I’ve taken my 1998 Cherokee 4.0L with 172k miles to
my local shop twice to try to track down this problem. It happens at completely random times where I’ll be driving sown the road and it suddenly sounds like I have giant monster truck tires in the rear. At lower speeds I can feel the vibration in the floor board. As I keep driving the sound and vibration will go away as randomly as it starts. The faster I go the pitch of the sound goes higher. My shop said they couldn’t find anything wrong and that there were no safety issues. It seems to be increasing in frequency and I’m thinking the only way really find out what’s wrong is to keep driving it until the sound and vibration happens all the time. Thanks in advance.
How Old Are The Tires , Not How Much Wear, But How Old ? How Straight Are The Rims ?
Have they been inspected closely for cracks (especially in the tread grooves) and deformities, checking the wheels and tires for lateral and radial run-out ?
Those just might be “Monster” tires. Old defective tires can cause strange sounds, vibrations, and wiggling and shaking at low speeds. I’ve seen them with rather random symtoms, too.
CSA
I would suggest having a competent mechanic check the condition of the rear u-joint in the driveshaft, and also having him check the level of oil in the rear differential. The noise could be from the tires, or it could be of mechanical origin. Right now, I am leaning toward a mechanical source, rather than the tires.
Yep, the tires were the first things they checked. They’re great, rotated and maintained regularly. Rims are fine too. I’m thinking it’s mechanical as well. I’ll start with changing the lube in the rear and see if that helps. That’s been changed regularly as well. Thanks for the quick responses.
I have a 1995 jeep. When it was brand new I could hear a whining noise coming from the rear end. Despite the dealerships many attempts to fix the problem the noise continued. Finally they conceded and replaced the transmission with a brand new one. The problem was solved and I have not had a problem since. I also had a Grand Waggoneer that I purchased from a friend who ran it into a tree. After it was repaired I experienced a bad vibration when I would reach certain random speeds. It turns out that the driveshaft was bent. I had a machine shop straighten the shaft and it ran smoothly after that.
It ended up being the rear differential. Got stranded on the side of the highway. Had it replaced with a used one with 50K worth of miles on it. Works like a charm now. Thanks for all the responses!