My truck has developed a vibration recently,but it is only at idle, and it gets worse when I put it in gear (D or R Auto Trans). But when I get moving it goes away. The trans shifts fine, and I am not hearing any weird noises from the engine. Thoughts. This started happening after a -20 morning a week ago.

 

Check the transmission dipstick. Mine was vibrating on the firewall.

 

This is a little bit more than that, a kind of, Shake the mirrors, type of vibration, plus I pulled the dipstick yesterday and took a wiff of the oil to make sure it wasn't burnt. I had a Trans Specialist that I know pretty well take a drive in it today, and he Thinks it may be motor or trans mounts, I haven't had a chance to crawl under it yet due to being gone over x-mas and, I leave and get home in the dark now days, so it is hard to look around. He doesn't think the trans is acting up though. There is 98k on the truck. Is this something someone else has seen? anything else I should look for.

 

bhaugen

Does your truck sit in a warm garage?

I had the same thing happen to me after the snow storms here in Minnesota. It seems snow built up somewhere under the truck (my guess it is between the bellhousing and the body) and would vibrate terrible. I could even feel the sterring wheel shake. (kinda felt like there wasn't any rubber left in the motor mounts)

Turned up the temp in the garage for a day and melted all the ice off of it.
It is back to normal.
Not sure if that is what you got going on but, I see your from MN as well so it could be the problem.

Good Luck
Dennis

 

No I do not have a warm garage. It has been a bit warmer the last couple of days though. It is getting better, and I crawled under it tonight and there is some ice in the Trans mount. The Motor mounts do appear to sag some, but not enough to cause an issue IMO. We did have a pretty good snow storm here recently and I have not driven it a whole lot since having to drive through a fair amount of snow that day. I am hoping that is what it is/was.

 

I've had a bad vibration, more harmonic though, for a long time now. It's getting worse, and it's most noticable on a cold (40 F) morning. I've check for rubbing against the firewall and found nothing. Not trying to highjack your thread, but was going to post for the same thing. Could "U" joints rattle that bad??

 

If your moving I would say start with the u joints. My vibration was mainly when it was sitting still. It has gone away. I think it may have been some snow and ice somewhere that my have caused it.

 

i had a vibe at idle and it turned out that the torque converter bolts were loosening. By the time i found this out it had to have a new flexplate and converter. Something to check.

 

I was thinking about that, but the truck is bone stock so I kind of dimissed it. I'll check it out..........thanks!

 

Mine went away for a few days, and now it is back, but that was after I got 12" of snow and had to push through that for 5 miles before I found a plowed road, AND it was -35 F this morning. I love MN this time of year.

 

I had the same thing happen yesterday after about 5 hours driving in light powder, let it sit in the shop overnight and it is fine now?

 

Possible vibration damper Inspect the index lines on the damper hub and the inertia member If the lines are more than 1.59 mm (1/16 in.) out of alignment, replace the damper.

 

Mine has had a little shake for about 20k miles now. I had thought it was injecters but I just changed them and still it seemed to have a slight vibration like you describe. It just so happens that my water pump started leaking and fluid would "sling" from the inside of the pulley. I bought a water pump from Cummins($183) and put it on today. The vibration is gone. I felt the old pump and it has a little bit of play in the bearings but actually kinda hard to notice, I think it would "wobble" around just enough to vibrate but it finally got worse and the seal started leaking. When I took off the belt I reached down and tried to feel for play in the water pump but I couldn't really feel any. But after it was out I put in in my bench vice and looked closely at the play. It moves about 1/32" in and out and maybe 1/32"- 1/16" up and down. Lucky I cought it before it really took a dump and left me stranded.

 

I'm glad I'm in California right now until the 7th. lol My truck is probable frozen solid sitting in my garage. Boy do I have some snow to plow when I get back.

Any improvement yet?

 

not sure how long you have been gone Nate but it warmed up and turned alot of it to ice
We are getting freezing rain right now
Dennis