Ridiculous Vibration

Clinsta · 12-05-2007, 09:23 AM

I've got an 05LE 4wd that at around 80,000 started vibrating at 75 mph. This isn't just a small vibration, it has things in my dash behind my gauge cluster rattling. The dealership blamed the tires. I did the tire balance and rotation thing about four times. Still have a vibration. I got it up on jack stands put in drive and got it up to 65 mph and I could hear a shuddering sound coming out of the pinion area of the rear diff. and I notice that my u-joints had a little play in them. I was hoping it was just the u-joints, so I replaced them. Still have a vibration. I went to the dealership and got a new pinion bearing and replaced that. Still had the vibration. One of the techs at the shop said he could see the drive shaft was a little out of round so I bought a new drive shaft and replaced that which happened to have new u-joints.... of course. Still didn't fix it. The shop manager said he thought it was a bent axle on the driver side. Replaced that and didn't fix it. So far I'm over $2000 in on this and still have a vibration. I just rolled a 100300 on the odometer last week so I'm at a point where I either fix the problem or sell this truck for way less than I owe on it and buy another truck. I still like my truck and I don't want to have to get rid of it. So I went back to the dealership and brought up the rearend gear issues so many people have had, the shop manager said that to replace the rear gear set, they would have to replace the whole rearend... axles, axle housing, everything. That is going to cost over $2100. Is this my only option? Does anyone sell a rear gear set for a Nissan Titan?

Herbpov · 12-05-2007, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clinsta

I've got an 05LE 4wd that at around 80,000 started vibrating at 75 mph. This isn't just a small vibration, it has things in my dash behind my gauge cluster rattling. The dealership blamed the tires. I did the tire balance and rotation thing about four times. Still have a vibration. I got it up on jack stands put in drive and got it up to 65 mph and I could hear a shuddering sound coming out of the pinion area of the rear diff. and I notice that my u-joints had a little play in them. I was hoping it was just the u-joints, so I replaced them. Still have a vibration. I went to the dealership and got a new pinion bearing and replaced that. Still had the vibration. One of the techs at the shop said he could see the drive shaft was a little out of round so I bought a new drive shaft and replaced that which happened to have new u-joints.... of course. Still didn't fix it. The shop manager said he thought it was a bent axle on the driver side. Replaced that and didn't fix it. So far I'm over $2000 in on this and still have a vibration. I just rolled a 100300 on the odometer last week so I'm at a point where I either fix the problem or sell this truck for way less than I owe on it and buy another truck. I still like my truck and I don't want to have to get rid of it. So I went back to the dealership and brought up the rearend gear issues so many people have had, the shop manager said that to replace the rear gear set, they would have to replace the whole rearend... axles, axle housing, everything. That is going to cost over $2100. Is this my only option? Does anyone sell a rear gear set for a Nissan Titan?

Have you checked the bolts on the transmission mounts. They have been know to work loose and even fall out.

Clinsta · 12-05-2007, 12:54 PM

Tranny bolts are tight, that was one of the first things I checked. You can see the pinion going up and down at low rpm's, so I would be willing to bet that that's where the problem lies.

Learjet · 12-05-2007, 02:03 PM

how are the tires wearing? could one have a belt that shifted? you could put the spare on and move it around to verfiy that you don't have a bad tire. Would take some time to replace one, drive, replace another etc...but this would cost only time.

Learjet · 12-05-2007, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clinsta

Tranny bolts are tight, that was one of the first things I checked. You can see the pinion going up and down at low rpm's, so I would be willing to bet that that's where the problem lies.

you changed both pinion bearings and it is still moving? Did you hit something that could have bent the pinion shaft?

Clinsta · 12-07-2007, 08:13 AM

I'm comfortable with the fact that the pinion being bent is where the problem lies. I have replaced the tires since the vibration started and even tried new wheels and tires.

I put about 50k miles a year on a vehicle and about 20% of those miles are offroad. Not just your basic ranch roads in Texas, I'm doing some serious offroading to get to some of the locations where I work. I know that I have high centered my truck and scraped the bottom plenty of times and that probably is why I'm dealing with this vibration. I'm not upset with having a bent pinion I'm upset with having to buy the entire rearend. My only question was does anyone know where I can get a ring and pinion without having to buy the whole rearend assembly.

TallTexan · 12-07-2007, 08:41 AM

Probably some of the diffs Nissan changed out had good ring and pinions. Too bad you can't get one. I wonder what Nissan dealers do with their old axles? Might check with one of them.

54warrior · 12-07-2007, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallTexan

Probably some of the diffs Nissan changed out had good ring and pinions. Too bad you can't get one. I wonder what Nissan dealers do with their old axles? Might check with one of them.

They supposedly get sent back to Nissan for investigative testing and whatnot. Your best option might be to find a wrecked truck in a junkyard somewhere and steal the rear out of it--good luck finding one though.

daponik · 12-24-2007, 02:35 AM

75 mph? I'd have the wheels/tires put on a good tire machine like the Hunter Road Force to check for the wheels for runout. I had a similar problem with a Titan in my shop and found a very slightly bent rim causing the problem.

-Dan

DRKSDE · 12-24-2007, 01:23 PM

Exactly where is the vibration coming from? Seat or steering wheel?

titanss · 12-24-2007, 02:04 PM

Have you tried adding pinion shims under the rear leaf springs? I added them to my truck and the 30-45mph vibration stoped. There is a TSB for the low speed vibration and they sell a P/S kit to fix it.

Pinion shims, they go between the spring and axle perch to tilt the axle up or down in number of degrees. All u-joints need some up/down angle to them to rotate correctly, the stock axle has about 1-1.5* down. You add more angle by adding the shims, lowered or racing you want to tilt the axle pinion flange down, lifted 4x4 you need the angle to go up. Do not go more than 4* it will throw the u-joints into bind and burn them up. You can find them cheaper that the first link.

http://www.streetbeatcustoms.com/sus...ion-shims.html

http://www.djmsuspension.com/Product...inionShims.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=_OJ...JlGwE#PPA66,M1

Clinsta · 12-27-2007, 09:35 AM

I appreciate everyone's advice. I have measured the pinion angle and had tires rotated at three different shops. And everything I could possibly think of was checked and rechecked. So I bit the bullet I got the new rearend installed right before Christmas and it completely fixed my problem. I don't know how I could have bent the pinion but at the same time it might have been a warped ring gear. It just stinks that it cost $2,100. I hope I can get another hundred thousand miles out of this rearend before I have to buy another truck.

Riverratt · 12-27-2007, 09:39 AM

Thanks for the update!

BayStateSuks · 12-27-2007, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clinsta

I appreciate everyone's advice. I have measured the pinion angle and had tires rotated at three different shops. And everything I could possibly think of was checked and rechecked. So I bit the bullet I got the new rearend installed right before Christmas and it completely fixed my problem. I don't know how I could have bent the pinion but at the same time it might have been a warped ring gear. It just stinks that it cost $2,100. I hope I can get another hundred thousand miles out of this rearend before I have to buy another truck.

I wonder if installing a truetrac early on would have stopped this from happening or not? If so, you might want to consider doing it now when you have the new rearend before it happens again.

1bigwhitetruck · 12-28-2007, 07:40 PM

I kind of had the same thing on my 05. Had a bunch of stuff replaced and still didn't fix it. Pulled the front drive line while I was replacing the front transfer case yoke seal, ran out of time, drove to work without the front drive line and had no high speed vibrations. Next day I installed the driveline and took it back to the dealership. Had the service manager and general manager drive it. Explained to them what I had found. They had a tech pull the front driveline and we all went for a ride. They put a driveline in for free and refunded most of the money that I originally spent because they were not able to find it. Don't know if it's the same vibration you have, but its worth a shot. Maybe 10 min. to pull it and find out. Hope this helps.