vibration at 50-55 93 explorer

[budderigs]

I havent seen it yet so I am goint to try and explain what I was told. keep in mind this problem started after the vehicle was impounded, vehicle was towed with the front wheels on the ground...

it has an intermittent vibration with a murmuring grinding sound that comes from the underbody front end of the vehicle, my first guess was wheel bearings but I was told there is no pull... when the vibration starts the abs light will start flashing. it has rear wheel abs only.

it is a light condition and it will only do it for a few moments after going around a curve. usually right hand curve not so often when going left. after the curve it will continue for a few moments then go away.

it had a similar condition to this last year followed by a jerk in the steering wheel which was diagnosed as wheel bearings... while I was in there I replaced the front brakes, rotors,lock outs, ball joints u joints, and of course wheel bearings.

has anyone seen a condition similar to this... what did you find... im going down tomorrow morning to look at it... its a 3 hour drive so I would like to make sure to pack the tools I need with out taking all of my tools with me.

[DNeinstadt]

4x4?

[budderigs]

yes 4x4.

[SmithEvo]

DEATH WOBBLE!!!!

[DNeinstadt]

yep. With a 4x4, it's bad news..

[budderigs]

well the 4x4 in these things are bad news to begin with... but I had this one fixed... my current guess is they dragged it on to a flat bed and chipped some teeth on the diff... of course im going to take another look at wheel bearings in case they pulled it backwards with a wrecker....

[5.0stang85]

well the 4x4 in these things are bad news to begin with... but I had this one fixed... my current guess is they dragged it on to a flat bed and chipped some teeth on the diff... of course im going to take another look at wheel bearings in case they pulled it backwards with a wrecker....

a few teeth off the dif wouldnt vibrate it would be the most god awful teeth skipping sound almost a clunk. i would say bearing starting to go on the vehicle somewhere check all the bearings when you do check them not just the front

[Turbo302]

Manual or Auto Lock Hubs??

[Gipper]

my current guess is they dragged it on to a flat bed and chipped some teeth on the diff... of course im going to take another look at wheel bearings in case they pulled it backwards with a wrecker....

You think winching a vehicle onto a flatbed can chip teeth on a ring gear? You also think towing a vehicle backwards can ruin wheel bearings? I can tell you from experience these 2 scenarios are not very Likely.

I don't know what is wrong with your vehicle but I've towed thousands of vehicles over the course of 10 years in the towing business and I've never seen either of the above mentioned scenarios happen. Ever.

Maybe something is fucked up in the transfer case?

[budderigs]

the hubs are the manual/auto hubs they have the selector on the hubs with auto manual and off. They were set on auto.

[budderigs]

gripper: i am guessing that you have the assumption that the tow companey had access to the vehicle prior to dragging it 30 feet down an alley to put it on a trunk. They did not. They pulled it park. More then likely with the 4wd engaged.
as a technition i can honestly say with 3 years working for burnsville towing I have seen more then 1000 case of damage done to vehicles towed for snowbird violations. Most of which were damaged 4x4 components it does happen. The rest were damaged bumpers from the bumper hiting a chuck of ice or something....

transfercase is on my list... As well as u joints and pinion bearings... Any other ideas out there?

[Gipper]

as a technition i can honestly say with 3 years working for burnsville towing I have seen more then 1000 case of damage done to vehicles towed for snowbird violations.

Wow. Are you saying Burnsville Towing has damaged more than 1000 cars in the last 3 years? Remind me to NEVER call them when I need a tow! (not that I would anyway)

Seriously though....

I worked for one of the larger towing companies here in the Twin Cities for roughly 10 years. I've towed thousands of cars WITHOUT the keys for either Police impounds, traffic accidents, snow birds, street sweeping and even a few repos. I've towed everything from New Flyer MTC buses, (the kind that bend in the middle) to 18 wheelers all the way down to your average car or pick up truck. When you tow for 4 Police departments, winching and recovery is almost a daily occurrence. I've winched hundreds of vehicles of all types and sizes while in park and/or parking brake set, on dry pavement and the only damage I have EVER seen is maybe a few flat spotted tires.

With that said..... I realize damage CAN happen as a result of towing a car without the keys but like I said previously, it's not likely. As a mechanic you've seen what you've seen, I'm not going to argue that. However, I know what I've seen too and I'm standing by my original comment.


I do have another suggestion for the vibration..... What about drive shaft balance? I had a mid 90's ford P/U that had a similar vibration to the one you've described and it ended up being an out of balance drive shaft. Maybe a drive shaft weight got knocked off? Also, like you already mentioned, U joints is another common cause for weird vibrations. If they are even slightly questionable... replace them. I've seen them go bad but looked and felt good when inspected. U joints can be bad but not feel sloppy during inspection. Other than that, I'd have to see/hear/feel the vehicle to really narrow it down.

Let us know how it turns out.

[budderigs]

im heading out to see it in about 8 hours... ill keep it up dated.

[TRDon]

Are you saying it is all budde-rigged before you ever saw it?

[budderigs]

yup it has been budde rigged... when I had it last year.