly decline around 70mph.

I'm taking it up to the dealer tomorrow to see if we can drop the rear drive shaft and test drive a little. I think the dealer is looking for the easy way out but given that they did an alignment for me and mounted my tires on the inner bead of the beadlock wheels and then tried to tell me I "didn't have beadlock tires" has caused a severe loss in confidence in anything they say now and moving forward.
 

JefDuro

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I’m having the exact same symptoms that you are. My dealer just ordered a new driveshaft for it. It’ll take 8 days for shipping so I’ll let you know how it goes. As far as the dent In the driveshaft, I would be very suspect of that. The driveshaft spins much faster than the axle and wheels do so if it’s not straight and balanced it will cause issues. I didn’t get a chance to inspect mine (it’s been at the dealer since Monday) but I’ll take a look and see if mine has any dents in it. My issue started at 1000 miles and the Jeep is only 3 weeks old. Extremely frustrating! I will say, one thing I noticed when I drove it with their “Jeep Specialist” to show him the issue is the once I proved it wasn’t the tires, he went right back to the service counter and told them it was the driveshaft. Without any other diagnosis than a 5 mile test drive, they ordered it! This leads me to believe it’s a known issue to them.
 

The Acme Company

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The first part of the story was the failure of the the front axle shaft. You said there was collateral damage. What was it? There could be a front axle issue that would cause s vibration.

As far as the dent in the rear driveshaft—could make it vibrate like hell. Did you hit something wheeling or was the damage there from delivery?
 

Arterius2

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What wheels are you running? If your shop incorrectly balance a lug centric wheel with a hub centric machine that has a large conical shaped clamp, your tires are going to be balanced incorrectly and develop the said vibration at higher speeds.. get them re-balanced on a road force machine..
 

JL18

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I had a vibration at similar speeds. Mine ended up being the hardtop flexing. I folded up a blanket and stuffed it between the roll bar and hardtop, to give the top more support, and mine went away 95%‍♂



I started this thread in general realizing this might be the more appropriate sub-forum.

I have a JLUR with BFG 35s and Mopar lift; I have 5k miles on it now and I’ve developed a vibration that the dealership cannot seem to isolate.

As backstory, I had a vibration that caused me to go into the dealer to see if I could do the obvious “fix” of a rebalance. This didn’t help. The day after the balance work was done, I have a u-joint complete fail at the driver front wheel. This failure caused some collateral damaged to the front axel and the I believe the ABS system was partially or fully damaged. The vehicle was at the dealer for 20 days and I just got it back yesterday after being told they warranty replaced the damaged parts above and I need to pay for an alignment. The dealer also called about a potential issue over the phone saying I has a small dent in the rear drive shaft but it was not replaced under warranty.

So I finally get the vehicle back after paying for a balance and an alignment and having warranty replacement work done and the net result is the vibration is still present. The problem shows itself around 45+ mph and seems to be at it’s worse between 50-65mph. The vibration is coupled with an increase in “noise” at HWY speeds.

The dealership is saying well it “might be” my rear drive shaft but looking at it, the “damage” seems to be minimal or non-existent. Clearly, I don’t want to replace the rear drive shift on my dollar especially if it isn’t the issue.

To the forum, does this sound like this could be a rear drive shaft issue? Is a small dent, smaller than a quarter and with barely noticeable depth, capable of producing this symptom? Are there other likely sources of the vibration and noise? What are the thoughts about pushing harder for warranty replacement? Lastly, if you had to pay for the shaft out of pocket, I would assume it would be the best time to upgrade that component and it seems like a lot of JK people like Tom Wood’s shafts.
 

FirstF80InSpace

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What wheels are you running? If your shop incorrectly balance a lug centric wheel with a hub centric machine that has a large conical shaped clamp, your tires are going to be balanced incorrectly and develop the said vibration at higher speeds.. get them re-balanced on a road force machine..
I agree with Arterius. On an former vehicle, I once had a bad vibration and all the balancing wouldn't fix it. Turned out the wheel shop added a centering ring on the wheels even though the wheels were hub centric. The wheel wasn't properly sitting on the hub. Knocking out the rings fixed the problem. I would check to see if your wheels are hub centric, first of all.
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