Vibration problem.

Hey man. Im no mechanic, and don't pretend to be. But when i bought my truck a year ago, i had a similar vibration from front end. Slowly got worse over the period of a few days. It was winter so i had been using 4x alot. Took it to nissan and they ended up replacing the Propeller Shaft (i believe it's AKA front drive shaft). I read on here just the other day from someone else that our front u joints are not very good as they are a sealed unit, and not serviceable. Hope u get 'er figured out.

may just be the u-joints in the front shaft. I had the vibrations slowly getting worse. took it in to have the wheels rebalanced and checked. still had the vibration in front end. took it right back 20 min's later, had them rotate tires front to back as vibration was only in front. after they were swapped. still had vibration.... told the tire shop guys to drive it over 50mph. they agreed on the vibration and said try front u-joints. they wanted 150 to replace with stock. went home, and $45 and 2 beefier new u joints later, got my smooth ride back.
i agree with other posts that stock uj's are minimal. changed both on the rear shaft at about 45k miles (seal broke on 1 and it started squeaking), and both on front shaft about 65k miles.
on trucks that cost as much as they do, with decent power, nissan went cheapo on some things. oh well....

Could be tire gone bad or thrown a weight - rotate to back and note any changes.

Thanks guys. I was going to try rotating front to back first, if that does not work I will check the front drive shaft u joints.

I can't get the bolts to budge on the drive shaft. I sprayed them with panther piss, wedged a big @$$ bar up in there, and put a 1 inch wrench on the end of the 14mm wrench and I couldn't get it to break free???!!?? Any ideas, other than me being a big puss?

bdhaeh said:

I can't get the bolts to budge on the drive shaft. I sprayed them with panther piss, wedged a big @$$ bar up in there, and put a 1 inch wrench on the end of the 14mm wrench and I couldn't get it to break free???!!?? Any ideas, other than me being a big puss?

Click to expand...

Get a small plumbing torch, or a hot heat gun and heat up by the bolts. They do not need to be super hot, you just need to soften up the locktite. Also make sure you are not trying to take the nuts off, there is a shoulder so they wont spin.

Usually the drive shaft noise is noticeable at lower speeds, because it is spinning three and a half times faster than the tires. Check your front wheel bearings. Try getting up to speed and see if the vibration goes away while turning one way or another.

I was trying to loosen the nuts, guess I'll have to break out the torch tomorrow.

How do I check the wheel bearings?

jack it up and check for play, rotate and listen for excessive bearing noise.

Gotcha. I shook the front end pretty good the other day and did not hear anything. Didn't you have to replace the hub assembly on yours? I think that you are one of the few that have had to do this?

I hope it is $25 worth of u-joints rather than a $150 dollar bearing (thanks Nissan). What were the symptoms when your wheel bearing went bad?

Vibration around 60mph that would go away if you turned the wheel a little bit one way. More they got dry than went out, put like 10k on them after they started making noise. Never got real loose just loud and a slight vibration that got annoying.

Have you checked all four tires for imperfections lots of times that has happened to me.I always feel and look at the sidewalls on all tires for any imperfection they should be perfectly smooth all the way around.

It's definitely the rear u joint on the front drive shaft. I rotated the tires today(which they desperately needed) and had my pops look at it. He confirmed the u joint. I am going to ask the local mechanic what he will charge to do it, if it's less than 50 bucks or so I am going to let him do it.

If not, I will change them out next weekend. Thanks guys.

Had the u-joints replaced yesterday, they were bad, BUT it didn't fix the vibration. So far I have checked the front bearings, rotated the tires front to back and had the u-joints replaced. What do I check next?

I had a similar problem, but when I would put it in 4wd, the vibration would go away. Turns out the front drive line was "bad", so that was replaced under the extended warranty. I asked what it would cost if I didn't have the warranty and they said about $1000 dollars.

Good luck.

Mine does not go away with 4wd engaged, I tried. I hope it's not the front diff:comphead:

might have warped the front rotors. that would cause vibration at high speeds

The rotors would have to be REALLY warped to cause this much vibration, right? I have a little bit of pulsation while braking, but it's not that bad.

It is so bad now at 75 mph that my drivers side mirror is badly distorted. If I could get my wife to sit on the console, I think she might have a good time:laughnot really)

I wiggled the half shafts up front and they were tight.

The cheapest front diff I could find online with a quick search was $650:comphead:

i didnt read all the posts but it could also be your center bearing, mine was doing the same and this is my 2nd driveshaft ive gone through (my fault for playing a little too hard)

Thanks, but 4wd don't have support bearings.