2017 Chevy Shake: possible fix?

[16LT4]

So my lovely truck has started to exhibit horrid vibration issues, starting around 6000 miles. Checked the tires after the dealer rotated them and found them overinflated by 10 pounds, so I dropped them back to 35. Seemed to help, but not permanently. I put over 300 miles on it yesterday and the driveability became atrocious; I'd rather drive an unladen F450 with an aluminum flat bed than my truck. Before taking it to the dealer, I crawled under and discovered that I could shake the front driveshaft around in the transfer case, so coupled with the fact that using 4x4 is audibly louder and rougher than 2WD, either the forward output shaft bearing or something else internal to the transfer case is eating itself apart.

 

If you suffer from driveline vibrations, crawl under and give'er a good shake. You know its bad when you can SEE the shaft moving and not just feel it.

[Resqu2]

Well I'm glad you got to enjoy 6000 shake free miles. I wasn't able to go over 60mph during my test drive two weeks ago and it's smooth as silk. The first weekend that I had it we hit the interstate and I really think it would shake itself apart if I drove it very much at the 70-72mph mark. A local dealer is going to force balance the tires when I get a bit over 500 miles on it. After all I have read I don't look for it to be fixed, hope I'm wrong though. Good luck with your issue.

[16LT4]

Well I'm glad you got to enjoy 6000 shake free miles. I wasn't able to go over 60mph during my test drive two weeks ago and it's smooth as silk. The first weekend that I had it we hit the interstate and I really think it would shake itself apart if I drove it very much at the 70-72mph mark. A local dealer is going to force balance the tires when I get a bit over 500 miles on it. After all I have read I don't look for it to be fixed, hope I'm wrong though. Good luck with your issue.

Get under it and shake the prop shafts around, see what you find.

[SScarguy]

I had a shake in my truck start around 30k, I put a powerstop brake kit on it and the shaking is gone. YMMV

[CounterMeasure]

A local dealer is going to force balance the tires when I get a bit over 500 miles on it.

 

Why wait? Requiring tires to wear in to road force balance is BS. Get them done by a good tire shop that's willing to take the time to find wheel and tire runout, set them, and balance them.

 

Once I put a good set of Michelin tires on my truck by a shop that does quality balance work, its super smooth to drive even at our legal speeds of "posted 85mph +10 more".

[Resqu2]

Why wait? Requiring tires to wear in to road force balance is BS. Get them done by a good tire shop that's willing to take the time to find wheel and tire runout, set them, and balance them.

 

Once I put a good set of Michelin tires on my truck by a shop that does quality balance work, its super smooth to drive even at our legal speeds of "posted 85mph +10 more".

Well I totally agree with you but I'm going to jump through their hoops, get a paperwork trail started and see where this goes, I'm real close to 500 miles and it will go to the local dealer early next week, they admit they have seen the issue and want to fix it.

[Orlando8]

So my lovely truck has started to exhibit horrid vibration issues, starting around 6000 miles. Checked the tires after the dealer rotated them and found them overinflated by 10 pounds, so I dropped them back to 35. Seemed to help, but not permanently. I put over 300 miles on it yesterday and the driveability became atrocious; I'd rather drive an unladen F450 with an aluminum flat bed than my truck. Before taking it to the dealer, I crawled under and discovered that I could shake the front driveshaft around in the transfer case, so coupled with the fact that using 4x4 is audibly louder and rougher than 2WD, either the forward output shaft bearing or something else internal to the transfer case is eating itself apart.

 

If you suffer from driveline vibrations, crawl under and give'er a good shake. You know its bad when you can SEE the shaft moving and not just feel it.

Keep us informed on the outcome

[16LT4]

Verdict: dealer rebalanced all 4 tires (saying some were pretty far out... how they got that bad in only 6500 miles is a mystery to me, and why the vibration issues seemed to surface after their service, in which they reprogrammed withe transmission solenoid, overfilled the tires AND the engine crankcase), but insisted that the vibrations were within spec (as per the picometer) and that the play in the front driveshaft was also within spec (which sounds like GM has simply enlarged their "acceptable" range rather than address underlying issues). Truck is a little smoother, but not great.

 

Went to look at a Ram and the difference was night and day, so maybe Chevy is right, it is designed that way (designed to drive like crap). Was able to get $13k off the sticker, but only $31k trade for my truck (payoff is $34k), so it seems I'll be dealing with this POS for a while. My salesman at Chevy told me "funny you mention the shake, I had another customer come in right after you did for the same issues."

 

I've been a GM guy all my life (as far as domestics go), but this truck reminds me of every reason I hated my '99 GMC Sierra. I'd expected improvements in almost 20 years, but sadly no. When my '84 GMC rides smoother, it's definitely an issue. In the end, let the buyer beware... my 4000 mile trip this weekend in this POS should be real fun. I'm probably going to leave it in 4wd the entire way and blow the t-case out of the truck, to force them to address the issue. F*'em.

[Resqu2]

Just got mine back from road force balancing, they didn't even bother with a before or after test drive but I hit interstate after that were done and it's smooth as silk, like it should be. They did say the tires were out of balance. We shall see if this last.

[dasimmon]

Just got mine back from road force balancing, they didn't even bother with a before or after test drive but I hit interstate after that were done and it's smooth as silk, like it should be. They did say the tires were out of balance. We shall see if this last.

hope it does!!

[Podor]

I know there are probably tons of threads out there about the chevy shake. I had a '14 that I put 45k on and didn't have any vibration issue. I did do an alignment and rotate and balance at about 6k at an independent shop and found out that the toe was out about 2.5 degrees on both sides, which is a significant amount. I'm not sure if by fixing the alignment and keeping the tire wear down prevented the issue, or I was fortunate enough to get a good truck. I recommend having a shop other than the dealer with a road force balancer balance the tires and do an alignment. The dealer I bought my truck couldn't diagnose their way out of a paper bag.

 

Is there any consistency in vehicles with the vibration, like tire and wheel combo, chassis length, 2 or 4 wheel drive? I haven't had mine for 2 years now so I don't remember much. It was a crew cab, 5.5 foot bed, 4x4 with stock z71 18' wheels.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Podor

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ANybody knwo any updates

[Apache32Bravo]

New to this GM Trucks and new owner of a 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 SLT 4x4 with 30k miles on it. I have the shakes... At 68 - 77 mph you start feeling it. On a scale from 1 - 10, I'd give it about a 6. Still enough to piss me off. I called a shop today and instantly they knew of this issue and said to come in this Friday early morning and wait about 4 hrs. They would balance the driveshaft, make some adjustments and then take it to a tire shop across the street to force road balance the tires. 

So I can't wait for Friday to come any sooner and see if this fixes the issue. I'll keep you all updated on the progress Friday night as the drive home I will have plenty of room to stretch out on the highway. 

[LSPowered65]

So this thread is pretty depressing to read. I am the new owner of a 2018 Sierra Denali with a 6.2. Bought it new as a leftover with 300 miles on it 2 weeks agog  I have almost 600 on it and have made a laundry list of issues for the dealer to tackle. One of them being a significant vibration/shake at highway speeds and the front outer edge of the tires look like shit, you can feel the chop in them if you run your hand over them. Bridgestone A/T.  To get this much chop in less than 600 miles means the alignment has to be out pretty significantly. I traded in my 03 Sierra Crew quadrasteer that drove like a dream.....yes, second thoughts are upon me. I don’t drive the truck much, less than 5k a year but I shouldn’t be having these issues with a brand new $66k vehicle. I’ll keep you posted for dealer solutions to my list. I am open to ideas but I will start with alignment, rotation, tire balance for the vibration.

[L86 All Terrain]

The cure to vibrations in these trucks is to rebuild the back half of the entire truck and replace the Chinesium/Mexican parts for quality, in spec US made parts. Swap your drive shaft, axle shafts, pinion, brake rotors, leaf springs, shocks, and hubs and you might have a truck to stand on. Junk quality parts, poor quality control, and horrible warranty service. Their answer to this problem will always be "can not reproduce symptom" or "road force balance tires" because they know they made a piece of crap and GM wont spend the money to back it up. Screwing over customers and over-charging for your products, then not supporting the consumers when the problems surface is a quick way to bankruptcy and another taxpayer funded bailout. If we wanted vibrators we would have bought a Caterpillar compactor.