I have 97,000 miles on my Dakota. It developed a really rough ride, so after a lot of research I put on 4 new Monroe Reflex truck/suv shocks yesterday. It did better with those, it has a firmer ride and the bumps are not so harsh now. I had Sensa Trac shocks before that and they were worn, but maybe not worn out. I had 37K on them. Driving the truck to work today I noticed a harsh vibration from the front end, at all speeds from 20 on up to 60 mph. I took it to the tire store where I have a lifetime rotation and balance policy on it, they rotated and balanced the tires but also diagnosed a loose left front tie rod end, which they said was the cause of the vibration I had. I had them replace it, and thinking the other one was probably not far behind, I had them replace the right tie rod end too. I have a 3 year alignment policy too so they checked and realigned it at no charge.

Trouble is, there is still a vibration in the front end somewhere. I feel it from the front end of the truck, in the floor pan and in my foot on the pedal and somewhat up into the seat on the butt-dyno. It is present from about 50 mph up through 70-75 mph. And it is irritating, not to mention could indicate something else is wrong with my truck. The harsh vibration I felt in the steering wheel is gone so maybe the tie rod end(s) did need to be replaced. This tire store has never lied to me before. I have looked under the truck myself several times and can find nothing wrong, but I am untrained. All the bushings and so forth look good to me, just the usual fine hairline creases you might see at 97K. I am probably wrong on that assumption but I don't know what else to look for.

Tires are Michelin LTX M/S 235/75R15, they have about 55K on them, are 3 years old and still look to have about 1/2 the original tread left. Even though they still look to be in good shape could the tires be causing this vibration? Michelin says they have a 60K warranty. How do you tell if a tire is out of round and causing a bad vibration? Would that have shown up when the tech balanced the wheels today? Something is causing this truck to have a bad vibration from the front end somewhere. It didn't do this before. Truck has never been wrecked and I have always, always taken exceptionally good care of it. I don't know what else to look for and at this point I'm ready to dump it in the Gulf of Mexico and start over.

I appreciate any help you guys have.

 

yours is a 4x4 right? check out your front u-joints. id also have the tire shop re-balance the tires.

 

No its a 2wd. Ball joints are OK, no movement on the tire/wheel in or out, up or down. There's no slop or noise in the wheel bearings either. I'm taking off from work early tomorrow and either going to another locatio of the same tire store or maybe back to the one I went to today.. They might not want to do such a good job on a comeback, especially since I came back and had them re-do the alignment tonight. The steering wheel was off to the left about 15 degrees when I went straight on a straight flat road. My Dakota for some reason is really hard to get the steering wheel to line up right.

If I can I will get the manager or someone who knows what he's looking for to go on a test drive. If I need them I'll get new tires. Whatever it takes, I don't need to be buying a new truck now.

Thanks for the help.

Jimmy

 

believe me, comebacks reflect poorly on the tech who worked on it. request the lead tech do the work on it asap when you get there. the one firestone dealer knows me very well. some dopey a*s kid did the alignment on my dakota, completely horrible. not even 15 mins alter was that truck back on the rack with the lead tech doing the work along with the anger and myself watching the tech do the repair. my advice to tget treated royally is to come back very unsatisfied yet understanding. request you watch the work be performed. even if you have to stand outside the garage bay.

 

An update..Turns out the guy who balanced the wheels last night must not have known what he was doing. All 4 wheels were way out of balance and completely out of whack by half to over an ounce and a half on both sides. The guys at the different location today were very good about getting it taken care of, they sent me on a test drive with their tech, got it out on the interstate and demonstated the vibration to him, and he agreed there was definitely something wrong. Went back to the shop and they let me hang out in the shop with him while he checked and re-balanced all 4 wheels. The weights and their placement were completely wrong. There were even a couple of weights the guy from the other store had cut part of the weight off to try to get a correct weight. I guess they must have been out of that particular sized weight at the time.

Tires all balanced out to zero and the drive home was perfect. The only thing is the weights the guy today used don't fit flush down on the wheel like the ones I had on there before I started this whole ordeal. I know there are different types that grip on different sizes of the edge of the rim and sit at different angles on the wheel. I had thought of taking a hammer to tap them down flat but as long as they stay on and my truck drives right I'll leave well enough alone. A strange thing is a couple of the wheels have more than one weight on the outside side of the wheel now. I had no idea the geometry of the wheel/tire balance could change that much.

Now i just have to get used to these Reflex shocks. They are much stiffer and I have a firmer ride than I had before but it's much more solid now.

Thanks everybody for the help here.