2000 Jeep Cherokee - Vibration between 50mph and 55mph (about)

sounds like a tire is unbalanced. make sure a weight has not fallen off. old john

Hello, mr! You wrote on 21 Jul 2005 08:20:56 -0700:

mr> Before this problem appeared in its current obvious fashion, I may have mr> noticed some sort of *slight* vibration in this ~55mph range.

mr> 3 months ago, at inspection time, I needed one new tire. I got the mr> same tire as I already have on - Goodyear Wrangler GSAs. They balanced mr> and mounted the tire. They also put on new ball joints all around and mr> did an alignment. It was a pricy visit.

mr> For the next week, everything was *perfect*. Then I was on a weekend mr> drive and all of a sudden it felt like the jeep was falling apart. I mr> could feel the vibration through my feet and through my seat, but it mr> was very strong through the steering wheel. Braking to slow down out mr> of the offending speed, or accelerating to speed up out off it cures mr> everything.

mr> So, yes, I've been driving like this for a while, now, trying to take mr> care not to spend time in the vibrating range. It's odd, the problem mr> only seems to occur if I stay in that range, not if I speed up steadily mr> through it or slow down steadily through it.

mr> My inaction is from lack of trust in the mechanic who did the ball mr> joint work and the lack of funds I'll need in case it's a huge job.

mr> Now, my reading has led me to have hopes that it's simply a matter of a mr> possible weight fallen off a tire or a wheel out of balance for another mr> reason. Is there anything else I should consider? I need to get this mr> taken care of.

mr> The vehicle seems fine except for this. Sometimes the vibration mr> doesn't seem that bad, other times it seems like the wheels are falling mr> off.

With best regards, snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net. E-mail: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net

A tire that is separating can do that, too. And some brands of off road tires begin vibrating with increasing intensity as they wear. It can start at as little as 5,000 miles with some brands. A Google search on your tire will turn up magazine tests and forums of messages posted by individual users. Such a search kept me from buying Dunlop Mud Rovers, for example. But I don't recall seeing any negative comments on Wranglers. But I've had similar problems to yours, in that same speed range, and only new tires fixed it completely. Re-balancing all four tires has sometimes helped for a short time. If it does, slight tread separation of a least one tire is the culprit. It's a common problem with all terrain tires run on the road. Also, spin your tires on a balancing machine and make sure they're all still round (that was one of the major problem with Mud Rovers). At the same time, also look closely for a slightly warped rim.

Dan

mr,

I doubt you read any of my previous posts on this (they'd be old) and, right up front, I cannot give you a solution. I can only tell you what I spent many dollars having done to my '89 Cherokee Laredo to cure the same problem.

The tires were rotated and balanced. by a Goodyear dealer. No help.

A wheel alignment was performed. No help.

The steering dampener (a thing that looks like a shock absorber mounted sideways on the front of the front axle was replaced. This did help more than anything, but did not completely cure the problem because I could still feel some shimmy going through 55mph.

It was after this that I started thinking that maybe, through some fluke or wear-out, the front prop shaft had become warped or gotten out of balance and was giving some serious thought to having it replaced to see if that would stop the shimmy. Then, in our wonderful DC area traffic, the '89 got rear ended. I replaced the '89 with a '99 Cherokee Classic. The '99 never exhibited that problem through 104K miles when the 4.0L inline six decided to break a connecting rod and punch a big hole in the side of the engine block back in January. Now I have a new '05 Grand Cherokee.

If you find out what causes this ailment, let us know.

Best of luck,

Turner

I'm getting the same vibration through the steering wheel at 52mph. Any faster or slower clears everything up. I've been driving through lots of road construction areas and have smacked a couple of nice sized pot holes at speed.

Not a hint of anything wrong until after rotating the P235 BFG ATs front to back. Noticed the shimmy shakes right off the bat. Haven't had the time to have it checked out, so I'll be taking notes on any info posted here.