Well, back in April I picked up a horrible vibration. It has driven me nuts, it has driven the dealer nuts, it has driven a couple of indy shops nuts. So far the Dakota has spent 2 weeks at the dealer, thank god for a factory EXT. Warranty. From the looks of things I will need a new drive shaft and U-joints. This is not a vibration in so much as it is a hop, it starts at 10 mph and gets worse as the speed increases. It is so bad that they can put the truck on the lift, unload the suspension, and still watch the suspension hop. It took 5 days of diagnostics before they decided on the driveshaft, the problem is, driveshafts for the Q-cab have been on backorder for 2 months. Mine will be here this next week, then it's time to cross fingers.

 

Too weird. I don't understand the part about the suspension hopping when you put it on a lift. The driveshaft vibration is proportional to speed. There should be NO vibration or "hopping" when the driveshaft is static on a lift. I can't tell from your pictures, have you done any kind of suspension lift on your Dak? That can get the U-joints out of alignment and cause vibrations. Have you or the dealership had your current driveshaft checked for balance or rebalanced? I'm really stumped by the hopping thing, that almost sounds like rear differential issues. Please keep us posted, I would really like to hear what the culprit is on this one!!!

 

This is what has them stumped as well. Since my ext. warranty is covering this, they are playing with it. Once they get the new driveshaft installed they will update me. I hope to know something on Monday or Tuesday of this week at the latest.