The truck vibrates while driving. Vibration can be felt in the seat. It comes and goes rapidly and is more severe at higher speeds. After driving about 35 miles at an average speed of 50-55mph, the drivers front wheel and lug nuts were extremely hot to touch.
Brakes were just serviced in the past week and the drivers front has a new rotor and new brake pads. Tires are new within 48 hours. It definitely needs new outer tie rods and an alignment and while I imagine that could be the cause of the vibration I don’t think it would cause the heat problem in the wheel or lug nuts.
I have seen two options for the cause of the heating problem, one being a stuck caliper and one being a bad wheel bearing. I don’t think it’s the caliper as the brakes were recently serviced and the rotor and brake pads are new. Maybe the wheel bearing but I haven’t heard the tell-tale squeaking or grinding or clunking and vibration happens consistently whether driving straight or turning, though like I said, it comes and goes very rapidly.
I don’t know that the vibrations and the heating problem are necessarily caused by the same thing either.
Brakes generally, for the most part, wear together on both sides, why did they only replace the left rotor?? I am hoping that both side front pads were replaced…(??)…
My guess is the caliper and or brake hose…
Jack up the left wheel and see if it is hard to spin/rotate, while in the air check for loose wheel bearing… If spins normally (or close to normal) then spin the wheel and feel any vibration in the coil spring…
Previous to having brake work done professionally, I replaced a blown brake line for the drivers side front myself. So that is brand new.
Then my wife was rear-ended a few months ago and the truck sat for a bit while the insurance company was playing silly games over some front end things we thought might have been damaged. When we finally got it checked by a Ford dealer and everything checked out, the truck had sat for about 2 months. The brakes were fine before the accident but they were really bad after. I suspected it was from the truck sitting for so long and being rusty and whatnot and thought it would just shake out with normal driving, but it didn’t. The passenger side caliper started sticking and we got a bunch of warning lights on. Turned out the rear parking brake on both sides was shot and it also destroyed some sensors. Mechanic said it wasn’t due to the accident, just old and it wore out. That was repaired as part of the larger brake job.
Brakes were done all the way around. The passenger side front caliper that was sticking was replaced. All 4 rotors were replaced and new brake pads on all 4 brakes as well.
So I’m doubtful that the problem is related to the brakes, but I will definitely jack it up and do the checks as you recommended.
I’m guessing if it spins normally then it’s not the caliper and if there is vibration in the coil then it’s the wheel bearing?
I almost always replace calipers in pairs, as they have about the same amount of crud in them, unless the caliper was removed and the piston was popped out and examined then no one knows the condition of it other then the piston compressed and was not leaking, once the piston is compressed, that is when I have seen most caliper issues… If you only had one front brake hose replaced then I would replace the other side… I have done hydraulics on boom forklifts with tilt carriages and have seen 1st hand the different effects of the flow rate on new vs used hoses… Also if not already flush the brake fluid…
The only way I would replace one caliper or hose at a time is under warranty and they other side is still fairly new…
That being said, drive until you get the HOT wheel before jacking and spinning the wheel…
And yes typically a bad rough bearing will vibrate the coil spring while spinning the wheel…
The hot wheel symptoms points to a brake or wheel bearing problem remaining. However if no problem is found w/ any of the four wheels in experiments suggested above, my guess for next in line as the vibration cause is a driveshaft or differential problem.
Well, you were right on your initial instinct. It was a brake problem. Nothing was broken though. I doubted it was brakes because they had all just been serviced professionally at a garage. Apparently, the garage I took it to must employ functional idiots though because the problem was that they had put the inner brake pad on the outer side and the outer brake pad on the inner side. It can be easy to put one of them on the wrong side because it will slide right in on either side, but the other one only fits on the side with the pistons. It’s pretty obvious just by looking at the brake pads which is which because one of them has extra semicircular protrusions on it that mate up against the pistons. Obviously, that one goes on the side with the pistons. It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain as well that if the brake pad doesn’t just pop right into place, you might be doing something wrong. To get that one on the wrong side they had to have put an enormous amount of effort into forcing it into place. The first time the brakes were engaged, that brake pad was forced up against the rotor and stuck there because it couldn’t slide in the caliper as it is supposed to. The constant friction heated the rotor, then the studs and then of course the lug nuts and the wheel.
Unfortunately, I replaced the wheel hub assembly on the wheel first because I trusted the work done by the garage that had installed a new rotors and brake pads all the way around. After replacing the wheel hub didn’t fix it, I thought it had to be a problem with the caliper, so I bought a new caliper too. It was when went to pull the brake pads out of the old caliper that I discovered what was going on.
Hundreds of dollars spent fixing this problem because a professional, trained and certified mechanic couldn’t figure out brake pads! For the record, if you or anyone else needs work done on their vehicle in Norway, Maine, absolutely do not take your vehicle to Wiles Garage on Main Steet.
Thank you for your advice.
Thanks for the update… Nice when we hear what the solution is…
The overheating problem with the wheel and lug nuts is fixed but I am still having problems with vibration and it has gotten much worse recently. If you are still interested, I really need to get this issue resolved as soon as possible as well. I actually just got a job working as a installation tech for VIP and I don’t want my truck to break down before my first week of work.
Some new symptoms have emerged. The first thing I have noticed is that when I start the truck from cold, the engine oil temp immediately shows just over the midway mark between “L” (low) and “H” (high). I am guessing that is a bad engine oil temp sensor.
Second, there is some low vibration almost constantly now. It’s so little that you almost wouldn’t notice if you didn’t know something was wrong but it’s constant even when parked. The vibrations that come and go are much more severe now though. You can feel it in the seat and though the steering wheel and pedals and every part of the truck when it happens. It doesn’t pull the steering wheel but you can feel the vibrations clearly. It’s like driving over a rumble strip but much worse. It happens every few minutes while driving, even at low speeds, but seems to happen most reliably when going uphill. I have also noticed the RPMs fluctuate a little whenever the severe vibrations happen.
We have a check engine light on and the code is for the cam position sensor (if I recall correctly), but here’s the deal with that. The light has been on since the week after I bought the truck 4 years ago. We took it to a Ford dealership once about 2 years ago to get it fixed and supposedly they did fix it. However, the light came back on almost as soon as we drove the truck away from the dealership. We didn’t have the time or money to take it straight back and have it looked at again and back then the truck was driving fine, so we just ignored it (I know, that’s a bad choice, but little money means little choices). Occasionally the check engine light also goes away on its own but it is on far more often than it is off and when it does go off it’s usually only until the next time the truck is started.
The truck has 188k miles on it and I don’t know if the timing belt has ever been changed. I wonder if perhaps the timing belt could be slipping and maybe that could produce the intermittent vibrations and the error concerning the cam position sensor?
Every once in a while the truck seems to shift a little hard into reverse as well, but rarely, and it doesn’t seem to have any trouble shifting through any of the 6 forward gears. Where the vibrations seem to happen reliably when going up steep hills though, perhaps this is caused when downshifting to go uphill, but the vibrations happen even when driving on level roads, going steadily at 50mph in 6th gear.
Of course, it is always possible that all of these symptoms could be caused by more than one problem. Clearly the overheating wheel and lug nuts weren’t related to the vibration problem.
One person did suggest it could be the drive shaft or a differential but that was back when I was still trying to figure out the overheating wheel and lug nuts, but I don’t know. Seems like it could be an engine problem, perhaps related to one of the cam shafts, or it could be the transmission, or it could be the drive shaft or a differential or some other component in the drive train. Any suggestions or advice on how to nail down what is causing this problem?
Sorry don’t feel like reading everything again, so what engine size and RWD OR 4WD??
5.0L v8, 4WD
Good news is you don’t have a timing belt slipping (they don’t slip much before needing to be towed anyway), you have multiple timing chains, tensioners and guides… .
When was the last time you checked your codes?? Remember that you only have one CEL and many, many, many different reasons it can come on…
Sounds like you have multiple different issues… You just need to start by checking the codes for current, pending and history… And lifting the vehicle on a rack and start checking the driveline, motor mounts (can be done on the ground), all your steering and suspension etc etc… Check the harmonic balancer etc…
You really need to find a good independent shop/mechanic to check out the vehicle…
Good to know on the timing chains. Never dug into the engine on this truck so I didn’t know any better.
It’s been a while since I checked the codes.
I did suspect that there could be at least two different problems going on. I was concerned too that this was going to be something that I wouldn’t be able to easily diagnose myself even with help online from someone more knowledgeable and experienced. I appreciate you taking the time to reply and make suggestions though.
I will have to see what I can figure out to have someone help me in person to figure out what is going on. I’m on a time crunch to figure this out before I start at my new job, but I don’t have a lift and I have a sloped dirt driveway that isn’t very good for crawling around under the truck and searching for a problem that I may or may not recognize even if I saw it.
Thank you again for your help though. It’s very selfless of you to take the time to help less knowledgeable people on here and ask nothing in return. You are appreciated.
I have a much older Ford truck, but same 5L 4WD configuration. If mine developed a vibration problem when drivng, I’d be thinking of some sort of problem w/ the rear driveshaft first. Do you ever hear sort of squeaking or chirping noises while driving around 30-35 mph? DMP’s advice above to let a good shop inspect the situation seems like the fastest way to a result. They could tell you what’s wrong, then you could replace the parts yourself if you like.
Glad you got your brake situation resolved … I think there’s been some photos posted here of pads installed with the backing plate facing the disc … lol …
I probably will end up having to just take it to get diagnosed. Like DMP said, there are probably multiple things going on. I don’t doubt that, and it seems like with all the different symptoms that are presenting it’s making it difficult to know what symptoms are related to the vibrating and what symptoms are the result of something else. Is it an engine problem and indicated by the check engine light on acting, or is that just a sensor issue? Is the transmission messed up and indicated by the occasional clunk I get shifting into reverse? But then why isnt the vibration coinciding with shifting through the forward gears? Etc…it’s hard to know without looking at the truck with an eye experienced in diagnosing automotive problems. Once I know what’s wrong, I know I have the skill to fix it, but I don’t have experience in diagnosing and figuring out what’s broken.
I know it’s not tie rod ends or bad alignment because I just replaced the outer tie rods and had an alignment done. I also doubt it is suspension or any other steering component either because I just got a state inspection sticker and all that stuff was checked.
I’m fairly certain, or at least I feel stongly, it has to be somewhere between the engine and the axles. Maybe something with the cams, since I have a check engine light on and the last I checked the code was for the cam position sensor, which I know can be either an electrical (bad sensor or wiring) or mechanical problem with the engine. Would a mechanical problem related to the cams set off that sensor AND cause the vibrations I am feeling? I don’t know. If it’s not the engine, then maybe the clutch or transmission, but I don’t know a whole lot about automatic clutches and even less about automatic transmissions, and the transmission temp is normal. Is it a bad differential or bad rear axle? I know the rear diff had to be taken apart and the rear axles had to get pulled when I had my parking brake repaired. Should I trust that they were put back together correctly? The work was done by the same garage and at the same time when those idiots put my brake pads in on the wrong sides for my previous issue. My wife was also rear ended by an SUV while driving the truck right before all this started. Could that have damaged the drive shaft or the U-joint? Maybe, but I wouldn’t know what to look for if that was it. I think it has to be one of those things though.
I’m desperate to get the issue diagnosed quickly so I can hopefully fix it before I go to work for VIP next week (ironically) as an install tech. I know dealership service centers in my area are booked out at least 6 weeks, so my only option might be to talk to the service manager at the VIP closer to my house to see if he can squeeze me in somewhere to help me get my truck diagnosed quickly so I don’t immediately start my new job at the other VIP location having transportation problems.
I swear, sometimes it seems like if I didn’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.