Jeep Liberty-vibration at high speeds and whirring noise at lower speeds

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I bought this 2007 Jeep Liberty off of my friend in Jan. 2019 at 95,600 mi. It now has 113,500 mi. Last week, the check engine light came on when I turned the engine on as I was leaving work. I noticed the car was shaking/vibrating a little but decided to take it across the street to see if anything changed. The vibration turned into a violent shaking every time I accelerated so I brought it into a well rated shop less than a mile away. They gave me a full diagnosis, see image:

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So I asked them to do front drive shaft, two lower control arms, and transmission coolant pipes. At the time, I didn’t realize the shaking was probably from the misfiring fuel injector but I found out as soon as I drove away and had them replace third cylinder fuel injector the next day. They also threw in a free alignment, new wiper blades, and a tune up for me.
Driving home, everything felt fine/better until I got on the freeway. At about 60mph, I noticed the car start vibrating slightly again, and it worsens with an increase in speed from there. Could it just be that I need to replace the spark plugs? Or should I look for another fuel injector to replace? For reference, this vibration issue didn’t appear to exist two weeks ago.

ALSO, for the past 5-6 months I’ve noticed this slightly high pitched mechanical whirring noise that would emanate from the front center of the vehicle during acceleration at low speeds, but in particular, it happened during acceleration during turns. After some research, I thought this may have been due to a historically leaky differential pinion seal resulting in a bad differential pinion bearing, which I thought would get fixed by the new drive shaft assembly. This noise still occurs occasionally when I accelerate at low to medium speeds. Although it is much more quiet and infrequent now and it doesn’t seem to happen during turns.

Any guesses for either of these problems?

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I would replace all plugs and wires if this wasn’t done recently.I don’t know if this vehicule has coil over plugs or regular wires and plugs set- up.They could certainly be the cause of your misfire.In any case,this estimate look fine to me and price is reasonable.

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I think mine might just be regular wires and plugs but would there be a significant difference for my situation if it’s coil over plugs vs. regular wires and plugs set up?

4

Coil over are more expensive

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Thanks for the input! Any idea about the other problem with the noise?

6

Some people post a sound clip done with a cellular phone.That might help!

1 Like
7

Did you replace the bent wheels and separated tire?

2 Likes
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Nope, not yet. I do plan to do that soon, but that wouldn’t make a noise associated with light acceleration would it?

9

Bent wheels won’t make a noise, they will cause a vibration at highway speeds, the tire is causing a vibration and could blow out at any time. If the tire’s steel belts are exposed that will make noise as you drive.

You may want to have the shop check out the noise in case it is related to the front drive shaft.

3 Likes
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Took my Jeep to belle tire. They said the belts weren’t broken. I have toe-in wear on my front passenger side, almost certainly as a result of the bad lower control arms I had until I fixed them a couple weeks ago. Belle tire rotated and balanced my tires and yet the vibration still occurs. I’m going to guess the noise probably isn’t from tires then if a rotation and balance didn’t fix it.

Changing my spark plugs today, although I’m guessing it won’t fix the vibration either.

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Took it back to mechanic. Apparently the rear upper control arm was the problem. They replaced it and the vibration stopped.