Driveshaft Specialist

[ekimsinnigcm]

Hi Everyone,

 

So my truck has been at the dealership two times officially now. This 3rd time I had my friend look over it and he said the truck was within GM's specs. I don't know what GM's specs for vibration are but my vibration is in the mid 70mph range and excessively vibrates and then smooths out. This is a constant cycle throughout my commute. I am going to pull my driveshaft and take it to a shop that specializes in driveshafts.

 

I know several people have had their driveshafts replaced under warranty and it did not correct the issue. My thoughts are if your truck originally came with an out of spec driveshaft chances are there is a whole stockroom somewhere in the Parts Department that has out of spec driveshafts mixed in with the ones without issue, hence the reason some people have no luck with driveshaft replacement.

 

I really feel this could be one of the major issues behind all of this especially when there is documentation instructing the technicians at the dealerships to use hose clamps to balance the driveshaft. I'm sorry but I don't see hose clamps as a permanent correction to this issue.

 

I will update this post when I get the results from the driveshaft inspection.

 

Please feel free to share your thoughts and bounce ideas around. Collectively I believe we can find an aftermarket fix for this issue, it may not 100% resolve the issue but will at least save people from taking huge losses on trade in (if you did not go through a buyback/lemon/customer satisfaction program). (A lot of people are trading in / selling their trucks because of this issue)

 

 

***UPDATE 01-22-2016***

 

I contacted the Team at Precision Shaft Technologies (http://pstds.com/) in Clearwater FL and they were able to squeeze me in as a walk in. (Not there normal protocol. They were super friendly, informative, and VERY helpful!) I drove up there and pulled the driveshaft in their parking lot. They then put the driveshaft on a machine and it was a near perfect balance. They added one small shim to the U joint to get it perfect but I'm sad to say the vibration is still present and there was no change.

 

However, when I returned home I put my truck up on jack stands and ran it up to the speed I had issues at (per GM's service docs) and there was NO vibration. I was extremely confused at this point. I dumbed it down and looked at the rear wheels while the truck was in drive (idle speed) on the jack stands (be sure to block your front wheels and disable traction control / StabiliTrak if you plan on doing this on your own). I noticed my left rear wheel has a slight flat spot it in so much so that it's extremely difficult to notice. I have not had a chance to swap a known acceptable wheel to the rear at this time. When I do I will update this post.

 

A recap for a description of my vibration:

-72-74 MPH there is a cyclic vibration. Roughly every 7-8 seconds the truck has a vibration and then the vibration disappears.

[tonygxp]

sounds good please hurry with results

[redwngr]

Does it always happen the same place on your route?

 

Does it come and go on other roads?

 

Any chance it's the road?

 

On most roads, both my K2 gen trucks have been smooth as glass at any speed. I have noticed that sometimes I can feel road induced vibration when there are barely visible the road surface imperfections.

[TJay74]

Why not go to the dealer and request that they follow the GM outlined process for finding the vibrations? GM has a very specific process in place, the dealers orders in the harmonics equipment and then follows a very detailed testing process. The process will determine if it is a tire issue or a driveline issue causing the vibration.

[southern_sierra]

Sometimes you do better tending to a problem yourself. Most of the time GM will say its operating normal or in specs. They are just throwing what ever to these trucks and hope one works. Some have had complete rear ends changed out and it fixed it and some it didn't fix and others it fixed for 600 miles or so and the vibration came back. I think the problem is the new frame design being to stiff and replacing all cab mounts and other bushings from rubber to new stiffer materials. This will make smaller vibrations be felt more easily. Also I have never seen so much road force balancing of tires, which shows the tires have to be perfect in order to feel no vibrations. Something has to absorb the small vibrations that you can't get rid of because nothing is perfect. I have owned over 20 vehicles in my life and have never had to have tires road forced balanced until this truck. Thats why I think its a frame design problem and want be fixed until a new design just to sensitive. Just my thoughts.

 

This is a good read about all the changes made to the 14. They talk about stopping vibrations a lot. I think they need to go back to the drawing board and start over.

 

http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2013/May/Silverado-May-5/0505-silverado-chassis.html

[ekimsinnigcm]

I contacted the Team at Precision Shaft Technologies (http://pstds.com/) in Clearwater FL and they were able to squeeze me in as a walk in. (Not there normal protocol. They were super friendly, informative, and VERY helpful!) I drove up there and pulled the driveshaft in their parking lot. They then put the driveshaft on a machine and it was a near perfect balance. They added one small shim to the U joint to get it perfect but I'm sad to say the vibration is still present and there was no change.

 

However, when I returned home I put my truck up on jack stands and ran it up to the speed I had issues at (per GM's service docs) and there was NO vibration. I was extremely confused at this point. I dumbed it down and looked at the rear wheels while the truck was in drive (idle speed) on the jack stands (be sure to block your front wheels and disable traction control / StabiliTrak if you plan on doing this on your own). I noticed my left rear wheel has a slight flat spot it in so much so that it's extremely difficult to notice. I have not had a chance to swap a known acceptable wheel to the rear at this time. When I do I will update this post.

 

A recap for a description of my vibration:

-72-74 MPH there is a cyclic vibration. Roughly every 7-8 seconds the truck has a vibration and then the vibration disappears.

[Ron.s]

I don't buy the stiff frame and I think they changed body mounts on the 16's hoping to reduce the issue. My 14 had no vibration with original factory tires and none with my winter tires and wheels. My 16 vibrates bad at freeway speeds of 70-80 and it's a constant vibration felt in the seat so coming from the rear. It will be 2 weeks before I can get back to the dealer to start the ordeal.

[redwngr]

 

 

A recap for a description of my vibration:

-72-74 MPH there is a cyclic vibration. Roughly every 7-8 seconds the truck has a vibration and then the vibration disappears.

Then it's not a wheel or driveshaft since they turn much faster than once every 7-8 seconds when running 70+ mph.

[ekimsinnigcm]

Then it's not a wheel or driveshaft since they turn much faster than once every 7-8 seconds when running 70+ mph.

 

That's what I thought too. But the dealer has replaced a rear wheel and tire during a previous visit and it did not cure the issue but greatly reduced it, probably 90% fixed and acceptable. Not sure how this wheel I currently have became damaged but I'm looking forward to seeing if this corrects the issue back to the 90% it once was.

[ekimsinnigcm]

I swapped the front wheels to the rear and the vibration has become almost non existent. The vibration now comes every 30 seconds or so, but is quite minimal in comparison. I think the road force balancing of the tires really does have to be spot on to have no vibrations. I am planning on having my tires road force balanced once again to see if we can get the vibration all the way gone.

 

Again, I have a cycling vibration. If you have a vibration similar to mine you may want to swap the front wheels to the rear your self and see if this helps the issue. But I would run the truck on jack stands first to make sure the rear wheels are true before going through this process.

 

I will still be trying things to get this dialed in so I will keep everyone updated.

[ekimsinnigcm]

*MODS* can we change the title of this topic to "Chasing down my vibrations DIY"?

[ekimsinnigcm]

These trucks are so tempermental. Made progress yesterday and back to the fiasco again today.

[epstein]

Funny you mention rotating tires. My vibration started around 9 k ...... just had tires rotated the first time and the ONLY OTHER THING I DID was throw out the wheel locks.... Now... I don't believe its the rotate. However, could the wheel locks installed by the dealer exaggerate this.....Things that make you go hmm. That being said I have gone over this truck... I will be replacing the shocks with 5100s but the vibration being quelled has me stumped. BTW I have a noticeable bearing whine/hum from my rear at 77 mph exactly. So I know something is out of spec there...

 

 

Brian

[ic3man5]

Guessing you have the Goodyear wrangler tires?

 

 

 

edit:

 

Purchased (4) Wrangler SR-A for Dodge Ram 1500 November 2014 and within the first two weeks or so the truck started shimmying so bad and everything inside the truck you could see vibrating. I took it back to dealer and they re-balanced but I was told they had to put 300 lbs of pressure back into the tires because the tire itself was rotating on the rim.

 

from: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/tires/goodyear_tires.html

 

I've been avoiding wrangler tires for at least 10 years now.

 

edit2: Here is another one... lol

Purchased a new 2014 Dodge Ram on 30 January 2015. The truck had new Goodyear Wrangler 275/60r20 tires. Four months and 8000 miles later I have a continuous vibration. Took the car to a repair shop and was informed that one tire had a completely broken belt and the other three had bad belts also. I was also informed a lot of Dodge trucks were having issues with Goodyear tires. I have an appointment with Dodge tomorrow, but I am not real optimistic about who will cover my loss.

 

[abominable z71]

Sometimes you do better tending to a problem yourself. Most of the time GM will say its operating normal or in specs. They are just throwing what ever to these trucks and hope one works. Some have had complete rear ends changed out and it fixed it and some it didn't fix and others it fixed for 600 miles or so and the vibration came back. I think the problem is the new frame design being to stiff and replacing all cab mounts and other bushings from rubber to new stiffer materials. This will make smaller vibrations be felt more easily. Also I have never seen so much road force balancing of tires, which shows the tires have to be perfect in order to feel no vibrations. Something has to absorb the small vibrations that you can't get rid of because nothing is perfect. I have owned over 20 vehicles in my life and have never had to have tires road forced balanced until this truck. Thats why I think its a frame design problem and want be fixed until a new design just to sensitive. Just my thoughts.

 

This is a good read about all the changes made to the 14. They talk about stopping vibrations a lot. I think they need to go back to the drawing board and start over.

 

http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2013/May/Silverado-May-5/0505-silverado-chassis.html

Agreed, I have had every body style pickup GM has made since 1973 including 2 K5 blazers and a suburban, all in 4wd and every single one lifted with mud terrains and never needed a "road force balance" to smooth things out. Why... because everything was over built, weight wasn't an issue and nobody was trying to get 20 mpg out of a truck. Now everything is stronger, lighter, unforgiving and costs a fortune. They have basically built a tuning fork on wheels.