weird vibes

[mujaman]

i've been having some problems with bad vibrations/wandering for the past few weeks. i assumed the problem was just alignment as it seemed to be simply the tires... and i noticed that my front right tire was showing excessive wear on the outer edge. the vibes pick up bad just over 40 MPH and are the worst til 60 MPH... then they fade off a tiny bit. they are quite bad though... just a constant whining of the tires that vibrates everything in the car.

i got an alignment and rotated my tires, and it had virtually no effect. now i'm a little confused and don't know what to do next... any suggestions?

i also recently had a battle with the death wobble and the entire front end is essentially new (control arms, bushings, tracbar, tires, etc.). we finally got the DW fixed back in april and it drove perfect for about 3-4 months until just recently with these terrible vibes...

 

[Jeepr]

See if you can isolate the vibration. Pull the rear drive shaft and drive it in front wheel drive, see if it makes a difference. I would guess something in the drivetrain. Mine was the rear bearing in the transfer case. Do you have a SYE? 96 and newer XJs are kinda prone to vibrations without one.

 

[mujaman]

no... but i have a t-case drop kit (1"). i initially had some mean driveline vibes when i put my 3" lift on, but the drop kit fixed them.

i still don't know how driveline would explain the clearly visible excessive tire wear on my front right tire. they are brand new BFG's so the wear is very obvious...

 

[mud4feet]

A bad shock will cause some wierd wear, also. I was thinking alignment or perhaps ball joint, but you said you had it aligned, so that eliminates both of those. Are the shocks new? Don't know if the shocks would cause vibes, however. Sorry I'm not more help......

mechanically challenged,
mud

 

[mujaman]

so here are the new components that were replaced within the last 6-12 months:

shocks
steering stabilizer
upper/lower ball joints
upper/lower control arms
tracbar
bushings
tires

thats all i can think of off the top of my head... but there might be a few more things.

would it be possible that i have a worn hub assembly that somehow went unnoticed when they did the alignment? i checked them myself (just by checking for play in the wheel with it jacked up...), and they seemed fine. i had to replace a hub assembly about 2 years ago and i remember it being a similar situation... although we discovered the problem when an alignment was attempted.

 

[lippy]

how due you check for bad bushings in control arms???????

 

[mujaman]

they are new... within 6 months.

 

[Gone&DoneIt]

possible you bent your driveshaft on a run? Maybe torqued an axle? just a thought.

 

[sloppyjoe]

Sounds just like a friend of mine, he came over with this wild vibe/ wobble/ irritating crap. I took it to the shop and looked at some stuff(bushings, transmission mount, ext.) I ended up taking the front shaft, and disconnecting it from the pinion, bugee it out of the way and drove it, and the vibe/ yadda yadda was gone. Hope that helps, Good luck. JOE>

 

[mujaman]

i haven't been wheelin' for a while so thats why this is so strange. it gradually became worse over the period of a few weeks as well... which is also strange.

if its something that is bent (driveshaft, axle, etc.) how would i go about checking that?

is it also possible that the dealership just did a bad alignment job and it needs to be redone?