This is my first post on the site. I bought a 2010 F150 Screw 5.4L in late July. This was the truck for me. I test drove Dodge, Chev, Toyota, Nissan and the F150 was easily the best of the bunch. Sad to say, about a month after getting the tuck, I started having the vibration issues I see posted here all too often.
First let me say my dealer, West Cost Ford, has been working with me and Ford trying to solve this problem. I have no complaints about the attention they've given the problem and the amount of time they have spent trying to fix it.
To date, my truck has been in for service four times for a total of six days. They have balanced the tires, replaced the pinion, replaced the torque converter and reflashed the PCM. None of this did any good, in fact the vibration seems to be getting worse.
At least it seems that Ford is starting to admit they have a major issue as the service advisor told me that Ford is now saying that there are thousands of F150's with this issue. The problem is, they don't know how to fix it. The dealer is still talking to Ford and they are willing to try new "fixes", but Ford doesn't know what else to do to fix the problem.
Needless to say, I'm disappointed, my new truck has a major problem that ruins my driving experience. I know this can happen with any manufacturer, so I'm not blaming Ford, I'm just posting to update other people with this problem and as a warning to potential buyers. I did do about a 20 mile test drive with mine, but the problem is that the vibration gets worse over time. I didn't even notice it on the test drive.
Anyway, long story with I hope a happy ending. I'm going out tonight to see what kind of bath I'm going to take trading in the F150 on either a new Tundra or Chev. Hopefully, I'll get one that has issues I can live with(:

 

Two words: Lemon Law

 

Take the truck to another place to get the wheels balanced my bro in law had the same exact issue with his expy and the place tried to balance the wheels twice. They said that this was not the issue so started looking elsewhere. Brother in law took it to another place and got them to balance the wheels and the vibration was gone. His also got worse the more he drove it.

 

x-2 take it some place else there are quite a few things the can check drive shaft,toque converter, road force wheel balance etc. also do a search and don't give up so easy.

09-20-2010, 10:51 AM
jlineman jlineman is offline
Junior Member
jlineman has no trucks in their garage
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 6
I have posted often about this. On my truck they replaced the entire drive shaft including the u-joints and carrier bearing and problem solved. Have them drive a new one on the lot that doesn't have this vibration and then swap out it's drive line for yours. That will solve the question....and NO it is not normal...and YES there are a bunch out there with the same problem. Don't fall for "Well the other truck does it also" probably the "other" truck has a bad drive line also.

 

I can't believe they haven't replaced the tires, and checked the wheels for trueness. I have seen wheels that are built out of round and I have seen tires that won't balance.

I know they have had a lot of issues with the Pirrelli 20 inch tires.
They need to take each tire off the wheel and spin just the wheel and check for an out of round condition. I could be just one wheel. If that is not it, they need to put on another set of tires on those wheels and road force balance them.

If that doesn't do it, I am not sure what will. If it has the 20 inch wheels, have them put a set of the 17 inch XLT rims and tires from another truck and see if that stopps it. If it does, you will know where the problem is.
Don't Give up yet.

 

I'd be looking at a different place replacing and balancing new tires. Our F350 had a slight vibration since new, and a few weeks ago we replaced the tires on it using Discount Tire. New tires and having them balanced properly has made the truck ride like a Caddy on the highway.

Places like Discount Tire deal with balancing all day, every day, unlike a Ford dealership. Just because they have the means to do it doesn't mean they are proficient at it.

Having said that, I'm about to get my Pirelli tires handled because of a defect of all the tires having premature ozone cracking at only 25k miles and one year in use. I'm hoping a new set of tires will correct my vibration issue.

 

I hadn't thought of having a dedicated tire shop try to balance the tires again, but I think I will give this a try. Won't cost me much and if it solves the vibration it will be worth every penny.

Update on trading the F150, with the current deals Chev has on the Silverado, I could trade and not lose very much at all. So if the tire balancing doesn't work I guess I'm off the Chevy land(:

 

Yeah Lemon Law. I have owned several chevy's. This is my second Ford. My Ford vehicles have lasted better, drive better, and have fewer overall problems than my chevy's did. Maybe it was just the luck of the litter, but I wouldn't jump ship. Get a new Ford if you can get the Lemon Law applied (which I suspect you should be able to), you'll be glad you did.

 

Black 807. I understand your predicament. I sucks to have a new vehicle with problems. Several have posted on here about the vibration here. Neither of my 2010s have had this issue, but it would not make me happy if one of them did. I also understand what a pain it is to keep taking it back and getting nowhere. I've done that with the A/C on my F-150. I too sometimes think it would just be easier to go get another truck and be done with it. The problem is that i don't really like the other trucks all that much. I've also been tempted to really say the heck with it, trade it for another car and go get a '04-08 model to tow my toys with.

 

I posted this under the platinum thread but was unclear how different if any that truck is to the others. I would assume the frame and driveline is al lthe same.

Just picked up a 2010 XLT F150 crewcab. I noticed a 72-78 shudder while driving. I was thinking it was just the way the air hits the tailgate at that speed. Was going to drive with the gate down.
My shudder is pretty bad at that range of speed. I can see the passenger seat vibrating pretty good.
I have the 18" chrome clad wheels w/Michelin tires.
Truck now has 2000 miles. I have been driving it from Orlando to Jax a few times a week and it can be unbearing.

Thanks

 

I had my tires balanced again yesterday by a well respected tire shop that I've used before. Their specialty is selling aftermarket truck rims and tires, so they should know how to balance them. Sad to say, after the rebalance was done, it didn't make any difference at all to the vibration issue. So from the feedback on this forum, the only thing Ford hasn't tried is replacing the drive shaft. I will suggest this to my dealer tomorrow. Also, I live in Canada and we don't have the lemon law. There is an arbitration board, which I may check into if the drive shaft fix doesn't work. I mean at that point I will have balanced the tires twice at two different shops, replaced the pinion, drive shaft and torque converter. Only thing left at that stage would be to replace the entire transmission?

 

Many times even if they are a specialty shop they don't know how to balance them. Did they roadforce balance it? If it wasn't road force balanced it doesn't count. Did they balance them to Ford's specs? What were the roadforce readings?

It doesn't sound like you have tried different tires. It sounds like you keep trying to balance the same tires. The tires may still be the problem. All it takes is one bad tire to cause the vibration.

 

duplicate deleted.