Shake or Vibration Issues

chevy fan66 · July 26, 2017

I have 2016 Silverado 1500 crew cab LT Z71. It vibrates intermitantly, I can go down the interstate 74 mph and it will ride smooth as silk then 2 seconds later it will start shaking and do that for a couple of miles, then smooth out. About a month ago I had a load in the bed of the truck maybe 250 lbs and drove on the interstate at 74 mph for about 110 miles and never shook at all. I've been following this since mine started doing this and wish someone would come up with a fix for this.

Jesse Davidson · July 26, 2017

Just watched your video, That drivers side is really bad. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yukons improve things significantly. I have been tempted to swap my axles out for Yukons as my final attempt/investment before getting rid of the truck and switching manufactures for good, the 2018 F-150 with the updated 5.0 and 10 speed tranny is looking pretty good right now, I'll wait and see what your results are after the axles have been swapped for a few thousand miles.

NO WAY... Did I just read this right? ABOMINABLE Z71 might join the FERD club? Never thought I'd see the day! As for waiting a few thousand miles, didn't a couple people already swap for the Yukon Axles? If I remember right it help 1 of the people but not the rest, however many others there were.

Gears and Gadgets · July 26, 2017

After 4 days in the shop the service writer told me they road force balanced again with a new machine they got from hunter. This must be the new machine they previously told me they had to purchase to remain in spec with GM requirements. Anyhow, he told me the Hunter guy used my truck for training and they re balanced all 4 tires. He told me my truck was all fixed. I made it 4 miles down the highway before it started vibrating again. I should be hearing from GM corporate today, I also sent them my video. We shall see what they say.

Severado · July 26, 2017

After 4 days in the shop the service writer told me they road force balanced again with a new machine they got from hunter. This must be the new machine they previously told me they had to purchase to remain in spec with GM requirements. Anyhow, he told me the Hunter guy used my truck for training and they re balanced all 4 tires. He told me my truck was all fixed. I made it 4 miles down the highway before it started vibrating again. I should be hearing from GM corporate today, I also sent them my video. We shall see what they say.

Here is a link for reference to the new Hunter machines.

http://sandyblogs.com/techlink/?p=7276

http://sandyblogs.com/techlink/?p=7278

Edited July 26, 2017 by Severado

kthomas72 · July 26, 2017

It could be done however mine are not true on the bolt mount surface as well as the center black area of the hub seems to be off.

I had great success with the dealership replacing mine after I showed them the videos that I had taken. Its worth a shot with it being a manufactured issue.

rhino68 · July 26, 2017

I had great success with the dealership replacing mine after I showed them the videos that I had taken. Its worth a shot with it being a manufactured issue.

Did you say you still have the vibration after the replacement?

kthomas72 · July 26, 2017

Did you say you still have the vibration after the replacement?

Yes I do. Felt through more of the front end of my truck, steering wheel, brake pedals, floor boards and center console. But if you can show them the video and get it in writing like I have you will have a better shot with a buy back or lemon law which is the route I am going. Its a big expensive issue and I think if there is a recall of some sorts it will cost a ton of money. It felt somewhat better at the time but last weekend I drove 160 miles to Palm Springs and it literally felt like my motor, trans or front suspension was going to fall off.

rhino68 · July 26, 2017

Yes I do. Felt through more of the front end of my truck, steering wheel, brake pedals, floor boards and center console. But if you can show them the video and get it in writing like I have you will have a better shot with a buy back or lemon law which is the route I am going. Its a big expensive issue and I think if there is a recall of some sorts it will cost a ton of money. It felt somewhat better at the time but last weekend I drove 160 miles to Palm Springs and it literally felt like my motor, trans or front suspension was going to fall off.

Have you checked the runout on the new axles yet? I would assume you would be getting the same crap that was in there the first time.

Rolling Thunder · July 27, 2017

Option #5

.............. Also if you do decide to blow it up it would be epic if you could do it in front of GM'S corporate headquarters.

He wouldn't do well in federal prison.................

Gears and Gadgets · July 27, 2017

Option #5

Start a gofundme for a slanderous advertising campaign against General Motors to raise awareness of this problem, you will see the numbers on this problem increase 10 fold. I would donate a couple of bucks on that for sure, I mean after all I put a small chunk of change out of pocket on my 2015 Silverado to alleviate 80% of my vibration. Also if you do decide to blow it up it would be epic if you could do it in front of GM'S corporate headquarters.

Slanderous would imply that I am making false claims. I am not making any false claims or defamatory statements. I am simply stating facts and raising awareness for a problem that people are experiencing which seems to be largely ignored. It is really no different than fling a better business bureau claim, this is just a different approach. Edited July 27, 2017 by dmetz82

kthomas72 · July 27, 2017

Have you checked the runout on the new axles yet? I would assume you would be getting the same crap that was in there the first time.

That is what I was thinking as well but I did check them and they are legit. I'm just going to keep filming and finding more cheap Hecho en Mexico parts out of spec and keep having them replace this junk until I get a buyback or lemon law. Like I said, as soon as I showed the dealership the video, they jumped on it. The service manager told me that the video for him was perfect, they have been having a really hard time having GM pay for the poorly manufactured parts so the more evidence you bring the better.

Wrench589 · July 27, 2017

After 4 days in the shop the service writer told me they road force balanced again with a new machine they got from hunter. This must be the new machine they previously told me they had to purchase to remain in spec with GM requirements. Anyhow, he told me the Hunter guy used my truck for training and they re balanced all 4 tires. He told me my truck was all fixed. I made it 4 miles down the highway before it started vibrating again. I should be hearing from GM corporate today, I also sent them my video. We shall see what they say.

It's amazing that after all theses years of dealing with this issue, GM continues to waste time and money on a solution that does not correct the issue - Road Force Balancing. I mean, how daft must they be?? Time and time again, we see posts retelling the same story over and over again. It's epic, how stupid GM is. Obviously, the tires are not the problem. Obviously it's something else. Either that, or the entire tire industry is building tires that change their characteristics as you drive and if that is happening, there is no solution other than a vehicle that can mask the tires.....

Rolling Thunder · July 27, 2017

It's epic, how stupid GM is. Obviously, the tires are not the problem.

Actually GM really isn't so 'stupid,' they aren't issuing a service bulletin to fix the problem because whatever it is, it's going to be expensive. They dropped it all on truck owners and their dealers. I don't think that's 'stupid' at all. And don't think for a moment that GM doesn't know what the problem is, they know............

Wrench589 · July 27, 2017

Regarding the axles, there was a lot of discussion on axles many months ago, when it was first discovered that the axle flanges were not running true. We discussed in great detail the radial runout of the Outside Diameter (OD) of the axle flange itself, and bottom line, from a weight-balance perspective it would be a small amount of unbalance. And, that surface is not part of the fitment for the wheel, so no effect there.

The bigger effect would seem to be the "face runout" of the axle flange. Or the wobble side-to-side that some videos showed. With the wheel mounted, this magnifies to quite a bit of side-to-side wobble at the tread which would certainly be felt in the vehicle, especially when the two wheels on the same axle "get in sync" with each other. (When they are out of sync, they would literally cancel each out quite nicely!) no amount of road force balancing the tires off the vehicle could ever correct this. I suspect that what is happening is the in-sync/out-of-sync effect is playing tricks on everyone, thinking some other corrective action had a positive effect until they go back in sync and magically "the vibration returns".

Back to the radial runout...the one thing that was never checked accurately was the bolt circle runout. Difficult to measure without a special jig or fixture. Would be interesting to see the result of that.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Wrench589

Jesse Davidson · July 27, 2017

It's amazing that after all theses years of dealing with this issue, GM continues to waste time and money on a solution that does not correct the issue - Road Force Balancing. I mean, how daft must they be?? Time and time again, we see posts retelling the same story over and over again. It's epic, how stupid GM is. Obviously, the tires are not the problem. Obviously it's something else. Either that, or the entire tire industry is building tires that change their characteristics as you drive and if that is happening, there is no solution other than a vehicle that can mask the tires.....

Actually, Tires and every other part will change their characteristics as you drive there are different stresses, temperatures pressures etc on every single part which will change the characteristics even minimally but still a change. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that tires are or aren't the issue, I don't know what is and I don't believe tires have anything to do with it. I'm just talking from an engineering stand point.

Regarding the axles, there was a lot of discussion on axles many months ago, when it was first discovered that the axle flanges were not running true. We discussed in great detail the radial runout of the Outside Diameter (OD) of the axle flange itself, and bottom line, from a weight-balance perspective it would be a small amount of unbalance. And, that surface is not part of the fitment for the wheel, so no effect there.

The bigger effect would seem to be the "face runout" of the axle flange. Or the wobble side-to-side that some videos showed. With the wheel mounted, this magnifies to quite a bit of side-to-side wobble at the tread which would certainly be felt in the vehicle, especially when the two wheels on the same axle "get in sync" with each other. (When they are out of sync, they would literally cancel each out quite nicely!) no amount of road force balancing the tires off the vehicle could ever correct this. I suspect that what is happening is the in-sync/out-of-sync effect is playing tricks on everyone, thinking some other corrective action had a positive effect until they go back in sync and magically "the vibration returns".

Back to the radial runout...the one thing that was never checked accurately was the bolt circle runout. Difficult to measure without a special jig or fixture. Would be interesting to see the result of that.

Someone would have to go back and look for it, but I believe I did an analysis of what a few oz of additional weight on the outer edge of a rotor/ axle flange in rotation would correlate to. If I recall correctly, based on whoever it was that posted the weight of material was taken off of theirs after having them turned on a lathe, it became the equivalent of having a 15lb weight spinning on the outter edge.