YACT: Vibration at high speeds

[BlueWeasel]

I've got a '99 Mountaineer that I've had for almost 3 years now (84k miles). I noticed when I first got it a slight vibration when it gets up to around 60 MPH. The vibration is slight and is something that I could live with, but I'm about to get a new set of tires, and wonder what could be done to possibly fix the vibration.

I can't tell if it's isolated to the front or the back of the vehicle, but it's more noticeable when driving than riding in the front passenger seat. There is no vibration in the stearing wheel. It's not really noticeable until around 60 MPH.

The tires on it now are the ones that it came with, but I'm not sure if they are the same as the factory tires. I've had the tires balanced and rotated numerous times, as well as front end alignment, but neither seems to make a difference.

The vehicle is in excellent shape and has never been in an accident. So that leads me to believe that it's related to the tires, and not a problem with the frame. I'm not a expert on tires, but maybe consider going to a more "road-friendly" tire than the ones on it now (Goodyear Wrangler RT/S)?

In general, what could be the cause of the vibration?

 

[Heisenberg]

Wrangler RT/S's shouldn't cause a problem. Even a more aggressive tread tire shouldn't vibrate - it'd just be noisy. I've got RT/S's on my Jeep and it's smooth at highway speeds. Out of balance tires is a prime cause of vibration, but if you've had yours balanced recently, then I don't know...

 

[nboy22]

get your tires aligned... it's most likely the problem

 

[Vic]

You've had it balanced, rotated, and aligned, so it's none of the usual suspects...

My guesses are (in order of cost to fix) an out-of-round tire, bent wheel, out of balance driveline, or damaged rear differential.

 

[bmacd]

either look for a slow leak or have your wheels aligned. My Explorer had the same problem...it progressively got worse to the point that I took it in for service and found out I had a slow leak. New tires and an alignment later, the car was running like a champ

-=bmacd=-

 

[jimmypop]

see if you can find a shop that will do a dynamic balance-- on car, while running. they are sometimes hard to find but they account for every variation that can cause vibration.

90% of the time i got mine done with regular off-car balance, i was back there in a few days
got dynamic, didn't go back for a year.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Well, I do have a slow leak on the rear right tire, so I know that's some of the problem. But the vibration has been going on long before the leak appeared.

 

[richardycc]

you need to goto a shop with a nice tire balancer, like the hunter GSP9700, plus the haweka wheel balance adaptor systems. Most car manufacturers require their dealers to use the haweka adaptor to balance the wheels, but sadly most dealers think that they know better than the car makers and don't use it or never heard of it.

 

[CraigRT]

wheel weights, cause of the problem 90% of the time...

 

[Quixfire]

There are no known issues with vibrations on the 1999 Mountaineer as you described. The areas I would look at of the source of the vibration would be, right front rotor and caliper, rear front wheel bearing, right front suspension, and right rear suspension. As rare as it is I have seen a few halfshafts cause vibration at highway speeds but that would be my last choice, assuming it?s a 4WD or AWD vehicle.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: nboy22
get your tires aligned... it's most likely the problem

It's what does it on mine. Unfortunately every time I get them aligned about 2 weeks later they're back to their old, mis-aligned selves. I've just given up on it.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: nboy22
get your tires aligned... it's most likely the problem

It's what does it on mine. Unfortunately every time I get them aligned about 2 weeks later they're back to their old, mis-aligned selves. I've just given up on it.

:Q
I've never had to do an alignment on my 3.5 year old car, and it has always ran completely straight pretty much
you must have some bad potholes or something in your area, that's all i gotta say.

it should remain centered unless you hit something or something is severely worn out.

 

[Lvis]

I had that problem once, it was caused by uneven tire wear. You had to look close, really close, but the tread was cupped every couple of inches.

You can move the front ones to the rear, it will be less noticeable. Or get new ones.

I think it was caused by low tire pressure for me. There was nothing wrong with the suspension.