Shake or Vibration Issues

St2002walker · October 18, 2019

22 hours ago, Olvim said:

Hey guys, just checking in after a good 8 or 10 months or so since my last update. My truck (2018 Silverado Z71 1500 Crew Cab 5.3L 6 speed 3.42 gears with 18” wheels) now has approximately 16,000 miles and is close to vibration free. Back in January, I had the dealer retorque the entire front end among with a switch to Michelin Defender LTX M/S tires and that got rid of ALL of my steering wheel vibration. I now ride smooth as glass from 1-80mph. Between 81 and 83, I get some resonance that vibrates my bench seat center console that I can feel just a little in the drivers seat that comes and goes and seems to phase around corners, but that’s it - speed related only and is not affected by acceleration or RPMs. It also completely disappears in warm weather (75 degrees and higher or so). I’m going to have a road force balance done at my next rotation in approximately 2,000 miles to see if I can take care of that. Otherwise, the truck has been good. I am frustrated that it still seems so sensitive to RFV, but I suppose it might just be the nature of the beast. After scrounging the Internet over the past year and a half, I’ve found every make and model of trucks with posts about vibrations. I bought my truck In May of 2018.

GM and my dealer eventually told me nothing was wrong with my truck, all was operating within spec, and that vibrations at 80+ mph aren’t something they can diagnose, flat out telling me they’d expect some at that speed due to smooth road shake and natural resonance (though they did work with my regarding the steering vibes up to 75 when my steering wheel was still shaking, since I argued Michigan has freeways with that as their posted speeds). I went so far as to have my private mechanic who I have used for 5+ years look it over and he confirmed all was tight, fit, and in good shape after a suspension/driveline inspection (he and his brother own the shop and both drive 2017/2018 Silverados).

In short, my steering wheel is firm, solid, and not shaking anymore since January 2019. I’ve got no shakes or vibes up to 80mph, and I’m willing to bet at this point the remaining shake at 80+ is either tires (I didn’t have seat vibes with the factory Goodyear SRAs, but they vibed the shit out of my steering wheel) or inherent in the design and smooth road shake (I should mention asphalt is WAY more susceptible to set it off than concrete). Time will tell, but the vibration is so slight in the seat that I’m to the point I doubt I’ll do much more. None of my passengers have ever felt it in their seats, even after I’ve asked (though my wife admits she sees the center console Shake a little when I’m at 80+, notably when I’ve got a big water bottle or something in it), so maybe I’m just looking for it at this point.

Anyway, hope you all have good luck with your trucks. I can’t say I’m 100% satisfied at this point, but I’m close. I rarely drive over 80mph, so the fact I get some vibes there rarely affects me, but does still bother me deep down. Every vehicle I’ve ever owned has had nuances I’ve disliked, this is just the first NEW vehicle I’ve ever had in my 32 years of life, so it’s disappointing to say the least.

Hey Olvim.

I have a similar truck, 2016 sierra slt, 3.42 gears but with 20's. Do you know, or can you find out if your truck was assembled in Mexico? (Silao?) Everything you described as far as vibration is very similar to what I have. Do you have a lift?

What all did the mechanic "tighten" up as far as front suspension? I looked under my truck at all of the cab body mount bushings and noticed out of the six that connect the cab to the frame, my right rear body mount bushing is cracked. Has any one else experienced this?

Thanks!

Edited October 18, 2019 by St2002walker
missing info

Olvim · October 18, 2019

2 hours ago, St2002walker said:

Hey Olvim.

I have a similar truck, 2016 sierra slt, 3.42 gears but with 20's. Do you know, or can you find out if your truck was assembled in Mexico? (Silao?) Everything you described as far as vibration is very similar to what I have. Do you have a lift?

What all did the mechanic "tighten" up as far as front suspension? I looked under my truck at all of the cab body mount bushings and noticed out of the six that connect the cab to the frame, my right rear body mount bushing is cracked. Has any one else experienced this?

Thanks!

Hey man, yes; my truck was made in Silao - completely stock, outside of the Michelin Defenders. With regard to “tightening”, the dealer did an alignment for me after I screamed at them when they changed my tires (I had to pay the difference from th Goodyear SRAs to the Michelins, so I damn sure wanted them to wear well) and found that there was some slack in the front suspension and my toe was out a bit from the factory. I’m not sure if that correction or the tire swap took care of my steering wheel vibrations, but I can definitively say that it is gone - I’ve had no vibrations in the wheel for almost a year, even through a tire rotation. Now, I will say this truck has a lot of steering feel/feedback over bumps and even slight road imperfections, but I no longer have the oscillating vibration in the wheel.

I’ve not yet looked at my cab mounts, but will take a gander. My vibes in the seat/console are so random and seem to contain so many variables it’s hard to pinpoint. It doesn’t always vibrate. I’ve driven 400 miles without ANY vibration at ANY speed, and other times the moment I hit 81mph it shakes a little. Temperature Seems to be a factor, as does type of road surface. I can get up to 90 on a concrete highway and it’ll drive smooth as can be, and 5 miles down the road when it switches to asphalt it’ll shake a little (I don’t drive that fast - I’m talking just for testing. My common commuter speed is 75-80 with the flow of traffic). My only assumption there is vehicle stance, and wear tracks on the asphalt road, which obviously are much less likely on concrete.

I considered lemon lawing the truck at first when the vibes were bad in the steering wheel, but since that’s been resolved I can’t say my truck vibes “excessively”. I am constantly looking for it now. It’s just disappointing that it does shake sometimes, even though I’d characterize it as “minor”. Over my time on this forum I’ve seen some folks post about the generally “weak” engineering of our fold down center console on the bench, and I’ve got to agree - that thing is like a tuning fork and with shake like mad even if I just hit a bump. As a result, I DO think some of what I see in my truck is just natural resonance. If I can get it out of the drivers seat 100% (again, it’s minor), I’ll be fully satisfied, even if the console shakes a little. I’ve put the folding console in the up position and there does not appear to be any vibes in the actual bench seat, so... I dunno. Your guess is as good as mine. At the time, I had incentives for not wanting to dump my truck - GM discount, rebates, and 0% interest to name a few. I saved about $15,000 on the vehicle all said and done, and being the son of a GM retiree, I know better than to buy in the first year of a new generation. Otherwise, the truck has been great. My 5.3L and the 6 speed trans have been flawless for me. Shifts smooth, has plenty of power. I’ve gotten 30 mpg on the highway over 50 miles before. Couldn’t be happier with the vehicle outside of the slight shimmy in my seat (I’m not defending GM regarding his issue, just giving my experience of the vehicle).

However, my dealer sucks - won’t ever buy a car from them again. Truck had 8 dealer visits and something like 40 days in the shop over the first 6 months I owned it, later I found out that most of that time it just SAT in their lot. It wasn’t until I got in their asses and told them what I wanted done that I got results and my steering vibe got resolved, and even then they never looked at my pinion angles, U joints, or driveshaft. Discount tire found one of my tires to be out of balance by 5oz when I first got the Defenders installed by the dealer. 5oz?! That was the result WITH their hunter road force machine. I have ZERO trust in the techs at the dealership I bought my truck at. Even after asking for an experienced person to balance my tires, they have messed it up every single time. This doesn’t even mention that until the GM District Manager got involved, drove my truck, and felt he vibrations in the wheel, the dealership completely DENIED it even existed. On at least TWO occasions, I dropped my truck off only to pick it up later that day or the next day with them having done NOTHING and telling me “it’s fixed; good to go.” Things didn’t move until the DM and a GM Engineer showed up to pico my truck (for the record, it was a T1 tire vibe they detected). Expanding on that, I’ll also never buy another Goodyear product (took them 24 tires to find 4 in spec and it still vibed on them after), not to mention another issue I had with SRAs on another vehicle years back. I’ve always had good luck with Michelins and Coopers - I’ll stick with those going forward.

Either way, I’m happy to help however I can. If you’ve got more questions, just let me know.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Olvim

rpoffen · October 18, 2019

3 hours ago, St2002walker said:

Hey Olvim.

I have a similar truck, 2016 sierra slt, 3.42 gears but with 20's. Do you know, or can you find out if your truck was assembled in Mexico? (Silao?) Everything you described as far as vibration is very similar to what I have. Do you have a lift?

What all did the mechanic "tighten" up as far as front suspension? I looked under my truck at all of the cab body mount bushings and noticed out of the six that connect the cab to the frame, my right rear body mount bushing is cracked. Has any one else experienced this?

Thanks!

All CC's are assembled in Mexico. If the VIN starts with '3', it is assembled in Mexico.

St2002walker · October 18, 2019

1 hour ago, Olvim said:

Hey man, yes; my truck was made in Silao - completely stock, outside of the Michelin Defenders. With regard to “tightening”, the dealer did an alignment for me after I screamed at them when they changed my tires (I had to pay the difference from th Goodyear SRAs to the Michelins, so I damn sure wanted them to wear well) and found that there was some slack in the front suspension and my toe was out a bit from the factory. I’m not sure if that correction or the tire swap took care of my steering wheel vibrations, but I can definitively say that it is gone - I’ve had no vibrations in the wheel for almost a year, even through a tire rotation. Now, I will say this truck has a lot of steering feel/feedback over bumps and even slight road imperfections, but I no longer have the oscillating vibration in the wheel.

I’ve not yet looked at my cab mounts, but will take a gander. My vibes in the seat/console are so random and seem to contain so many variables it’s hard to pinpoint. It doesn’t always vibrate. I’ve driven 400 miles without ANY vibration at ANY speed, and other times the moment I hit 81mph it shakes a little. Temperature Seems to be a factor, as does type of road surface. I can get up to 90 on a concrete highway and it’ll drive smooth as can be, and 5 miles down the road when it switches to asphalt it’ll shake a little (I don’t drive that fast - I’m talking just for testing. My common commuter speed is 75-80 with the flow of traffic). My only assumption there is vehicle stance, and wear tracks on the asphalt road, which obviously are much less likely on concrete.

I considered lemon lawing the truck at first when the vibes were bad in the steering wheel, but since that’s been resolved I can’t say my truck vibes “excessively”. I am constantly looking for it now. It’s just disappointing that it does shake sometimes, even though I’d characterize it as “minor”. Over my time on this forum I’ve seen some folks post about the generally “weak” engineering of our fold down center console on the bench, and I’ve got to agree - that thing is like a tuning fork and with shake like mad even if I just hit a bump. As a result, I DO think some of what I see in my truck is just natural resonance. If I can get it out of the drivers seat 100% (again, it’s minor), I’ll be fully satisfied, even if the console shakes a little. I’ve put the folding console in the up position and there does not appear to be any vibes in the actual bench seat, so... I dunno. Your guess is as good as mine. At the time, I had incentives for not wanting to dump my truck - GM discount, rebates, and 0% interest to name a few. I saved about $15,000 on the vehicle all said and done, and being the son of a GM retiree, I know better than to buy in the first year of a new generation. Otherwise, the truck has been great. My 5.3L and the 6 speed trans have been flawless for me. Shifts smooth, has plenty of power. I’ve gotten 30 mpg on the highway over 50 miles before. Couldn’t be happier with the vehicle outside of the slight shimmy in my seat (I’m not defending GM regarding his issue, just giving my experience of the vehicle).

However, my dealer sucks - won’t ever buy a car from them again. Truck had 8 dealer visits and something like 40 days in the shop over the first 6 months I owned it, later I found out that most of that time it just SAT in their lot. It wasn’t until I got in their asses and told them what I wanted done that I got results and my steering vibe got resolved, and even then they never looked at my pinion angles, U joints, or driveshaft. Discount tire found one of my tires to be out of balance by 5oz when I first got the Defenders installed by the dealer. 5oz?! That was the result WITH their hunter road force machine. I have ZERO trust in the techs at the dealership I bought my truck at. Even after asking for an experienced person to balance my tires, they have messed it up every single time. This doesn’t even mention that until the GM District Manager got involved, drove my truck, and felt he vibrations in the wheel, the dealership completely DENIED it even existed. On at least TWO occasions, I dropped my truck off only to pick it up later that day or the next day with them having done NOTHING and telling me “it’s fixed; good to go.” Things didn’t move until the DM and a GM Engineer showed up to pico my truck (for the record, it was a T1 tire vibe they detected). Expanding on that, I’ll also never buy another Goodyear product (took them 24 tires to find 4 in spec and it still vibed on them after), not to mention another issue I had with SRAs on another vehicle years back. I’ve always had good luck with Michelins and Coopers - I’ll stick with those going forward.

Either way, I’m happy to help however I can. If you’ve got more questions, just let me know.

Yeah man, I'd definitely be interested in knowing the state of your body mounts. I feel my right rear one being cracked could allow the truck to bounce up and down, making it seem like a vibration. Something else I've noticed is that I do not have very much space in between my overload spring and my leaf springs. I wonder if the overload could be making contact with minor road bumps, when it shouldn't be.

I have noticed similar vibrations to what you described. I drive a highway home from work everyday, 69 mph and I get the vibration. On that 20 mile trip home the vibration will completely go away and it drives like a normal truck, then it will come back. That's why, with my truck anyway, I don't feel something is out of balance, bend, or out of round. If any of those were true, the vibration would always be there.

Could you post some pictures of your right rear, or left rear bodymount bushing?

And can you post a picture of your leaf springs, to show the distance from the two leaf springs to the overload spring?

Thanks!

History on my truck: 2016 slt, 1500 6-speed 3.42 gears. 34" Michellin LTX (non-agressive tread), Lifted 4.5" with a zone offroad lift and 5" rear lift block instead of the 4" lift block that came with it.

taps929 · October 19, 2019

21 hours ago, rpoffen said:

All CC's are assembled in Mexico. If the VIN starts with '3', it is assembled in Mexico.

Mine is a CC with 6.5 bed made in the states.

Olvim · October 25, 2019

I’ll see if I can get under there this weekends for some photos of the mounts.

hotrodz37 · October 25, 2019

I have been a part of this thread since almost the beginning with my 14 Sierra and I am considering biting the bullet and just getting a new truck. Problem is, I don't drive all that much, truck is paid off, and it only has 30k miles on the clock.

Low and behold, like many others the vibe is completely random. The temp here is 54 deg and my tire pressure dropped to 31 psi. Got on the highway, absolutely ZERO vibration from 70-76. The other day when it was 80 deg here, tires were at 33 psi and shook like it always does. No rhyme or reason, same highway.

My first thought is tires, but no way 2 psi would make it violently shake vs not shake. Wondering if its the contraction and expansion of the metal, i.e. driveshaft, axels, something with very tight tolerances that when it is warm out are somewhat expanded causing the issue and when it gets cold out contract to the proper specs.

I am at a loss at this point and like I said, considering trading it in - but with my limited driving it sure is nice not having a truck payment.

Edited October 25, 2019 by hotrodz37

Kylebr1 · October 25, 2019

34 minutes ago, hotrodz37 said:

I have been a part of this thread since almost the beginning with my 14 Sierra and I am considering biting the bullet and just getting a new truck. Problem is, I don't drive all that much, truck is paid off, and it only has 30k miles on the clock.

Low and behold, like many others the vibe is completely random. The temp here is 54 deg and my tire pressure dropped to 31 psi. Got on the highway, absolutely ZERO vibration from 70-76. The other day when it was 80 deg here, tires were at 33 psi and shook like it always does. No rhyme or reason, same highway.

My first thought is tires, but no way 2 psi would make it violently shake vs not shake. Wondering if its the contraction and expansion of the metal, i.e. driveshaft, axels, something with very tight tolerances that when it is warm out are somewhat expanded causing the issue and when it gets cold out contract to the proper specs.

I am at a loss at this point and like I said, considering trading it in - but with my limited driving it sure is nice not having a truck payment.

Mine was slightly the same way before i did the driveshaft and i think it has to do with rear end and trans temps that being said i have not had the issue since swapping the driveshaft .

hotrodz37 · October 25, 2019

8 minutes ago, Kylebr1 said:

Mine was slightly the same way before i did the driveshaft and i think it has to do with rear end and trans temps that being said i have not had the issue since swapping the driveshaft .

Thanks for the reply Kyle, I remember seeing your post about replacing the axles and driveshaft on yours. Axles got rid of most of the vibration right? With the driveshaft fixing the rest of it?

Rick Murphy · October 25, 2019

Hey Kyle did you go with an oem drive shaft or did someone make it for you

Kylebr1 · October 28, 2019

Axles felt a lot smoother but the shaking was definitely the drive shaft and yes i had a higher quality unit made up. 6" unit 1/4" thick aluminium .

Racindave · November 1, 2019

Update on my 2018 cc short bed. Had the Goodyears RF balanced 3 different times. Each time it was better but after a few thousand miles the shimmy would come back. (Rotating the tires would also change how much it shook.) A coworker went to trade her truck in yesterday (2017 exactly the same to a 2019 RST) so I bought her wheels and tires from her. She had 1 year old Michelin’s on the same style 20” rim. Night and day difference smooth as glass no hint of a shake. Almost wanted to cry. So happy to get rid of that shimmy. Never ever touching Goodyears again....

Edited November 1, 2019 by Racindave

Gofas · November 3, 2019

Hi all

i got a call from some lawyers asking questions about my truck.

i told them my history of a dozen wheel balances, 3 sets of tires and a few trips to dealers seeking help with none to be found.

so anyway they call it a defective drive shaft class action lawsuit.
they asked why I hadn’t tried the driveshaft. i told them I was too busy paying off truck and replacing the air conditioner, windshield and dealing with my weird ABS braking issues to get to the driveshaft install.
so maybe now i will finally try installing one. Shakes start at 72 and violent at 80.

Rick Murphy · November 18, 2019

On 10/16/2019 at 8:10 AM, kazaman said:

I had Michelin's mounted, to no avail, shakes are still there. I feel like the vibes are coming from the front axles, or intermediate shaft not the main drive shaft. The vibration "pulses" like it is running up and down a sine curve.. trading this shaker soon!

Mine does the exact same thing as yours and they have not been able to fix it

Mike S · November 29, 2019

I just upgraded to a Dorman driveshaft 976-110 ($335 on eBay) after finding the new one the dealer installed had .047 runout towards the rear, .026 in the middle, and .022 in the front. The Dorman is a straight 5" the whole way (doesn't taper down on the ends) and probably almost twice the weight. After install vibration was only slightly reduced, maybe just a little less harsh or violent. Checked runout on Dorman and found it to be .009 in the worst spot. This is within an acceptable range. I will keep the new shaft because I feel it is better quality and did help slightly but it did not fix the vibration.