Vibration At Speed

[Nadar]

My recently purchased 2003 2.5 D4D Hilux has a vibration that occurs at around 60-65mph. I've had the front wheels balanced and new anti-roll bar bushes and lower suspension ball joints replaced - all needed when I bought it - but the resonant vibration still occurs at speed. Any ideas what else may be causing this?

She's also had a new uv joint on the prop shaft I noticed (because the idiots that have fitted it have left the grease nipple facing inward and unreachable)

Any ideas? Any similar experiences?

[Vince W]

Maybe the U/J on the other end of the shaft needs replacing or the shaft itself needs balancing.

[Nadar]

Thanks Vince.

I was starting to wonder about that, it would make sense that the other joints would be worn out in the same time frame - through lack of greasing >_< . The shaft shouldn't be out of balance should it? I thought they were all factory balanced.

I also discovered last night that my rear diff lock doesn't work, but that may be the subject for another thread.

[JasXPear]

My recently purchased 2003 2.5 D4D Hilux has a vibration that occurs at around 60-65mph. I've had the front wheels balanced and new anti-roll bar bushes and lower suspension ball joints replaced - all needed when I bought it - but the resonant vibration still occurs at speed.

Any ideas? Any similar experiences?

Yeah, i had an identical problem on my mk6 with new Goodyear Wrangler tyres which turned out to be mishaped! Try swapping front tyres with rear to see if you still have issues.

[zeus-xy]

Is the steering wheel shaking? If not, the problem is probably with the driveline or rear axle.

I was once using old knackered tyres on my MK3, after crossing a frozen mountain pass, the tyres must have got water insode and frozen. The vibration was unbeleiveable, the back of the car was actually bouncing up and down at speed.. I was thinking I must have had a bent wheel or something until BANG!! major tyre blowout on the Grand Trunk Road. I then had a look at the other tyres by spinning them on the hubs, and notice they were out of round!!

But if it only occurs at a given speed, it may be the driveline, though 60-65 KM/h is a more usual speed for this AFAIK. Check for any dents in the propshaft tubes. Put it in 4WD, neutral and jack one rear wheel up. Spin the wheel while checking the movements of the shafts to check they're all running true. Have a look if a weight has come off (look for an unpainted patch or a rivet stump). Check for play in the UJs by grabbing the UJ in one hand and the companion flange in the other and twisting in opposite directions. Any play and they're knackered. Check also for a loose rubber cage on the centre bearing, if your car has one.

Hope you find it, I've had a vibration for yearts and I'm finally biting the bullet and replacing the intermediate propshaft and all the UJs.

Daniel

[Nadar]

Thanks guys, been offline for a while and missed your responses (largely due to BT, don't start me on that )

No steering wheel shake, though the problem did become more obvious after swapping wheels. Previous owner had Goodrich A/T and Mud terrain combo on each axle. I changed them to matched axle pairs, then had front wheels balanced, (one was 90g out)!

So, could be the tyres, the other potential"false cause" is that I pumped the shaft full of grease at the same time and may have even introduced my own imbalance into the shaft. >_<

It does come in about 60-65 mph, some times more than others, sometimes hardly at all.

Nice tips for checking the shaft, I'll try that next.

Ta very much!