Front tire/suspension noise & shake

Locutus1546 · December 2, 2015

Greetings!

First of all, I'd like to say hello to everyone. Juuuust signed up to these forums, even though I've had Chevy trucks for literally my entire life. (Our lot is exclusively GM)

Right, so into the problem. I'm sure it's been asked before, but I did my best to peer around. Glancing and a quick search yielded nothing, so I apologize in advance if there's another topic here that might have answers for me, but I failed to spot it.

So just two or three days ago now, I was on a 'short' road trip with family, went about 120~ miles round trip. On our way back, about 4-7~ miles out I started to hear what sounded like a flat tire. I can't quite say it -felt- like a flat tire (Never actually experienced one in my years of driving fortunately) but I did feel the sound echoing up into the steering wheel (Which makes me suspect it's the front end.) If I had to describe the sound, it was similar to that of a helicopter in the distance. It wasn't particularly -loud- but definitely noticeable.

Both me and my passenger noticed it at about the same time, as if it had suddenly started up out of nowhere. However, the vehicle wasn't acting up, so I kept driving for perhaps a mile before we decided to pull off and check to make sure it wasn't a flat. I'd think I'd have known, but we decided better to be safe. So we got out and looked, but all of the tires seemed fine. We thus pegged it as possibly being the road surface since it was a two lane (Both direction) highway, and there were rumble strips both in the middle to mark lanes, and on the side, but they were closer in on our side. We figured it might have been clipping the edges.

However, the sound returned when we turned off onto a four lane highway, and so we became fairly sure something was up with the vehicle.

Our first suspicion was perhaps there were lug nuts loose, or possibly a balancing issue. So we decided to call it in, and get an appointment. I'd hoped they'd look into the rest of the suspension to make sure the problem wasn't elsewhere, but I ended up at least getting a rotate and balance (as that was what they apparently thought the problem was).

Well, as you might suspect, no joy in that department. The sound and shake returned on the trip home. ($60+ rotate and balance + a broken stud on the right rear! (They said it had been cross threaded (kinda looked that way)) Yay...)

The sound only seems to happen at speeds exceeding 30+ miles per hour and seems to be most noticeable in the 50-60~ range. Approaching 70, it's still there, but doesn't SEEM to get any worse or even seem as bad as when in 50-60 range. Even then it's not terribly noisy nor does it cause any considerable shaking. I've only ever been able to feel it in the steering wheel as if someone were drumming on the wheel.

On a general google search, I've seen wheel bearings come up as a potential cause for the problem, but for one, my passenger, having had bad wheel bearings before said it sounded nothing like that. And two, most of the time I see that answer crop up, they also mention the problem getting worse during turns, which I've not felt or hear the problems in turns that I can recall. Is this still potentially the problem?

I've also seen brake rotors listed as a potential cause, as well as CV joints?

I haven't looked into any of the last three potential options. I'd like to think if it were the brakes, that the people we took it to see would have at least mentioned that (for the sake of getting more money out of us if nothing else...) but they didn't say a thing about it to me, just offered to schedule another appointment to replace the stud they'd broken.

Anyway. I was hoping that people here might have a bit more insight into this particular problem, and hoping a bit more direct dialogue (Rather than just reading ancient threads) might yield better results.

If anyone needs any more info, I'll try my best to answer!

The vehicle in question btw is a 2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Extended cab Longbed automatic (With 4x4, of course) and the 6.0L Vortec.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post. Tried to include as much info as I could off the top of my head!

Formulabruce · December 2, 2015

Hi, and welcome. I would try a front end ( Diff) service first, and check the axles while there, good luck!

sdeeter19555 · December 2, 2015

Sounds like a tire slipped a belt...you probably have a tire going bad.

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Locutus1546 · December 2, 2015

I should hope not. I know it's fully possible, but those tires were brand new when we got the truck just a few months ago >.<.

sdeeter19555 · December 2, 2015

Because they are new means what?

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Locutus1546 · December 3, 2015

I did say I know it's possible... Just saying I would hope not because they are. I'd not like to have to replace a tire with less than a couple thousand miles on them .

elamigowapo · April 5, 2016

I have a very similar problem. I already did both front bearings, front left ball joints (noise is only when I turn right at high speeds), and both axles. In my case potential problems might be rotors, tires, and hopefully not the drive train.

ps69 · April 27, 2016

I'm having similar issue with my 2001Sierra 2500hd. Service department said everything looked fine. Thought it might be bad belt(s) in tire. I too put new tires all the way around. Problem still occurring. I have seen references around google to possible connections to the brakes, but at least i have eliminated the tires from the equation. I hope someone figures this out. Love the truck hate the irritation of the noise and vibration at my feet. Not getting any feedback through the steering wheel, i.e. vibration, pulling which is surprising considering how loud the noise gets when it occurs.

ps69 · May 10, 2016

replaced drivers side front wheel bearing. problem solved. mechanic said it was in pretty bad shape. so far so good.

hope this helps

Locutus1546 · May 28, 2016

Yikes, gonna admit that I lost track of this post some time ago. (Things got hectic and I stopped checking after a little while) I did end up replacing the front wheel hub units... I lifted it up and did the whole rattle check and it made some really interesting noises that it shouldn't. So we pulled both (We like to do those sort of things in pairs since you might as well when you're tearing it apart). Problem has yet to return since. Huzzah!

On a side note. Found out my rear axle had a leak when we went to replace that stud that Tires Plus broke when we tried a tire rotation. (Replacing rear studs is a pain in the butt btw)