Just reread your post, man we are having the same exact problem. I noticed the same thing, seemed like when I was accelerating to get over a hill, the vibration was more pronounced. Anyways you say you have spent quite a bit so far. What kind of stuff have you done? Just curious could be stuff I would cross off my list as not needed to do........

 

Yeah unfortunately the old days of high speed balancing are done with. Shame, I would love to try it out. Also I would love to find a shop that did on vehicle wheel balancing. If this was a drive component caused vibration, they would be able to detect it and isolate it. Oh well.

 

Maybe you should try changing the other axle (half shaft). I had mentioned the axles before because we were running out of possibilities. Maybe the axles looked brand new because they were replaced with cheap parts before you bought it?? Is this an AWD??? Glad you have it mostly solved.

 

TMJ, thanks for keeping us updated. Did you happen to see if there was anything wrong with the old halfshaft? They probly aren't cheap but mrfixit could be on to the rest of your problem, good luck...

 

No, I asked them to dismantle the joint but they didn't get around to it. The tech seemed to believe it was simply a matter of a slight tweak to the shaft and that was what was causing the vibration. The vehicle only has 14000 miles on it, hard to believe that the half shafts could already be giving problems. I did ask them to replace the driver side halfshaft. It is on order from Chrysler. I have noticed that the remaining vibration does seem to be coming from the driver side, I am certainly hopeful that this will cure the problem. Vibration is so much worse in the morning when its cool outside, (65 degrees) and is not as noticeable when it is warmer (90 degrees). Need to get it fixed before fall, I can't imagine how bad the vibration will be when the temps stay in the 60s. It is planned for a Friday replacement, so I will inform you all if it worked then.

 

So if it were 90 deg. in the morning, the vibration would be almost nothing.. 1st drive of the day? trying to see if the temp thing is part of the rotor/drivetrain heating up or the ambient temperature. Was this the case with the old axle too?

 

Yeah that is exactly it, the warmer it is the lesser the vibration. First thing in the morning the vibration seems more noticeable, in the hotter temps in the afternoon after the car has been sitting while I am at work the vibration is less noticeable. Same as the last halfshaft.

Had the new halfshaft on the drivers side installed today. Haven't really noticed any difference, that slight shaking of the steering wheel is still there at certain speeds. Temps here have been down in the 80s the last few days so the vibration has been noticeable even in the afternoons. When the temps were in the 100s for a few days, the vibration was almost gone. Anyways I am going to take it to work tomorrow and we'll see how it acts. Morning temps are generally in the high 60s low 70s so we'll see if there is any improvement.

Mike

 

The fact that temp is playing is it does not sounds right and would seem to point to tires but you have checked this out time and time again. This might be a pain but what about putting the spare on to see if by chance, it makes a difference. You could start with left front and work your way around. Just to still rule out the tires. You have aftermarket rims again? I forget. if so, do you have the originals to try? We you able to keep the old 1/2 shaft since it probably is still good? Also, is this an AWD? If so , this means more axles and components.

 

Have been able to spend a little time and thought I would update this post a little.

I was able to take the car to a friends who still had most of his tools since his mechanicing days and we put the car up on stands and pulled the front rims off. We were able to hook up a dial indicator and check the trueness of the hubs. On both hubs we got less than a thousandth runout, I think that is pretty darn good, not sure what the limit is but less than one is pretty good. Then we took some emery cloth and cleaned the hub face really good, removing any rust or buildup that had collected there, there wasn't a lot, just a little but we got those hubs looking brand new.

Then we placed the rotors on the hub, tightened them down with the lug nuts and checked runout on both rotors. Here there was an imperceptible movement on the indicator, the max was probably under 10 thousandths, again I didn't think this would be too bad, could have been a wear mark in the rotor causing it. Did not see any indication that the rotor had any bad warping.

We then took the rotors and used a angle grider with an abrasive pad and buffed the mating surfaces to the hub and rim to a nice polish. Wanted to make sure that there was nothing that could be offsetting the rotor or the hub no matter how small it might have been. We took the Scotch pad and did the same to the inside of the rim, where it sits on the rotor.

After performing this maintenance, the problem with the steering wheel vibration was cut in half. I wondered if it would be wise to get a new alignment done to help straighten up the steering wheel and get rid of some of the right pull that has been going on. So I took it to Sears, they did a wonderful job, the pull is almost gone. They informed me that the toe both front and rear was out.

I went ahead and dropped by Discount (great place by the way, they have been patient with me through all these tests) and had the front tires balanced. The driver side tire required new weight and some shifting. Now all vibration at lower speeds is gone. When I get to 75 the steering wheel does shimmy a little but what is crazy is I dont feel any vibration at all in the vehicle itself. At 80 it does smooth out and is very liveable. Even at lower temps where a problem had been noted before with vibration, that problem appears to be gone.

So I will keep track and report back if there is anymore to report. Appreciate all the suggestions that have been given here. There is still a slight problem, but I feel that I can live with it, it has been reduced quite a bit and is liveable.

 

Glad to hear you are getting somewhere and thanks for posting back. Often we never hear the results of a problem. You have done a test I was thinking of a while back but was not sure what access to equipment you had. Glad you had a buddy that could help you. Have you thought about checking the rear the same way?