08 with death wobble & vib - Page 29

kia001 · 01-03-2009, 10:23 AM

You can balance an out of round tire but you'll still have a vibration when the flat spots compromise the orbit of the tire. That's what happened to my 2009, new tires under warranty fixed my problems. Only a certain balancer can tell you if the tires have high spots and only a few stores have this balancer. And each store will have maybe 1-2 mechanics who know how to hook up the system. They have to connect a second air hose to the rear of the machine to get the measuring/load drum to run on the tire so it can simulate load and meaure run out. Make sure you watch them do it and see the run out measured on the screen, otherwise it's the same old balance job which won't show tire profile.

Slade8 · 01-03-2009, 11:23 AM

Hey Anmut, you may already know this?.. but there is a service bulletin for Nissan dealers for the passenger seat moving to much... they have a kit that reinforces the seat at the bottom with more washers and good old locktite. I had it done (allegedly) at the dealer and it seems a little better. Throwing a hot chick in the seat really helps also.(i take that back i guess a Slump Buster would hold the seat down better)
Death wobble... had a 300zx that had that problem from 80 to 130mph... it was the driveshaft. Wasnt really a death wobble though.. Death wobbles usually happen when youre wide open throttle with the wheel just about 2inches off the ground at 140mph and the tire touches the grooved pavement a little crooked from you holding on for the ride of a GSXR1000

gtbaldini · 01-03-2009, 11:29 PM

I am still having problem on my 04. Nissan refuses to help. I am done with Nissan - f em.

honeykeeper · 01-04-2009, 06:56 AM

Well I read this entire thread......not in one sitting of course!
I have an 05 Titan with Off-Road and Big Tow and lots of mods. Mine is smooth at all speeds and I took it to 111-13 MPH once to see the high speed limiter kick in.
My Titan has 72K on it and I plan to "keep" it.
Good luck to ALL in persuit of a "NORMAL" ride and dealing with NISSAN.

Death Wobble

If you're asking what "Death Wobble" or DW is all about it's when a vehicle starts to oscillate to the point of feeling like it going to come apart and only goes away by slowing the vehicle below the speed in which the oscillation begins.
DW isn't caused by any one factor.
DW's are caused by a rather simple problem, but one that can be hard to track down. Your suspension system (which includes the body) is out of equilibrium. Energy is being temporarily stored somewhere and then released, and the cycle repeated. Energy storage can be in many different areas. It can be in the sidewalls of the tires flexing, or the rubber in the bushings of the springs and control arms, or in the springs, or even in the flex of the body. The energy being stored is caused by something being loose in the system, such as ball joints,
tie rods, control arm bushings, leaf spring bushings, motor mounts, etc. or something out of alignment.
What makes things tricky is that you can have all of these problems and have no DW. It has to do with the rate at which the energy is stored and released. If the storage and release rates are close to the same, you are in for trouble. That is why changing tires many times will kill DW. The new tires are stiffer or softer than the old
ones and as such store and release the energy at a different rate.
The purpose of a steering damper is to change the rate of storage and release of the energy, just as are your shocks.
You can have all of the equipment working correctly and still have DW, but in most cases there is a defective component that you haven't found yet.
1- Check all the rubber parts first. They fail the quickest and store/release the most energy.

2- Look for loose connections/connectors such as tie rod ends and loose or worn ball joints.
If the ball joint is worn or loose, it can allow lateral wobble. Worn ball joints are a danger anyway as they may fail and cause uncontrollable steering loss, but by allowing the wheel to move laterally and independently of the opposite wheel they can also contribute to DW.

3- Steering Stabilizer. A tight steering stabilizer can mask problems with the steering, but if it's loose it may allow DW to occur in cases where it normally wouldn't have.

4- Poor Alignment. The first question when someone has handling problems after a lift is whether they had the vehicle aligned. More than half the time, it wasn't. Don't proceed until that's taken care of.
The front tires will be toed-in following most lifts. When you hit a bump on only one side of the front axle the tire will begin to bob up and down. Since the Control Arms are no longer horizontal, they will pull that side of the axle farther back as it goes down - this will turn the wheels slightly to that side. Once the tires pull to that side, the 'scuff' of the vehicle traveling straight ahead will slow the tire and begin the same process once again.
If the stock control arms are used, the pinion will start pointing down, away from the t-case output shaft. As it points down, it changes the caster of the axle and therefore throws off the self-centering engineered into the axle. Remedy this by using adjustable control arms.
Drop Brackets can also help reduce this, since they bring the control arms back to a more horizontal position. Sometimes this can be caused by excessive toe-in of the front wheels-think of it as the tires being cross-eyed and not knowing which tire is dominant
Check toe in (difference in the distances between the front edge of the front of the tires and the rear edge of the tires.

5- Unbalanced tires. Once again, as they start throwing the axle around, the only way to stop it is going to be by slowing down.

6- Unbalanced driveshaft or driveshaft U-joints out of phase by 90°

**anmut** · 01-04-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slade8

Hey Anmut, you may already know this?.. but there is a service bulletin for Nissan dealers for the passenger seat moving to much... they have a kit that reinforces the seat at the bottom with more washers and good old locktite. I had it done (allegedly) at the dealer and it seems a little better. Throwing a hot chick in the seat really helps also.(i take that back i guess a Slump Buster would hold the seat down better)
Death wobble... had a 300zx that had that problem from 80 to 130mph... it was the driveshaft. Wasnt really a death wobble though.. Death wobbles usually happen when youre wide open throttle with the wheel just about 2inches off the ground at 140mph and the tire touches the grooved pavement a little crooked from you holding on for the ride of a GSXR1000

Thanks for the heads up - I've got to check that out.

reybeast · 01-08-2009, 08:30 PM

Just wanted to make sure you guys saw my truck on the dyno, I'm sure its in this thread somewhere. I have a meeting with the lemon law judge here in Austin this coming Monday 1/12/2009, its for all the marbles, though I'm told a buyback is not an option since I waited too long to invoke the lemon law option. There is a time limit! Things done to the truck to try to fix it.
alingnments, 4 sets of tires, 2 sets of wheels (factory), shocks, many diff angles, balanced drive shaft, ride balanced many times on the GSP 9700 (ride match balance)
The way the bed shakes in the video is what you can see and feel when driving. sweet spot is 52mph and 71mph. the bed starts shaking a little past 2 minutes as he starts to slow the cruise control down.

YouTube - Nissan Titan vibrating on dyno

Slade8 · 01-09-2009, 12:07 AM

wow,,, crazy I have an 05 exact color and options it appears. It has never done that. I'm going to drive tomorrow and check things out a little closing instead of just hauling *** all the time. If I can help with my truck in anyway please let me know. I don't have the stock tires or wheels on it anymore. I hope you get a new one!

kia001 · 01-09-2009, 09:13 AM

I think the Lemon Law in Texas requires you to file a case within six months of the expiration of the "express" warranty period or 24,000 miles or 24 months since the new vehicle was delivered. Unless you are reffering to a time limit on your request with the administrative law judge who you'll see on Monday. If the vehicle is that bad, and he can experience it, he can always order what he deems fit, which might help you out in the long run. Besides, if he orders a further repair and it still isn't fixed, you could probably ask to have your case reopened and start again if the program allows for it. Better to get the problem flushed out once and for all.

**dodgehemi0** · 01-10-2009, 12:55 PM

mine has a slight vibration of the passanger seat that is it from what I can tell. I have a CC 09 Pro x4 SWB.

HRTKD · 01-10-2009, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodgehemi0

mine has a slight vibration of the passanger seat that is it from what I can tell. I have a CC 09 Pro x4 SWB.

I think this is a very common complaint from Titan owners. I just got new tires/wheels so I'll have to recheck to see if the seat still vibrates.

Update: Yes, my passenger seat still vibrates even with new wheels/tires.

**adkl1** · 01-14-2009, 04:11 PM

Wow i cant believe this thread i started is still going....

Burgy · 01-20-2009, 08:07 PM

Good year dealer found 2 tires out of round, the rear 2. They also found the front tire out of balance. They replaced the 2 bad ones on a 'goodwill' basis for $35 a tire plus mounting. I tried to get them to do all 4, no luck.

Nissan dealer gave me # of the Goodyear rep for my area. He provided no additional help. Would have bought a set of Silent Armour's.

GoodYear store was using a very fancy LCD balancer. It seemed way more accurate then the Firestone old fashioned LED one.

Overall the ride is better. After this I'm convinced my issue is purely tire replated and as soon as I get rid of these and back on to a set of Dueler Revos the better.

UWSkier · 06-22-2009, 09:40 PM

I have a vibration that's worse as speed increases. Since it was new, I could feel a slight vibe when mashing the throttle from a dead stop but I attributed that to axle wrap. I now have 70k on the truck and just had a front bearing replaced as I thought that was the source of some noise and vibrations. Well, the noise is gone, but the vibration is pretty bad over 60 MPH. I haven't found a place on the big end where the vibes disappear as they persist up to 85 MPH. It's much too high frequency to be my Revo's. It definitely feels like it's driveshaft imbalance or faulty U-joints.

Is there a TSB for the '06s as it pertains to the shimming? I breezed through all 29 pages and didn't see anything specifically.

gpsjake · 06-30-2009, 12:06 AM

Has anyone considered the idea that the axle is in a since "see-sawing" back and forth on the springs since our Titans come with that overload spring that isn't always touching. I seem to have a minor vibration around 40-50 mph but if the truck has enough load to compress the spring pack in full contact with the overload the vibration always goes away. Is anyone running traction bars and have the vibration? I'm thinking if you take a few u-bolts and bolt both ends of the overload to the spring pack this may resolve it?

bogeypro · 09-01-2009, 09:56 PM

i went through this whole thread, and didn't find a definite fix for this vibration. i am not as patient as most of you guys. I am going back for the third time this week, if it isn't fixed then I will try to find a way out of it.