OmahaBen

Go an drive some other trucks they have. Make sure you take that thing up to 85 and run it for say 50 miles at varing speeds. Wish I would have caught my issue sooner to do this.

I hate to say it but I agree. Don't give up but after they rebuilt my diff. the vibration went away. They did replace all 4 tires and new shocks so it is hard to say which one was the culprit for certain.

Find an expert shop that can do a true road force balance. Call around and find out who is the best and which tech. There is a guy. The dealer won't pay for it either. The first two weeks I took my truck to my brother which was an assistant manager at a tire shop. I watched him dismount and rebalance the tires. At slower speeds it was much smoother but at 70mph + vibration was still there. At that time I did not know what a road force balance was. Then you can rule out wheels and tires.

I like that attitude!

Do we have a count of how many trucks on here are affected? Whom is the right reporter? Since this isn't endangering anyones life my bet is no one really cares.

You need to tell them to get GM engineering involved or you are wasting your time. The crappy thing is the local road 275 you can only go 65mph. So to go 80mph the tech will never do that. and it is 30 min to 75mph road at least.

They wouldn't touch this thread with a 10' pole. That tells me they know there is a problem....

Screw that, why can't you take to the local dealer? Its a GM dealer. WTF I bought mine in Collinsville IL and mine has been serviced and repaired by two dealers here in the Omaha area.

I went to drive my truck and went about 15 miles one way at 75-80mph and noticed a slight, very slight steering wheel vibe. The thing is, the road was awful so it is hard to tell, road or driveline vibration. I think most of the issue was with the road. On the way back I drove 70mph and can feel almost zero vibration. It is tough to gauge how much of the vibration is picked up through the 20" wheels. The bigger the wheels the less tire sidewall there is to dampen the bumpy road. (I know when I went from 15" wheels on my chevelle to 17" it made is handle very well but the ride was like crap) For me I never pull faster than 70mph and don't usually make empty interstate runs. Even though the speed limit in Nebraksa is 75mph generally I go about 72 or 73. My point is for my use and as long as the vibration doesn't come back or get worse. I am 99% satisfied with the repair. Honestly I was surprised the day I drove it last week and the is was so much smoother.

I am also pissed and would be too. I think of all the times I took my truck in only to waste my time.

I moved from a rural farm community and grew up on a farm. When I moved to the "city" after college to get a good paying job. Most of my coworkers drove foreign brand cars and I thought: what a bunch of p*ssies driving foreign cars. I had a Chevelle and a 92 K1500 Silverado and was American all the way. My wife at the time drove a Pontiac Gran Prix and we sold it and lost our butt on it (almost no resale value). That left a bad taste in our mouth. After about 5 years of hearing how great Hondas and Toyotas were my wife and I decided to get a New 2008 Camry Hybrid. We did it and from a maintanence stand point I have replaced tires and the waterpump (in my shop myself) this is the best car we have ever owned. It is quiet and gets 34/34mpg. My point is we have 130,000 miles on it and have done one minor repair to it. It is a very high possibility my next truck will be a Tundra. That goes against ever grain in my body to buy a Toyota Truck.

I don't know the specs on your differential. Is yours the standard 10 bolt? Mine is the larger 9.75. Seems odd that all of these configurations can and do vibrate.

If GM really cared about the customer here they would see this through for every last truck driver with a vibration. Trucks and SUVs are the bread and butter of GM without them they will die. They are only going to be able to go so far and trick people into buying the vibrating trucks. I feel lucky to have gone as far as I did with my repairs. Maybe because I had an in with my local shop I got further than others would have. That being said if you like your truck like I did, stand your ground and tell them you love your truck and WANT IT FIXED. Don't be angry or a jerk, stay calm and be persistant that you want it fixed not replaced. Think of all the others you may be able to help doing this. That is what I was thinking in pushing further vs taking the buy back. I could have taken the buyback but I guarantee I would have lost some money and possibly bought into another vibrating truck. The only way to get this fixed is to get enough of us together to give some push back. The problem I see is many may not know that there truck has the issue or don't google vibrating sierra, silverado tahoe etc... If you have to take the buy back do it, but only as a last resort. I wish everyone the best of luck.

Update. Another member here asked my update so here is what I told him: I put about 600 miles on it so far. They set the backlash really tight. I hear a coast noise when slowing down I didn't notice before. I have become hyper sensitive to the vibration. Drove about 200 miles the other night and I swear at 75mph I could feel it. I would change lanes or get on a better surface of the interstate and it seemed to go away. If I was at 85% to start. The wheel and road force balance made it 90%. This repair has made it 97.5-98%. (I still think there is something else going on here) Maybe driveline angle, torque convertor or transmission/transfer case issue. (100% being perfect with no vibration) Not sure the vibration is completely gone. Haven't spent enough time at 75-80mph. If I would have gotten the truck the way it is now, I am sure I would have never noticed anything. I have a long haul on the interstate with my trailer so that will be the real test mid November.

Make sure you have them check the pinion preload.

I have the 20" wheels on my truck and we swaped out for some 17" wheels to see if the wheels and tires were the issue. I also found that it was not. The first dealer I took it to didn't want to go any further. The second dealer rebuild the rear diff. That seems to have fixed it. I am about 500 miles in on that repair that happened last week. Good luck.

I want some Michelin AT LTX tires or BFG KO2. The only way I would buy these tires now is if I had a second set of rims. There is no way in hell I would swap them out at this point. There was no preload on my pinion and I think that was the main issue. I would suspect that the rear differential machine that sets these up from the factory is messing up in production. Not only was my preload wrong, they also used the wrong shim behind the pinion bearing. I highly doubt that these are done by hand anymore. The guy that setup my rearend at the local dealer has been doing this for 25 years. You don't just throw in a ring and pinion. It is a very precise process. I set up two 12 bolts for my chevelle with an old man that had setup 9" ford and 12 bolts for years. Only after about taking the carrier out about 10 times did I get the pinion depth, pattern, pinion preload and carrier preload set right. (on the 12 bolts, not in my 2014 sierra.) The process had to be very similar though. My point is if you don't get a seasoned vereran resetting up your rear differencial at the gm dealer, it could very easily be messed up.

I am pretty sure mine is fixed. Take a look at my last post detailing the repair. I have put on 250 miles since Thursday and will put on another 200 tonight.

Dude, I totally get it. I am not hexing or jumping for joy yet. When they road force balanced the tires the first couple times it did make the truck drive better at first. Then when I went on the long haul and the vibration was still there. There were two issues. The pinion preload and probably one tire. Those two coupled together made the issue. The first dealer did say this as well, he said it was probably two issues, not just one. Fingers crossed.

This practice by GM is shit. I am taking the three guys for supper for the effort. I know that doesn't pay back the dealer. I want to say thanks and it is greatly appreciated. Honestly to buy back and pay more to get the equal truck I have now. I would have opted pay some to get it fixed had I known it was going to work.

I have some news which is very positive. I will start from the beginning. I had my truck in the first dealer at least 6 times, they replaced one wheel, 2 tires and did numberous roadforce balancing. About the 4th trip in they got the pico meter. After driving the truck the service manager said the truck did vibrate but wasn't out of spec according to the pico scope. They did not check the driveline for runout to my knowledge. I don't think this first dealer or tech wanted to spend the time or did not know how to correctly use the pico meter. I was at church and my mentioned the issue to a buddy which works at another GM dealer. He said you should bring it over and we can take a look at it. We have a very thorough tech that has a knack for fixing issues such as yours. So after the first dealer started talking buy back. I thought to myself, can't hurt to have someone I know in my corner. The first dealer scheduled the regional GM rep to drive my truck, I had to reschedule this because my truck was in the other shop the day he was there. The second dealer. They had my truck the first day and couldn't find anything wrong. The tech did say he felt a very annoying vibration while driving in the 70mph-80mph range. They had to follow GM protocol, they ran the truck one more time with the tech in the passengers seat with the computer and the service manager driving with PICO scope installed. They then sent the readings to GM engineering. After it was deemed my truck was "out of spec" they followed an order of measuring parts. Driveshaft runout, axle runout and axle flange. The checked for bent wheel studs / studs out of pattern. Measuring backlash between each tooth of the ring gear. The pico scope file also told GM there was a wheel tire variation and another possible issue. Then they measured the preload on the pinion. The preload on the pinion was almost zero. none at all! The GM engineer this was escalated to, stated that these tires LS2 Goodyears have had a bunch of bad runs. He sent 4 Brand new tires that where from a known good batch they had on hand to the dealer. In the mean time the gm engineer said to check out the rear shocks and found that both of my rear shocks were toast. I don't know why or how they failed but they were replaced. Also they found the wrong shim was installed behind the pinion. My truck needed a .050 shim and it had a .045 shim (I think that is the correct measurement as I don't have the sheet in front of me) The second dealer had my truck for 2.5 weeks mostly waiting for parts, tools or GM approval. They drove the truck after the new tires were installed, rear end rebuilt, all new bearings and ring and pinion (9.75 rearend) and shocks replaced. They did test with the pico meter installed and the truck ran well within spec. I drove it tonight and it seems like it is fixed. I drove it up to 80-85 and there is no more high speed vibration. The proof will be driving it a long duration and with my trailer hooked up. As of right now I think they got it fixed. After reading all of the horror stories on here I wanted to post some good news. Here is the bad news. GM only pays for so much shop time for warranty work. The dealer said that about 10 hours will not be covered by GM. They will eat 10 hours of shop time and make a GM customer happy. The shit of the deal is I didn't buy my truck at this dealer. Since I had a friend inside I think I got further than most other customers would have. I can't prove this but it is my theory. I am sad because this isn't the dealers problem. GM needs to pay to fix this. I would suspect that there are a lot of trucks out there with this issue. Because many drivers stay in town and never take long hauls or run the truck past 70mph so they may never even know or detect a vibration. I had 4 different GMC sierras loaners and 3 of the 4 had noticable vibrations above 70mph. The last one being the worst. I truly think the first shop didn't want to start in on the mechanicals because it wasn't worth their time and they didn't want to eat the shop time. I didn't proof read this as I am tired. I hope this helps someone else and I will post a follow up in a couple months after I get 5000 miles on the truck to see if the vibration is truly gone. Have a good one

That sounds awful. Sorry buddy.

Hey Brandon, I appreciate the advice. Thank you I have had two great GM dealers to work with. The first one their tech was unable to show that my truck was out of spec. The service manager did acknowledge that there was an issue. They did do multiple attempts to road force balance the wheels/tires However this dealer did start talking about buy back. The second shop showed on the picometer that my truck has a vibration. They are rebuilding the rearend, Getting 4 new tires and rear shocks. Hopefully next week I will come back and tell you this is over. However I realize this will probably not be the case. Truthfully I don't want to do a buyback. I love my truck. This is my absolute last resort. Lets say I get a buy back. Then what? Ecoboost? 2016 6.2 with the 8 speed? Don't need a 2500HD. Won't do the 6.0 2500. Don't like Dodge.

My vibration is different than yours, mine is with the speed and is felt in the seat, console, pedals and steering wheel. My dealer is in the progress of rebuilding my rear end with new bearings and ring and pinion. I also did not noticed my vibration right away. I drove it all the way home from Collinsville Il and I never noticed the issue until I put my trailer on and headed out for a 5 hour drive. Also I didn't drive above 70mph on the way home which helped cover up the problem. I agree with you I love everything else about my truck. I would never need anything more. Also awesome post about the corrosion on the aluminum. I am very glad to know this information. Ford will certainly have problems with the new F-150. It may take some time for them to surface.

I am a GM guy and all of my vehicles have been GM. If they can't get my issue fixed and they do a buy back. Unless the deal on a new truck is beyond good I probably would not buy another GM 1500 truck at this time. I am looking at doing an ecoboost ford if I get a buy back. This is a very sad time.