I’ve got 5.8k miles and haven’t had any problems at all, until yesterday.
On my way to work almost immediately I notice a very firm and serious vibration in the suspension/drive train of my p/u. I notice it’s very strong at around 20mph then at around 50mph. My initial thought was I had thrown a weight from one of my tires and I’m out of balance. So I call my tire shop after I get to work to set a time to get my tires checked and re-zeroed. Low and behold on the way to the tire shop there is absolutely no signs of the vibration problem. The tire tech said he didn’t find any problems with the tires and that all 4 had been rebalanced. So I drive back to work then after work drive home and there are no problems at all.
Fast forward to this morning and I’m on the road to work again and things start out fine until I slow for traffic hit about 15mph and boom the big vibration is back. I accelerate and move past 60mph and the vibration stops and doesn’t come back the entire trip.
I’ve heard the other reports of the ‘vibe’ problem but this as far more intense than the accounts I’ve heard of the ‘vibe’ problem. The back of the front right seat was actually shaking forward and backward by 3-4 inches, meaning it’s a very intense and hard vibration.
I have no idea what to think…any ideas?

thx,
300

 

Do you ever use your e-brake?

 

Yeah I set the ebrake on steep hills before I take my foot off the brake.

 

I had a problem sort of like this one with my '97. My e-brake was sticking sometimes with a violent shudder out of the blue. I tried lubing the cable with WD-40, but to no fix. Had to replace the cable. I also had a much less violent shudder on my '05. That turned out to be a sticking valve in the tranny. It felt like hitting a small section of rumple strips about 1/2 inch high. There and then gone immediately. Good luck.

 

I cant imagine how the ebrake could cause powerful vibrations. I'm thinking this is a transmission/drive shaft problem and damn if thats something I want to deal with.
Anyone else experience violent vibrations out of the blue?

 

Sounds like a classic case of rust hung e-brake. This seems to hit mostly in trucks in the salt or wet areas when the parking brake is used only sometimes. If never used you wouldn't notice a problem, if used every time you stop it doesn't rust up.

The viberation feels like one or two tire weights off, from the dozens of descriptions.

Here is the great thread where a fix was done;
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...ght=brake+rust

Best of luck
Chris

 

Do you have lots of snow? Sometimes this can get packed into the brakes/hubs.

 

We have not had much snow along the front range this fall. The problem that I had before was something that did not seem to fit the symtoms, but it was the e-brake. Does not hurt to check it out.

 

I had the ebrake sticking issue, the dealer ended up replacing my cable on the drivers side. It would vibrate so bad it felt like I was in a blender or something. It would feel like I was about to loose an entire wheel.

 

Excellent feedback, thanks guys.
Looks like I'm going to start investigating the ebrake.

thx,
300

 

An easy way to tell is to pull over when it does it and feel your rear wheels near the hub. My drivers side would get too hot to touch.

 

I tried that on my '97's problem, but could not really tell if it was hot. The e-brakes on these trucks are not very big and do not have a large contact surface area to build up heat quickly. By all means, check it like cndcowboy said, but it does not always heat up. Good Luck.

300wby
Did you go on a hunt this month?

 

No but I plan on hitting it real hard in January. How bout you?

BTW this problem has not resurfaced. I've been intentionally using my ebrake more often so it's more used to the activity. thx guys

 

Got my doe back in October above Craig, but I have too many points to burn on a cow elk. I have 8 this year with hopes of getting a bull tag in area 3/4 or 201. Good luck in Jan.

 

I use my e-brake while at work, because I park on a steep incline, and after I left the office today my truck started to exhibit an issue similar to those described above.

All of a sudden on the freeway, 5 miles into my trip home, I started to get that shudder. Thought it was a tire, so I pulled over and sure enough the rear driver's side wheel had a burning smell. I then pulled the e-brake release handle a few more times, and drove to the dealer to make an appointment (I also need my tires checked out). so we will see what happens.