Shake or Vibration Issues

tnchevy · December 29, 2015

My truck has 36.5k miles, High Country trim, I put very good cause I'll end up getting everything fixed so it has to go to the body shop (hit two deer, crack in windshield as well, some paint chips I'll get touched up). These are current trade in estimated values and sale prices on my truck

Upsetting that I got the truck for around 46k I believe. I owe more than its worth right now. And that's not to include what the trade in dealer would take off. Very depressing considering I could go out and get an 06-07 2500HD with an LBZ Dmax with 75k miles, fully equipped for the cost of my top of the line truck with less than half the miles. That truck is almost 10 years old, this one isn't even 2. Very depressing

I just ran the numbers on my truck and according to Kelly BB I can get just about what I paid for it at private sale and just a few thousand less than I paid for it at trade in. I paid $31,500 for mine (25% off sticker like alot of folks on here) and supposedly it is worth $31k private and $28k-$29.5k trade in. I don't think that is right my self and would not expect more than $24K at trade in for my $42k truck that I paid $31.5k for. Those big $10k plus rebates every year does not help the resale value very much!

cato · December 29, 2015

Anyone here develop the vibe after 10k miles?

I'm almost at 11k miles and if I do have a vibe, it's so minimal I can't tell.

I also have BFG 33" AT's on it with a 2" RC level kit and 2" rear blocks on mine.

Edited December 29, 2015 by cato

LongrangeLauber · December 29, 2015

Anyone here develop the vibe after 10k miles?

I'm almost at 11k miles and if I do have a vibe, it's so minimal I can't tell.

I also have BFG 33" AT's on it with a 2" RC level kit and 2" rear blocks on mine.

Started noticing mine at 15k miles

cato · December 29, 2015

Any knowledge on anyone who has done a full suspension lift developed a vibe?

I'm considering doing a BDS lift this spring but am a bit nervous to do anything after reading this thread.

Front Runner · December 29, 2015

I posted

Any knowledge on anyone who has done a full suspension lift developed a vibe?

I'm considering doing a BDS lift this spring but am a bit nervous to do anything after reading this thread.

I posted that question a while ago in the lift/suspension thread and got nothing. It was assumed that there were no issues after adding a lift beyond the normal vibs that come along with more aggressive tires/tread patterns.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Front Runner

Front Runner · December 29, 2015

small % my a$$, tried to trade mine for a Ford today, Ford dealer told me there was a $10,000 hit for trading in a 14-15 GM truck at their dealership, they didn't want them.

My truck has 36.5k miles, High Country trim, I put very good cause I'll end up getting everything fixed so it has to go to the body shop (hit two deer, crack in windshield as well, some paint chips I'll get touched up). These are current trade in estimated values and sale prices on my truck

Upsetting that I got the truck for around 46k I believe. I owe more than its worth right now. And that's not to include what the trade in dealer would take off. Very depressing considering I could go out and get an 06-07 2500HD with an LBZ Dmax with 75k miles, fully equipped for the cost of my top of the line truck with less than half the miles. That truck is almost 10 years old, this one isn't even 2. Very depressing

Apparently there is enough of these trucks being traded and you can bet that they are being traded in for a good reason. People normally do not trade in trucks less than a year old, especially when they cost so much to buy. Gone are the days when you could trade in a year old truck and get almost 90% of the price you paid for it.

First year depreciation can be up to 25%, in some cases more, but average is around 20% of the purchase value on new vehicles. This applies to all vehicles. The more the vehicle costs, the larger the percentage depreciation dollar amount is. A 46K truck at 20% 1st year depreciation is now worth 36,000.00 on average. These numbers have little or nothing to do with the vibration issue some trucks are having here.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Front Runner

abominable z71 · December 29, 2015

I posted

I posted that question a while ago in the lift/suspension thread and got nothing. It was assumed that there were no issues after adding a lift beyond the normal vibs that come along with more aggressive tires/thread patterns.

I think this is might be do to the larger tires they are running. The tires would be turning at a lower frequency at an equivalent speed and may be keeping them just out of the vibration range. Like the difference between 68 and 70 mph on these trucks. At 75 mph a stock tire is turning at 787 rpm or 13 hz. A 35 inch tire at 75 mph turns at 720 rpm or 12 hz. A stock tire turning at 720 rpm just happens to be 67.9 mph or the magic number where these trucks typically start to shake. What this means is far as rotation frequency is that a 35 which is typical for a 6 inch lift at 73 mph is has the same input as a stock tire at 64 or 65 mph which typically doesn't induce vibration. Just a theory but the math supports it, if and only if the problem is resonance which is frequency dependent.

abominable z71 · December 29, 2015

If you suspect that the electric power steering might be contributing to the vibration problem, is there a safe way to disable the electric power steering and drive the truck to see if vibration will diminish? It is certainly possible to do this with traditional hydraulic steering, you just will not have the power assist. But even electric steering should be fail safe , i.e. the truck should be steerable with more physical effort should the electric assist fail. Is that the case here?

Already tried this. The truck is a real bitch to drive without power steering it takes some serious muscle at low speeds. But it didn't do anything to the vibrations at freeway speed. You can try it yourself just roll under the front end and on the passenger side unplug the power cable going to the electric assist motor. You'll get a message in the dash to service the power steering system and to be careful because the truck will be difficult to drive.

abominable z71 · December 29, 2015

I found two local shops that do tire truing. Since I took some run out measurements and found as much as 3/32" inch on one tire I'm thinking about giving this a try to eliminate it as a possible cause. Also my new rear leaf springs from Deaver should be here tomorrow according to UPS going to try and install them Thursday. I doubt the springs will change anything but hey I'm at the throwing parts at it phase right now. However the tire truing might be the ticket. Ultra sensitive truck might require very round tires, $49.95 for all 4 is worth a shot, most everything I've read about it they say once you have it done the first time, you'll have it done every time you get new tires.

pm26 · December 30, 2015

Have you tried balancing the wheels on the vehicle? Last time I had this done on a car was more than 20 years ago. I have not seen any shops which offer this for a long time as a special balancer is required and those are most likely not made any more. As for tire truing machines, I remember those years ago when Sears auto shops were still using them.

Edited December 30, 2015 by pm26

Wrench589 · December 30, 2015

I found two local shops that do tire truing. Since I took some run out measurements and found as much as 3/32" inch on one tire I'm thinking about giving this a try to eliminate it as a possible cause. Also my new rear leaf springs from Deaver should be here tomorrow according to UPS going to try and install them Thursday. I doubt the springs will change anything but hey I'm at the throwing parts at it phase right now. However the tire truing might be the ticket. Ultra sensitive truck might require very round tires, $49.95 for all 4 is worth a shot, most everything I've read about it they say once you have it done the first time, you'll have it done every time you get new tires.

Don't forget, many tires will have been ground at the tire factory to get them to pass their "Tire Uniformity" limits, which is, of course, the road force variation. If you grind them round, then they may be way out on tire uniformity.

Now, this does bring up and interesting question. Imagine the following.... A perfectly round wheel, mounted perfectly concentric to the axis of rotation (the axle). Now we install a tire that has been ground to compensate for some non-uniformity in the road force variation as it is rolled through the loaded test drum at the tire factory. In theory, should ride well in our perfect wheel setup. But, I still struggle win the flat spot that has been ground on the tread. I realize the road force variation measurement is supposed to measure the resulting ride, but does it really?

As an experiment, it would be interesting to take a truck that vibrates real bad, and have the tires balanced on a machine that measures the runout with laser, instead of the road force method. I think Bosch is one manufacturer that makes such a balancer. Anyway, would be interesting to see what happens if the mechanical runout is eliminated only, instead of the whole road force thing.

I guess that is exactly what you are talking about. Go for it!! Can't wait to hear the result.

pm26 · December 30, 2015

How sure is everybody that their brake rotors are properly balanced? I have noted in one of my previous posts that I do not see any signs of balancing on many brand new aftermarket rotors that I looked at. The second concern is, even if the OEM rotors appear to have been balanced, how do you know they are balanced correctly? With these parts being made almost exclusively in third world countries these days, how do we know someone does not just go through the motions of grinding off some metal to make it look like the rotors have been balanced?

If you have unbalanced or badly balanced brake rotors, the only way you can correct that is by balancing the wheels on the truck or getting the rotors checked for balance in a shop that has equipment for this. With larger wheel sizes, the rotors are getting bigger and heavier, so a badly balanced or unbalanced rotor could cause serious vibration issues even with perfectly balanced wheels/tires.

Edited December 30, 2015 by pm26

WLC · December 30, 2015

We use to balance tires on the vehicle when the customer complained when I worked at the dealer. This was cars and trucks in the 70's so the rims and drums and rotors were heavy. Maybe I smell a rat here! Hero's come forward!

GMCustomerService · December 30, 2015

Good morning Radco2015,

We truly are sorry to hear about your vibration concerns. This is not what you should expect after purchasing a new 2015 Silverado LT. I want to further investigate this situation on your behalf. If you wouldn’t mind, could you please send us a private message with your VIN, full contact information, preferred dealership and current vehicle mileage? We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Brandon P.

GM Customer Care

I see some of the post dates here back to 2013...hope I'm not too late.

I have a 2015 Silverado LT Double Cab 4x4 for about a month...just started driving on the highway and notice a vibration at 60-75 mph.

Brought back to the dealer and they tested it to 55mph and said it's a truck and some vibration is normal. Then the truck locked into 4 wheel drive and I brought it back to have the transfer case module re-programmed (that corrected the issue with the 4wd).

They also said it's possible the truck was in 4wd and that can cause vibration at highway speeds...I have owned 22 Suburbans, yukons, sierras, silverados and trailblazers since 1994...I never had a vibration issue like this before even in 4wd.

I was on the highway doing 65 and hit a slight bump and the truck went into a vibration/shimmy that I had to slow to 50mph real quick to stop the shake...

I brought the truck back and they had the service manager and their A truck mechanic drive it and said it's normal operation...For a 45K dollar truck...I'm very disappointed to say the least.

I've been a GM customer since I'm driving and never had this problem or lack of skilled mechanics look at any of my vehicles and respond with a shrug....amazing.

I'm totally lost now...I have no confidence in the mechanics and don't have time to live in the service department.

Hope this forum helps find a solution to this.