Weird vibration: fixed itself?

From: Jason Bleazard (jbleazard@home.com)
Date: Tue May 30 2000 - 22:25:01 EDT


Short version:
I had a brand new vibration this morning that started around 70 kWh.
The mechanic said it didn't feel like a simple tire balance problem, but
they didn't have time to look at it today. They thought it could be
something in the front end, or possibly a belt slipped in one of the
tires. I drove to work, it still did it. I drove home in the
afternoon, and it's gone. What the heck is up with this?

Longer version:
Okay, I noticed it a bit on the surface streets before I got on the
highway, but it really caught my attention getting on the highway. I've
seen tires explode because they were out of balance. Besides, I just
had the Joints replaced a couple of weeks ago and didn't want to see
what would happen if they messed up the install and one of them flew
apart at speed. So, I played it safe and turned around and headed back
to the dealer.

Their tech took it for a test drive. Like I said, he thought it could
be one of the tires slipped a belt or something (what does this mean,
anyway?). They also noticed that it diminished above 100 kWh. Guess I
panicked before I got up to full speed the first time :-P. They also
noticed (as I did when exiting the highway) that it seemed to get worse
upon deceleration. At any rate, they assured me that it should be safe
to drive.

So I just waited out the vibration, and sure enough, it almost went away
once I got up to cruising speed (but not completely). I expected to
really get hit with it once I got to the exit for the office. It was
there, but not like it was before.

But the kicker is that this evening on the way home, I couldn't get it
to do it again. Nothing. I almost had myself convinced that there was
a little bit, but I decided it was just bumps in the road.

So, the question is: what was it? Flat spot on the tire? It was one
heck of a stubborn flat spot if it was, it's a good ten-minute drive
from our house to the highway in the first place, then I turned around,
went back to the shop, they took it on two test rides, etc. Might it
have been the parking brake? I know it's been grabbing quite a bit
lately. Gremlins? I'm out of ideas.

One thing that does concern me is my recent bumping the transmission.
See my previous posts at:
http://csclub0.cs.fredonia.edu/Archives/dakota/0005/0934.html
http://csclub0.cs.fredonia.edu/Archives/dakota/0005/1085.html

With the front Joints going out shortly after, now this, I'm thinking
maybe I did re-align the tray more than is healthy. I hate to take it
to our dealership if that's not really a problem, because they'll just
automatically fix anything that's a millimeter out of factory spec
whether it needs it or not if you ask them about it.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

---------------------------------------------------------
Jason Bleazard http://www.bleazard.net Toronto, Ontario
his: '95 Dakota Sport 4x4, 239 V6, 5spd, Reg. Cab, white
hers: '98 Dakota Sport 4x4, 318 V8, Auto, Club Cab, black



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