I have a 2001 ranger 2 wheel drive. I haven't drove it alot for the past year or so. It has had a bad vibration sometime at 40 to 45 MPh and usually always at 55 to 60. If you let off the gas or gas harder it will stop and smooth out. I just got a new set of firestone destinations and the problem persisted. So I just replaced the ball joints upper control arms and inner and outer tierods hopi g it would alleviate my problem. They were in extremely bad condtionews but still no luck so now I'm stumped. I'm thinking king maybe u joints or wheel bearings. Just looking for any advice.

 

Welcome to the forum

Do you feel the vibration in the steering wheel or just generally?

Steering wheel vibration would be front end

General vibration is almost always drive line issue or bad rear tire, you can feel it slightly in steering wheel but you can usually tell front is not the source.


Automatic or manual trans?

In either case shift to neutral at 60MPH while going down hill, and let engine RPMs drop down, so see if engine may be the source of the vibration.
If engine or torque converter is the issue vibration will go away while coasting
If its drive line or axle then it will stay

I had a fan clutch that started to cause a vibration, but only at certain RPMs, very odd failure, took a bit to track that down


Also do a simple motor mount test
Open hood
Start engine
Set parking Brake
Put trans in Forward gear
Give it a little gas and watch engine under hood
It should lift a little on one side but only a little

Now do the same in Reverse
If a motor mount is failing engine will lift up on that side, you may even hear a noise, and this can cause vibrations that come and go at certain RPMs/speeds and subject to throttle position, i.e. torque on the engine/mounts

 

It's automatic transmission. I haven't tried to shift in to neutral while and coast down but like I said if yoy do let of the gas it will stop or if yoy hammer down a little harder it will shake a little harder then quit. Just did the motor mount test that doesn't seem to be the issue. If I sit in park and run the engine at around the roms that it normally happens (or any other for roms for what's it's worth it doesn't happen). Just crawled under it I can very slightly wiggle the u joint where it attaches to the transmission. I can't budge it in any way at the transfer case though.

 

What engine do you have?

The 4cylinder Rangers had a balancer on the drive shaft, transmission end

Picture here: https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_w...sembly.001.jpg

V6 engines didn't have this

New one looks like this: http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...r5XO-j33-w.jpg

 

I have the 3.0 v6

 

So any recommended starting point I figure I will go ahead and replace the u joints since they are cheap and I want some with grease fittings anyway. But with as little play as is in the one I don't think it will solve my problem. Aside from this I am kind da at a loss gonna take it to the part store and have them pull the codes but I don't plan on that solving my issue either. I had a similar issue a couple years ago but replacing the spark plugs fixed that. They were the first things I replaced along with the plug wires. The truck only has 136,000 miles on it and hasn't been drove hard.

 

Would it be possible for you to put the rear axle up on stands so you could get rear drive shaft and tires up to speed and see if vibrations were there

 

I just tried what you said to jack it up and run it up to speed and I still got the vibrations. Although i did notice that they seemed to happen a little earlier when off the ground instead of starting around 55 they were starting around 35 to 40.

 

Is it possible that my coil pack could be bad because like i said the same thing happend about 3 years ago and replacing the plugs seemingly fixed it, but maybe they just bandaided the real problem. Just a thought since it seems cleared up comletely at higher rpms. To be honest the truck doesn't run fantastic either it does run fine and doesn't stutter or die but it does idle a little high sometimes especially after getting on the gas good.

 

Shameless bump for a little help

 

Well you know, for sure, it is not the front end causing the vibration

Try the downhill test to see if it is engine or driveline/axle causing it
i.e. coast in neutral downhill with engine RPMs lower but speed still high

If engine is misfiring under load you should get Flashing CEL(check engine light) during these misfires or it will come on steady and you will get Codes P0300-P0306, P0316 those are all misfire codes

With rear end jacked up the engine has virtually no load on it at any "speed", it is not trying to push 3,200+LBS down the road, just spinning a couple of wheels. so even if it was misfiring you shouldn't feel it as a vibration
Since vibration was felt earlier I would tend to think it is driveline or axle related, with wheels up there is no stability like when wheels are on the ground, this stability would dampen a vibration a bit, so you wouldn't feel it right away

 

My check engine light is on and when driving it does occasionally start flashing more and more recently

 

Flashing CEL means "engine damage may occur", so heads up, back of the throttle when that happens

Get the codes read at local auto parts store
WRITE THEM DOWN

Do NOT buy anything at that time

Post them here

If you are getting specific cylinder code, then could just be bad spark plug or wire, if matching cylinders are misfiring then could be bad coil in the coil pack
Codes will point to these possibilities
Matching cylinders are
1 5
2 6
3 4

 

Alright Im about to head to town in just a minutes i will drop by the part store and get them read. I did just replace the spark plugs and wires a week or two ago that was where I started although the ones that came out didn't really look to bad i still replaced them anyway.

 

Pick up a can of Seafoam and dump it in the gas tank, that will clean the injector tips

 

Alright i will i was also going to pick up some the the shudder fix stuff for the transmission too i think its called Lubegard Dr. Tranny Instant Shudder Fixx - Tranmission Treatment.

 

well just got back the only codes pulled were 2 cylinder 6 misfires and and abs code off of both sides

 

P0306

Pull that spark plug and see if it tells you anything

 

The spark plug looks good and it's brand new changed em about 2 weeks ago. Gonna run the seaffoam hrough first to see if the injector is clogged hopefully that will fix it because replacing it looks like it would be a bear being under neath the manifold.

 

With engine cold
Unplug the coil pack's 4 wire connector
Crank engine over a few times, it won't start of course

Pull out spark plugs 5 and 6, they should be equally wet with gasoline