Shake or Vibration Issues

nadrojcote · July 18, 2015

If you read just a few pages back you'll see I just got my truck back from being with the GM engineers who road forced all tires, found two bad ones and ordered 4 to find 2 good ones. Truck still shakes like mad. It's not that, at least not for me. It's the chassis, the rear or axel. Something is not right on my vehicle and it's not the tires.

I was responding to roader.

Bdkfl · July 18, 2015

I was responding to roader.

Sorry my bad, but I do think a lot of the problems aren't tire related. The one he drove could have flat spots from sitting on the lot for sure.

Jesse Davidson · July 19, 2015

But you have different issues than me! Maybe that's something! Haha! We had 14 Ram and didn't like the handling, and apparently the Fords are starting to come up with vibration issues too apparently. They all have their flaws, it's finding the lesser of the evils!

hmm, havn't heard that about the Ford's, I'll have to check into that, I still need to go 70-80 to find about the shaking at those speeds though, I dont get up to those speeds on my normal drive. so once I find that out, I'll have even more basis to make my decision. nevertheless, my truck has other issues that GM doesn't know how to fix, so I still am not happy with them.

Bdkfl · July 19, 2015

hmm, havn't heard that about the Ford's, I'll have to check into that, I still need to go 70-80 to find about the shaking at those speeds though, I dont get up to those speeds on my normal drive. so once I find that out, I'll have even more basis to make my decision. nevertheless, my truck has other issues that GM doesn't know how to fix, so I still am not happy with them.

Yeah :/ on a side note, we got up to 92 briefly passing today and the shaking subsided, maybe we just need to drive that fast ? at least we know the tires are perfectly balanced because if they weren't the truck would have gone nuts!!!!! Seems that GM has a lot of problems they can't fix :/ We'll be looking into Toyota if we can find a Silverado or Sierra that works for us. Drove one last week and it drives great IMHO. Plus the double cab space is HUGE compared to Chevy. I could put that to good use! Haha!

Jesse Davidson · July 19, 2015

Yeah :/ on a side note, we got up to 92 briefly passing today and the shaking subsided, maybe we just need to drive that fast at least we know the tires are perfectly balanced because if they weren't the truck would have gone nuts!!!!! Seems that GM has a lot of problems they can't fix :/ We'll be looking into Toyota if we can find a Silverado or Sierra that works for us. Drove one last week and it drives great IMHO. Plus the double cab space is HUGE compared to Chevy. I could put that to good use! Haha!

Thats good... I think.... guess the drive shaft/ diff was going so fast it balanced itself hahahaha... I've never really been a fan of the Tundra's, they look nice, and are great for towing, with that 5.7, but if your someone who doesnt do alot of towing like me, It sucks for efficiency, the tundra is the least efficient half ton truck out there, but if your someone who doesnt care about FE then I guess it doesnt matter That is actually my biggest gripe about the Tundra, partially because I've never driven one

Roader · July 19, 2015

Sorry my bad, but I do think a lot of the problems aren't tire related. The one he drove could have flat spots from sitting on the lot for sure.

Since im in texas I saw the state inspection paperwork in glovebox and it arrived on the lot about 6 July. That and I saw it on the website at end of June and noticed it was to be delivered first week July

Bdkfl · July 19, 2015

Since im in texas I saw the state inspection paperwork in glovebox and it arrived on the lot about 6 July. That and I saw it on the website at end of June and noticed it was to be delivered first week July

That's not long at all. They do exist in a non vibrating version! Our Chevy dealer really hasn't gotten a lot back with the issue we have. If you really love the truck (which I love mine minus the problems) I would try to get them to do something with the tires to make sure. If they have goodyears a lot of people say they are crappy tires and they've gotten the problem fixed by putting better ones. Maybe you can negotiate putting better tires on it before you buy it?

Edit: when the engineers ordered tires for my truck they ordered 4 to make sure they got the 2 perfect ones they needed. Says a lot about how tires are manufactured these days :/

Edited July 19, 2015 by Bdkfl

Bdkfl · July 19, 2015

Thats good... I think.... guess the drive shaft/ diff was going so fast it balanced itself hahahaha... I've never really been a fan of the Tundra's, they look nice, and are great for towing, with that 5.7, but if your someone who doesnt do alot of towing like me, It sucks for efficiency, the tundra is the least efficient half ton truck out there, but if your someone who doesnt care about FE then I guess it doesnt matter That is actually my biggest gripe about the Tundra, partially because I've never driven one

In the end if the truck works I'm ok with crappier gas mileage. We don't tow, but the truck is our daily driver for work and we put on 19,000 miles in about 7 months. So we drive a lot to say the least. I would trade the FE for a problem free truck and more cabin space without thinking twice. Plus I like the looks of the tundra almost as much as the Chevys so I won't feel like I'm losing out I guess. We'll see what they say on Monday! I hope we can come to an agreement though :/

Jesse Davidson · July 19, 2015

In the end if the truck works I'm ok with crappier gas mileage. We don't tow, but the truck is our daily driver for work and we put on 19,000 miles in about 7 months. So we drive a lot to say the least. I would trade the FE for a problem free truck and more cabin space without thinking twice. Plus I like the looks of the tundra almost as much as the Chevys so I won't feel like I'm losing out I guess. We'll see what they say on Monday! I hope we can come to an agreement though :/

I hear ya on the working truck part, but I still wouldn't want to forego the FE. TBH my truck is one more of convenience, I love trucks, always have, and while I do use it for work and cargo relatively frequently, I could get away with a big SUV and a trailer. but that's not what I want, so I have my truck, there's just nothing like having a truck. my old 2007 car got 17.4 MPG, so as long as I get that or improve it, I'm happy. and with the trucks out now, I can do that

csckickass · July 19, 2015

So just out of curiosity, has anyone had them look at the front drive shaft? For me, I feel the vibration at highway speeds just like everyone else seems to. However, if I drive in 4x4 Auto, the vibration is worse. Here is my thought. In 2wd, the clutch packs probably still allow spin in the front shaft, which causes the vibration. When shifting into Auto 4x4, the drive shaft is now under a torque load making it worse. In my truck, anyway, the vibration comes more from under the front floor boards than from the rear of the truck. Anyone have any insight/ thought?

I haven't looked yet, but if there is no slip yoke on the front shaft I may pull it out and drive it to see if the vibration subsides.

LongrangeLauber · July 19, 2015

So just out of curiosity, has anyone had them look at the front drive shaft? For me, I feel the vibration at highway speeds just like everyone else seems to. However, if I drive in 4x4 Auto, the vibration is worse. Here is my thought. In 2wd, the clutch packs probably still allow spin in the front shaft, which causes the vibration. When shifting into Auto 4x4, the drive shaft is now under a torque load making it worse. In my truck, anyway, the vibration comes more from under the front floor boards than from the rear of the truck. Anyone have any insight/ thought?

I haven't looked yet, but if there is no slip yoke on the front shaft I may pull it out and drive it to see if the vibration subsides.

Front shaft doesn't spin while driving. But it does on my 02. Believe they changed that sometime around 03

kazaman · July 19, 2015

So just out of curiosity, has anyone had them look at the front drive shaft? For me, I feel the vibration at highway speeds just like everyone else seems to. However, if I drive in 4x4 Auto, the vibration is worse. Here is my thought. In 2wd, the clutch packs probably still allow spin in the front shaft, which causes the vibration. When shifting into Auto 4x4, the drive shaft is now under a torque load making it worse. In my truck, anyway, the vibration comes more from under the front floor boards than from the rear of the truck. Anyone have any insight/ thought?

I haven't looked yet, but if there is no slip yoke on the front shaft I may pull it out and drive it to see if the vibration subsides.

My truck does the same. At high speeds, smooth roads, I turn on 4x4 Auto and bam.. there it is. A grind/growl type noise. Perhaps it is the transfer case, or front differential. Local dealer "looked" at this last week and tells me this is normal to hear grinding. Crazy. Will be bringing to another dealer.

abominable z71 · July 20, 2015

I have a 2015 Z71 4x4 CC Sierra SLT 3.42 rear end that started vibrating at about 2k miles. It has Rancho quick lift rs9000 struts on the front and rs9000s in the rear. Aftermarket wheels and toyo at II tires. After reading all the forums this is what I have done thus far trying to track down the issue in hopes of finding something that could solve the problem and possibly help others get theirs fixed as well. I used an app on my phone to use the internal accelerometer to find the resonance frequencies it vibrates at. Got a spike at 13, 26 and 39 hz at 72 mph. 13 hz is a first order vibration that matches tire speed directly, 26 and 39 hz are second and third order "vehicle speed" vibrations that could also be tire related. Had the tires road forced and 0 gram balanced 4 times. The 13 and 26 hz vibrations went away but the 39hz still remains unchanged. Could be a third order tire problem that is usually unfixable without replacing the tire. So I swapped the after markets for the factory wheels and tires. 39 hz vibration still there. Then I tried every combination of after market and factory. Took the better part of the weekend testing everything. 2 factories on the front, 2 after markets on the rear then cycled each wheel to each corner. The odds of every wheel and tire having a third order vibration is extremely unlikely which I think rules them out as the vibration source. Next step checked radial and lateral runout at all 4 corners. No smoking guns there either. Truck still vibrates from 70 - 75 mph. Tried re-settling the body mounts as posted here, no dice there either. Next step is to road force and 0 gram balance the factory wheel and tires and see if that changes anything. If not, I'm going to put the factory shocks and struts back on and test again not hopeful this will fix anything either.

After reading this forum and numerous others on this issue and the problem occouring in all cab configurations in both 2 and 4wd my suspicion is that the problem is the rear end, likely a bad ring gear. The ring gear spins at the same speed as the tires, a warped ring gear or bad spots in the tooth cut furing mfg. or heat treating could cause a 3rd order vehicle speed vibration. I did some research and found out the 9.5 inch rear end in the K2XX platform is a new design, and uses different internal parts from the 2013 and older 9.5 rear ends. Even though this rear end has been out for 2 years there are no after market gear sets available for it. Is this a possible known design flaw and things may be changed so no one wants to invest in tooling???? Rebuilding a rear end with the only parts available from the same company that made the original garbage parts doesn't give me a warm fuzzy but may be the only avenue to try and solve this problem.

The only other thought I have on the issue is a tolerance stack issue. Multiple items rotating at tire speed (hubs, axle shafts, rotors all technically within tolerance individually but when combined to form a rotating system cause just enough imbalance to make the truck vibrate and these new lighter stiffer frames transmit the vibrations right into the cab. testing this theory would require dynamically balancing all these parts which seems unreasonable. I'm trying to arm myself with enough data to avoid multiple trips to the dealer where they just rf balance the tires over and over before actually looking at the rear end or other drive train components as the source. I won't accept "normal operation" or "they all do it" out of a $55k truck.

Jesse Davidson · July 20, 2015

I have a 2015 Z71 4x4 CC Sierra SLT 3.42 rear end that started vibrating at about 2k miles. It has Rancho quick lift rs9000 struts on the front and rs9000s in the rear. Aftermarket wheels and toyo at II tires. After reading all the forums this is what I have done thus far trying to track down the issue in hopes of finding something that could solve the problem and possibly help others get theirs fixed as well. I used an app on my phone to use the internal accelerometer to find the resonance frequencies it vibrates at. Got a spike at 13, 26 and 39 hz at 72 mph. 13 hz is a first order vibration that matches tire speed directly, 26 and 39 hz are second and third order "vehicle speed" vibrations that could also be tire related. Had the tires road forced and 0 gram balanced 4 times. The 13 and 26 hz vibrations went away but the 39hz still remains unchanged. Could be a third order tire problem that is usually unfixable without replacing the tire. So I swapped the after markets for the factory wheels and tires. 39 hz vibration still there. Then I tried every combination of after market and factory. Took the better part of the weekend testing everything. 2 factories on the front, 2 after markets on the rear then cycled each wheel to each corner. The odds of every wheel and tire having a third order vibration is extremely unlikely which I think rules them out as the vibration source. Next step checked radial and lateral runout at all 4 corners. No smoking guns there either. Truck still vibrates from 70 - 75 mph. Tried re-settling the body mounts as posted here, no dice there either. Next step is to road force and 0 gram balance the factory wheel and tires and see if that changes anything. If not, I'm going to put the factory shocks and struts back on and test again not hopeful this will fix anything either.

After reading this forum and numerous others on this issue and the problem occouring in all cab configurations in both 2 and 4wd my suspicion is that the problem is the rear end, likely a bad ring gear. The ring gear spins at the same speed as the tires, a warped ring gear or bad spots in the tooth cut furing mfg. or heat treating could cause a 3rd order vehicle speed vibration. I did some research and found out the 9.5 inch rear end in the K2XX platform is a new design, and uses different internal parts from the 2013 and older 9.5 rear ends. Even though this rear end has been out for 2 years there are no after market gear sets available for it. Is this a possible known design flaw and things may be changed so no one wants to invest in tooling???? Rebuilding a rear end with the only parts available from the same company that made the original garbage parts doesn't give me a warm fuzzy but may be the only avenue to try and solve this problem.

The only other thought I have on the issue is a tolerance stack issue. Multiple items rotating at tire speed (hubs, axle shafts, rotors all technically within tolerance individually but when combined to form a rotating system cause just enough imbalance to make the truck vibrate and these new lighter stiffer frames transmit the vibrations right into the cab. testing this theory would require dynamically balancing all these parts which seems unreasonable. I'm trying to arm myself with enough data to avoid multiple trips to the dealer where they just rf balance the tires over and over before actually looking at the rear end or other drive train components as the source. I won't accept "normal operation" or "they all do it" out of a $55k truck.

good for you, me either

chevy2tuff2006 · July 20, 2015

I have a 2015 Z71 4x4 CC Sierra SLT 3.42 rear end that started vibrating at about 2k miles. It has Rancho quick lift rs9000 struts on the front and rs9000s in the rear. Aftermarket wheels and toyo at II tires. After reading all the forums this is what I have done thus far trying to track down the issue in hopes of finding something that could solve the problem and possibly help others get theirs fixed as well. I used an app on my phone to use the internal accelerometer to find the resonance frequencies it vibrates at. Got a spike at 13, 26 and 39 hz at 72 mph. 13 hz is a first order vibration that matches tire speed directly, 26 and 39 hz are second and third order "vehicle speed" vibrations that could also be tire related. Had the tires road forced and 0 gram balanced 4 times. The 13 and 26 hz vibrations went away but the 39hz still remains unchanged. Could be a third order tire problem that is usually unfixable without replacing the tire. So I swapped the after markets for the factory wheels and tires. 39 hz vibration still there. Then I tried every combination of after market and factory. Took the better part of the weekend testing everything. 2 factories on the front, 2 after markets on the rear then cycled each wheel to each corner. The odds of every wheel and tire having a third order vibration is extremely unlikely which I think rules them out as the vibration source. Next step checked radial and lateral runout at all 4 corners. No smoking guns there either. Truck still vibrates from 70 - 75 mph. Tried re-settling the body mounts as posted here, no dice there either. Next step is to road force and 0 gram balance the factory wheel and tires and see if that changes anything. If not, I'm going to put the factory shocks and struts back on and test again not hopeful this will fix anything either.

After reading this forum and numerous others on this issue and the problem occouring in all cab configurations in both 2 and 4wd my suspicion is that the problem is the rear end, likely a bad ring gear. The ring gear spins at the same speed as the tires, a warped ring gear or bad spots in the tooth cut furing mfg. or heat treating could cause a 3rd order vehicle speed vibration. I did some research and found out the 9.5 inch rear end in the K2XX platform is a new design, and uses different internal parts from the 2013 and older 9.5 rear ends. Even though this rear end has been out for 2 years there are no after market gear sets available for it. Is this a possible known design flaw and things may be changed so no one wants to invest in tooling???? Rebuilding a rear end with the only parts available from the same company that made the original garbage parts doesn't give me a warm fuzzy but may be the only avenue to try and solve this problem.

The only other thought I have on the issue is a tolerance stack issue. Multiple items rotating at tire speed (hubs, axle shafts, rotors all technically within tolerance individually but when combined to form a rotating system cause just enough imbalance to make the truck vibrate and these new lighter stiffer frames transmit the vibrations right into the cab. testing this theory would require dynamically balancing all these parts which seems unreasonable. I'm trying to arm myself with enough data to avoid multiple trips to the dealer where they just rf balance the tires over and over before actually looking at the rear end or other drive train components as the source. I won't accept "normal operation" or "they all do it" out of a $55k truck.

Also this vibration is happening in the v6 trucks which have the 8.6" 10 bolt carry over axle so it's not just in the 9.5" axle