I have a 99 1500 QC 4x4. Had some real bad storms come through the area a few nights ago. had to go out, ruan through some mud, some puddles, and over a few downed branches... nothing major except for the water. after I got done with work, (about 3AM) I noticed what sounded to be a flat tire, and slight vibration from what felt like the left rear tire. I did as full of an inspection as I could tired as heck and in the dark, cant find evidence of slipped belt or anythign hitting, tire seems to be fine.

at this point the sound was most noticible while coasting. with a slight noise while breaking. and small ticking during acceleration.

in the morning I took it into the stealership (truck is still under powertrain warranty) so I could have the oil changed needed it anyways, and have the sound investigated. was told I had a broken U joint bolt in the rear. had the plenum fixed, and a hose replaced. was informed about tensioner pully squeal (woulda had been deaf to miss it) and sway bar links were "loose". declined tensioner replacement, was going to do it this weekend anyways, and I will have the suspension done by a bud of mine who will charge me 1/4 the labor and give me parts at cost. dealer called me @ 5:30 told me if i could make it by 6 I could have my truck back.

get to dealership at 6 everybody but an office girl has gone home. pay for truck pull out of parking lot and as soon as I let off the gas I hear the sound again. turn around, and return pissed. office girl helps me find tech who was working in bay next to my truck. he says that the sway bar links are broken and my steering bar is worn out and that is the cause of the sound. I call B.S. and ask to have the service manager call me ASAP in morning.

I have had two more service calls and put a couple hundred on the odometer. problem is getting worse. it now knocks while on power and coasting. hear slight grinding. and if i shift into neutral, the sound all but goes away. while windows are up sound seems to be comming from infront of me (seat all the way back), but with windows down seems to be comming from rear of vehicle. I feel knocking coralating with sound in ***** of feet while accelerating, and my but while coasting.

I will be going in first thing in the morning monday and demanding it be fixed without extra charge because they failed to fix it in teh first place. but I would like some help trying to figuer out what it is so I can at least have an inkling on how to approach the service manager about this issue.... other than it's obvious the tech never took the truck on a test drive after repairing the U-joint to verify the knocking and vibration had been taken care of.

on a side note, both times I have had my oil changed, the tech has failed to replace the air hat properly. so last time I had to climb up and put it back on correctly. and first time I took it there I got it back with two white scratches on my tail light. apparently something brushed against it and cracked the lens internally, they refused to fix it. this time I shall be registering a complaint to the manager of both the service area and the dealership demanding both issues be rectified. They also impropperly charged me my deductible on my warranty first time causing me to have to go back and take time out of my work... I am debating calling coperate and registering the complaints, I have no clue how they can be a five star service place and not even know how to properly put an aircleaner assembly on their own vehicles.

thank you for sitting through my rants and helping me out with this.
Cy

 

nobody??? hmm well guess you guys aren't the only ones stumped, took it to the shop and the head tech said he was totally confused about it too... hopefully they'll find it soon

 

Magic 8 ball sez bad u joint

 

there may b more than 1 bad ujoint? Idk LOL

 

Were you in 4hi when you went through all of that?
How deep was the mud and water?
Did any of the branches turn up and hit anything?
Does the noise change when steering or in 4?

 

for some of it I was in 4 hi.

Mud was axle high, water was variable... i think the highest was a few inches shy of the rockers.

Just the side of the truck from what I can tell... I have a few small scrathes by the rear of the right front wheel well.

it didn't really.

turns out it was two broken lugs on the left rear tire. slowly working itself off the other 3 lugs. I am sure it wouldn't have been much further before the tire came off while driving down the road. I now have a new rim, lugnuts, and a few lugs. and a lot smoother running truck FTR i'm not entirely convinced that i wont be needing more u-joints soon.

thanks for the help guys