4.6L, automatic, 130,000 miles. I get a vibration at 65-70 MPH. I had the 4 ball joints replaced, front end aligned and 4 tires balance--but it didn't help. I don't hear anything--no squeaks or grinding, but I'm wondering about a bad U-joint or two.


Any suggestions?

 

I assume the tie rod ends, idler arm, and pitman arm have no play. Usually a vibration at a certain speed is caused by the tires being improperly balanced. You didn't say if the vibration is coming from the front or the rear?

 

Did you have the tires road force balanced? Wheels and tires checked for out of round? Did the front end shop find anything else getting loose?

 

I checked out the steering gear and nothing seemed loose. Guy who did the ball joints, alignment and spin balance did not mention anything, and he's an experienced mechanic. I'm new to this van and haven't been driving full sized vans for a while, so I sort of don't know what to expect. It's not a shimmy in the steering wheel. I'm leaning toward u-joints and another guy is checking those today. Thanks

 

Mechanic says it's a bad tire on left rear. Previous guy said right rear was bad, so we replaced it.

 

When Sam's club first came to town back in 89 in Raleigh, I bought a new set of cheap General tires for my van. When the tires were installed, the installer didn't completely seat the left rear tire against the rim on the inside. When it bounced and I took it back they said my rim was warped and they couldn't replace the rim even if I brought them a new rim because the tire was now used and they were not allowed to mount used tires. I took it to a real tire store and they noticed right away what the problem was. It seems you can't rule anything out.