Not your average Dakota Shake problem.
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Not your average Dakota Shake problem.
Pretty stumped on this one now, I have a decent knowledge on Automotive stuff but this has got me guessing now and just throwing money at my truck. Here's the problem, Dodge Dakota 4x4 2005. There is NO shake or wobble at anything below 90km/h, full throttle or cruising no shake at all. When you get to 100km/h and up there is a wobble/shake from the rear end of the truck (forsure the rear as you can feel it in your *** and not at all in the steering wheel) here's the weird part. The shake DOES NOT get worse with higher speed and the shake comes and goes as you drive down the road. I can drive down the ring road and the wobble / shake will come shake the truck like crazy then after 1-2 minutes be almost completely gone. Then come back as the same speed with my cruise control on. The truck is a 6spd manual, it does the excate same thing in gear, in neutral, at idle while cruising, with the clutch pushed in ect or in 4x4 it's the same. Now things I've changed / done.
Rebalanced tires and rims 3 times, moved front rims to the back ect. Replaced the tires. Same thing
Replaced the Drums on the rear of the truck,
Measure the flange on the axle for runout and there is next to none.
There is about 1/4 inch of In and out play on the axle when the drum is off which I heard is normal for C-clip rear ends.
There is no noise except for tire roar and a little bit of drivetrain noise.
There is zero to no side to side play for wheel bearings,
I noticed that if I do the "push on your truck and bounce test" that the passenger side shock doesn't seem to be doing as good as the drivers side and there is quite a bit of bounce back. Also both rear sway bar links have 1/4 side to side play and about 1/8inch up and down play in both ones almost worn equally. But I don't see how bad sway bar links and a blown shock would cause such a violent shake?
What would you replace next? Sell truck? lol.
Change the rear end out? If it was a bent axle you would think it would be a consistant shake and not come and go, and same with the rear end. Or if there was that bad of a shake that the rear end would be super noisy. Just out of idea's here, tired of throwing money at it. I'm going to do both shocks and both sway bar links but I think it won't help at all.
Rebalanced tires and rims 3 times, moved front rims to the back ect. Replaced the tires. Same thing
Replaced the Drums on the rear of the truck,
Measure the flange on the axle for runout and there is next to none.
There is about 1/4 inch of In and out play on the axle when the drum is off which I heard is normal for C-clip rear ends.
There is no noise except for tire roar and a little bit of drivetrain noise.
There is zero to no side to side play for wheel bearings,
I noticed that if I do the "push on your truck and bounce test" that the passenger side shock doesn't seem to be doing as good as the drivers side and there is quite a bit of bounce back. Also both rear sway bar links have 1/4 side to side play and about 1/8inch up and down play in both ones almost worn equally. But I don't see how bad sway bar links and a blown shock would cause such a violent shake?
What would you replace next? Sell truck? lol.
Change the rear end out? If it was a bent axle you would think it would be a consistant shake and not come and go, and same with the rear end. Or if there was that bad of a shake that the rear end would be super noisy. Just out of idea's here, tired of throwing money at it. I'm going to do both shocks and both sway bar links but I think it won't help at all.
my rear u-joint cause a vibration, not a shake, but now I too have a shake and I am almost positiver it's tire/wheel related. If you have the chrome clad wheels, those things are a biotch to balance. There is posts on here talking about a "road force" balance, not sure what that is but I'm looking for a shop around here that does that so I can get mine re-balanced. My shake comes and goes, and my steering wheel wobbles with it, I know when i first bought it, it did that bad and it was a wheeol balance issue. I know you said you have had your wheels balanced 3 times, but is that 3 times by the same place?
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A ROAD FORCE balancer is just like a regular tire balancer except it has rollers that push on the tire as it rotates on the machine. This "simulates" how the tires acts as if it was on the truck and driving down the road. It gives the tires a "load" because loaded tires will balance differently then an unloaded tire.
Pretty stumped on this one now, I have a decent knowledge on Automotive stuff but this has got me guessing now and just throwing money at my truck. Here's the problem, Dodge Dakota 4x4 2005. There is NO shake or wobble at anything below 90km/h, full throttle or cruising no shake at all. When you get to 100km/h and up there is a wobble/shake from the rear end of the truck (forsure the rear as you can feel it in your *** and not at all in the steering wheel) here's the weird part. The shake DOES NOT get worse with higher speed and the shake comes and goes as you drive down the road. I can drive down the ring road and the wobble / shake will come shake the truck like crazy then after 1-2 minutes be almost completely gone. Then come back as the same speed with my cruise control on. The truck is a 6spd manual, it does the excate same thing in gear, in neutral, at idle while cruising, with the clutch pushed in ect or in 4x4 it's the same. Now things I've changed / done.
Rebalanced tires and rims 3 times, moved front rims to the back ect. Replaced the tires. Same thing
Replaced the Drums on the rear of the truck,
Measure the flange on the axle for runout and there is next to none.
There is about 1/4 inch of In and out play on the axle when the drum is off which I heard is normal for C-clip rear ends.
There is no noise except for tire roar and a little bit of drivetrain noise.
There is zero to no side to side play for wheel bearings,
I noticed that if I do the "push on your truck and bounce test" that the passenger side shock doesn't seem to be doing as good as the drivers side and there is quite a bit of bounce back. Also both rear sway bar links have 1/4 side to side play and about 1/8inch up and down play in both ones almost worn equally. But I don't see how bad sway bar links and a blown shock would cause such a violent shake?
What would you replace next? Sell truck? lol.
Change the rear end out? If it was a bent axle you would think it would be a consistant shake and not come and go, and same with the rear end. Or if there was that bad of a shake that the rear end would be super noisy. Just out of idea's here, tired of throwing money at it. I'm going to do both shocks and both sway bar links but I think it won't help at all.
Rebalanced tires and rims 3 times, moved front rims to the back ect. Replaced the tires. Same thing
Replaced the Drums on the rear of the truck,
Measure the flange on the axle for runout and there is next to none.
There is about 1/4 inch of In and out play on the axle when the drum is off which I heard is normal for C-clip rear ends.
There is no noise except for tire roar and a little bit of drivetrain noise.
There is zero to no side to side play for wheel bearings,
I noticed that if I do the "push on your truck and bounce test" that the passenger side shock doesn't seem to be doing as good as the drivers side and there is quite a bit of bounce back. Also both rear sway bar links have 1/4 side to side play and about 1/8inch up and down play in both ones almost worn equally. But I don't see how bad sway bar links and a blown shock would cause such a violent shake?
What would you replace next? Sell truck? lol.
Change the rear end out? If it was a bent axle you would think it would be a consistant shake and not come and go, and same with the rear end. Or if there was that bad of a shake that the rear end would be super noisy. Just out of idea's here, tired of throwing money at it. I'm going to do both shocks and both sway bar links but I think it won't help at all.
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Update:
Changed the U-joints and there is no change, the old U-joints still looked great. But I changed them anyways. I booked an appointment tommorow to get my rims/tires roadforce'd we'll see if that helps.
Changed the U-joints and there is no change, the old U-joints still looked great. But I changed them anyways. I booked an appointment tommorow to get my rims/tires roadforce'd we'll see if that helps.
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Any Updates?
I have inherited a 2006 Dakota from my grandpa and it only has 40,000 miles on it and I am having this problem. I’m not sure what to do about it. Has anything fixed the vibration?
Last edited by Kbubblezz; Mar 21, 2020 at 10:35 AM.
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It's just a **** design. Best I've been able to figure out, it is the harmonics in the frame. It seems to have a resonance frequency that tends to promote vibrations between about 60 and 75 mph. I've felt it in every 2005+ Dakota I've ever driven.
Tires can be balanced and true, wheels perfect, smooth road and one little ripple, bump or expansion joint starts a shimmy that goes for miles.
This is why they added the tuned mass dampers to the frame of the Ram 1500. They help cancel out the frame harmonics. I've thought about buying some and attaching them to the frame of my Dak.
Tires can be balanced and true, wheels perfect, smooth road and one little ripple, bump or expansion joint starts a shimmy that goes for miles.
This is why they added the tuned mass dampers to the frame of the Ram 1500. They help cancel out the frame harmonics. I've thought about buying some and attaching them to the frame of my Dak.
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Joined: Feb 2020
Posts: 2
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It's just a **** design. Best I've been able to figure out, it is the harmonics in the frame. It seems to have a resonance frequency that tends to promote vibrations between about 60 and 75 mph. I've felt it in every 2005+ Dakota I've ever driven.
Tires can be balanced and true, wheels perfect, smooth road and one little ripple, bump or expansion joint starts a shimmy that goes for miles.
This is why they added the tuned mass dampers to the frame of the Ram 1500. They help cancel out the frame harmonics. I've thought about buying some and attaching them to the frame of my Dak.
Tires can be balanced and true, wheels perfect, smooth road and one little ripple, bump or expansion joint starts a shimmy that goes for miles.
This is why they added the tuned mass dampers to the frame of the Ram 1500. They help cancel out the frame harmonics. I've thought about buying some and attaching them to the frame of my Dak.