No vibration in steering at all?

Yea I would look at rear tension and control arms. As a matter of fact I’m here looking for torque specs for all the rear suspension stuff. About to go do this job.

The wheel does not vibrate back and forth on it’s own, no. But I do really think the vibration is driveline related, so I really think it could be my rear axles. They have a lot of linear play in them. Maybe I’ll try to source a used low mileage set.
I think it’s the driveline becaus a) my tires aren’t worn funny, and if it was a bushing flopping around usually the tires wear funny and b) when my rear end is squatting with tongue weight the vibration changes a bit. Squatting would put the axles in a slight different orientation, so it kind of makes sense in my head. I will be checking the fronts but my steering wheel doesn’t seem to vibrate. I can see the back of the passenger seat vibrating, and sometimes when it’s happening bad I can see the dash going up/down but I’m not sure if it’s the car or my seat vibrating me.

IMO Tire wear is not a good discriminator of 'suspension' vs 'driveline'


The need to be at speed tells us that it needs 'energy' to trigger this issue. Energy that comes at 55mph. Wheel bearing? Output shaft? But why only at 55+?...hmmm..

so what did you wind up replacing on this 220k vehicle? Tension strut AKA lower control arm.



Anything else? Prolly would help others to have a list.



and Im a man of my word: cheers! :beerchug:
:thumbup:

So far, as far as this vibration goes, I first got a completely different set of wheels, so when winter was over, I swapped the wheels out to a new to me summer set. This didn't change the vibration at all. I've rotated both sets of tires, with no effect at all. I replaced the front tension rods last week, with no effect of the vibration.

It seems like under more than cruising throttle, the vibration dampens out, while cruising/ off throttle (think, highway downhill) it vibrates my butt/ visible in the passenger seatback. Things on my rear seats show vibration also.

The Car's currently sitting at 227.7k miles. Other maintenance has really only been delete/tune, Glow plug controller, thermostat, and a front wheel bearing when I bought it at 203-204k. Oil changes every 5-8k miles, I get free oil and filters (through a local shop that gives me an FCP equivalent warranty) so I basically change it whenever I have a chance to get under the car. Did the tension arms, and now I'm considering picking up some 80-90k mile rear axles since my rear axles slide back and forth with minimal effort.

Get car on jack stands. Let out air from suspension. Grab wheel 12 and 6 o'clock, then 3 and 9. Wiggle the car. Look for worn part. Air must be out of bags.

No air suspension on mine. I've done this already, and have no noises or slack that I can sense on any of the 4 wheels. I've had blown ball joints on my previous cars before, so I do know the little bit of slack to feel for.

tie rods?

To check the tie rods with wheels off the ground you should test with engine on, it will give resistive force in the rack.

Mine turned out to be the rear upper control arms. No more silly vibration at highway speed.

Were you able to feel anything while checking the wheels for movement?