tracking down vibration with duratracs

[BirchHill]

I Finished installing OME hd springs in front and medium duty in back along with kyb struts and then had a local chain install new 245/75/16 duratracs mounted balanced and front end aligned last week. Upon leaving I immediately had a vibration from around 45 to 55mph in the steering wheel. Took it back and they assured me tires where fine and that these aggressive treads just rode rougher and I just needed to deal with it . I went home and rotated the tires front to back and upon driving it the vibration felt like it had moved to the back of the car. Now convinced of the incompetence of the balancer I took it to another store with a road force machine and had them balanced again. This resulted in no real improvement, after a week of driving it like this and becoming more concerned I might have a bad tire I took it back. They rechecked the balance and said that everything is balancing out fine and within the range of normal and there seemed to be no defect in the tire. So, my question for advice is am I just being over sensitive and just need to accept these tires as rougher? or is something else at fault? Could it be the increase u-joint angles on 200k mile ujoints from the lift? The new springs really jacked it up from the severely sagged originals. Just depressing for the pathfinder to look so awesome yet drive worse then before. Thanks for your time.
Jon.

 

[Strizzo]

see if you can find a place that does road force balancing. my duratracs were great except i waited too long to do the first rotation and they were out of balance, now sears can't manage to get them balanced, every time they check them the place they put the weights is different, but its always shaking.

OR - if they're pretty new still, you could put balance beads in, but you'd have to pop the tire off the rim in a spot to put them in.

 

[BirchHill]

The 2nd place i took it to used the road force machine, so they have been spun on that machine two different times. There are a handful of reviews online from different places about a lot of variable quality in the roundness of these tires.

 

[Allof75]

I definitely think they shouldn't be vibrating when new especially. You could have a defective set, take the tire tech from the place you bought them for a ride, or at least be firm about having them checked out, they might be "out of round". The duratracs on my dad's truck had 0 vibrations when new, and have stayed that way for the past 30k. You should be able to get a replacement as a manufacturing defect as Goodyear has a warranty on them.

 

[BirchHill]

Thanks for the replys. I was pushing for it being a bad tire but,the tech at the 2nd shop said the road force machine would indicate if a tire was out of round or had a broken belt. I tend to believe him they ran the tires two different times a week apart and since I didnt buy the tires from them they have no reason that I can see to not be honest. I am starting to wonder about the u joints and the steeper angle that they are running at, 200k on original joints might have a bit of wear.

 

[BirchHill]

Crawled under the pathfinder today to check the u-joints and sure enough one joint on front shaft is really bad and one joint on the rear shaft is just developing some slop. So I guess its time to replace all 4. Any particular brand u-joint recommended? Im thinking it should be a pretty easy job cant be as bad as the double cardan joint with centering ball on the front shaft of the discovery.

 

[BirchHill]

I changed all 4 u joints over the weekend. All had some wear as to be expected after 200k miles but still had some grease left. That is except for one joint on the front shaft that was truly bad. No grease just rust powder and worn bearings.
So after test driving there is a 50% improvement in vibrations but, I still get a much fainter vibe around 45 mph and around 65mph. Its not much more then a tremor and I should probably ignore it with the age and miles I guess its not going to be perfect. Its been road force balanced 3 times and an alignment done and now new u-joints so I dont know what else. Thats life I guess.



On a sad note my toyota has bit the dust after 12 years of ownership and 256k miles snapped a cam shaft,
yet it still drove the remaining 40 miles home on 2 cylinders. Thats solid.
Its time to let it go, needing a full engine rebuild and with severe frame and body rust, its done.

 

[stioc]

Great job on replacing the u-joints, I haven't replaced mine yet. Did you buy OEM or aftermarket?

As for the vibration, how do the the engine and transmission mounts look? I never actually had a smooth ride with the two sets of Duratracs, they were tolerable but not quiet like the BFG ATs or even MTs now.

Bummer about the yota...the problem is the rust otherwise you could keep it going another 10 years.

 

[BirchHill]

I went with moog brand u-joints, unfortunately they dont make one for the front shaft that has a grease fitting. The rear 2 joints come with grease fittings but they have to be removed as they will contact the opposing ear of the yoke at full articulation, not a big problem as they came with plugs for the fitting hole. Quality seems to be good otherwise. On the duratracs there do seem to be an unusual number of online reviews complaining about an unfixable vibration. I talked with the goodyear store today who have attempted to balance my tires the last two times and they said they would be happy to swap out for some new duratracs if they can determine which ones are causing the vibes. They said its no problem to send the offending tires back to goodyear even though I didnt buy them through this particular store.
The toyota has been an amazingly durable vehicle with many adventures logged. I have welded patches to the frame numerous times but, its to the point where there is nothing solid enough left to weld too. Rust is the weak link of toyotas, throw in road salt and high humidity and its just a matter of time.

 

[Kmrtnsn]

Birch,

What tire pressure are you running in the Duratracs? What load range? If you are running a very high tire pressure, combined with the new stiffer springs (not sure about your shocks but stiff shocks can impact the situation too) and stiff sidewalls if these are "E" a higher tire pressure combined with the new stiffer components will amplify any felt vibration from tread or road surface. Try dropping the tires down to between 30 and 35 and see how that works.

 

[BirchHill]

Thanks for the reply. They are load rang c with 30psi in the back and 32psi in the front. Ill let the store test drive it and if they think its bad enough they will throw another set on. Should be interesting.