Cursed Mountain Roads?

Hey everyone, I just travelled to Virginia to buy an '06 DC RWD with 168k. I had it inspected by a mechanic, clean CarFax, test drove it with hard braking/acceleration/etc, everything was good (minus some aesthetic issues). I got on the road to go home, and through the coastal region of VA, no problems.

But when I got into the mountains, all through VA and WV, I got a noticeable shaking. The steering wheel went back and forth slightly at all speeds on the highway. Even when I had to stop and start for the WV turnpike tolls. The shaking was even more pronounced under braking at all speeds. But once I got onto the flat ground of the Midwest, gone again. No issues. Maybe a tiny amount of shaking? Or it could be just me being paranoid still.

The reason I think it may be the mountain roads is that on my way down I noticed similar shaking in the rental car, a recent Corolla, in the mountains as well, but only when braking.

Am I crazy? Is there something I should check just in case? I'm just not familiar enough with these trucks to know if some of what I'm feeling is normal or not.

I don't have a receipt for it from the previous owner, but VIN checkers are saying there are no open recalls for my truck and it was eligible for the '07 and '22 LBJ recalls. I just can't find a record of my truck having specifically received those recalls.

Thanks for any advice!

 

Brakes

 

I'm not sure that matches what happened to me. I've had warped rotors before and it only appeared when braking, but I was getting it constantly. And then it went away on flat land. I did a couple of hard brake tests and didn't feel anything much.

 

If it’s gone, then cursed mountain roads is a plausible secondary theory

 

I'll be doing brakes anyway so it might be moot. I blame Mothman.

 

Mountains = snow = salt = turd factory driving surfaces.

Not to mention heavy trucking thoroughfares. They beat up the roads pretty good on their own when the above is not involved. Some right lanes will even have "ruts" in the lane from this. Can really make it feel like your alignment is shot when you're in them.

 

That is exactly what it felt like. Good to know there's an explanation for it. I'll get the suspension checked out (again) here soon just to make sure anyway.

 

+1 on this. Maybe the added pressure at altitude is causing it? But shimmy at speed like that is typically wheel balance (did a weight get knocked off?) or brake/caliper issue.

I'd be more worried about the frame, knowing it came from VA. Too many sellers slap lipstick on a pig and don't disclose it. A lot of mechanics are ignorant it's a massive issue with these trucks, and local mechanics would be, like, "Ah, I've seen worse!" (or accustomed to seeing it, so wouldn't think twice).

I got a kick out of the new user who recently bought their truck, checked the frame and it looked great, then the first time they pulled back the splash aprons, found the front frame rail had gaping holes in it...

 

I'll have the brakes looked at either way but nothing is explaining the "Not Shaking -> Shaking -> Not Shaking" progression all at the same highway speeds. I drove around today as well and no issues.

I'll check the frame again to be safe. But it spent most of its life in eastern NC and the past 7 in southern VA, garage kept.

[20 minutes later] Yep. No frame issues except on each side there's a bit of delamination between the two riveted layers of metal where the C channel meets the rear wheel wells. I already knew about that and will treat accordingly. It is certainly not the culprit here.

 

Frame stuff won't be the culprit here. Although I think I missed that the wobble was intermittent.

We've seen the brake thing here before, I've experienced it directly on other vehicles. Believe it or not, we all know it's the internet. Four main culprits, take it or leave it:

• Brake caliper
• Tire/wheel related - either cupping, improper inflation, balance issue, loose lugnut, the intermittent thing is weird but ...
• Bearing - likely wheel, but again, the intermittent is weird but not impossible, because it's intermittent, I'm not thinking carrier bearing
• Joint - Suspension or U

First thing I'd be doing before you drive another mile is lifting each front wheel independently, from under the LCA specifically, for a simple push-pull test for play on the front wheels (testing wheel bearings, steering components, upper/lower ball joints). ESPECIALLY knowing the lower balljoints are a huge Achilles heel that can fail catastrophically due to their design - and to that point, if you're not already aware, DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING EXCEPT OEM LOWER BALL JOINTS, too many others failed to heed this and became a victim. There's pictures of the carnage all over this forum and others.

This is something you can do yourself.

• Floor jack to jack up from under the lower control arm on one side only, following safety precautions (stand)
• Grab the tire firmly at 3 and 9 o'clock, and aggressively pull/push the entire wheel as if you were trying to shimmy it off the lug nuts
• Repeat while grabbing at 6 and 12 o'clock
• Repeat grabbing at opposing diagonals, i.e. 1:30/7:30, 4:30/10:30
• Spin the wheel and listen for sounds
• It should be firm on all accounts, no noise, and no movement; Do you notice any play? If so, at which positions?

Check your tire pressures. Ensure everything is inflated equally @ 32lbs unless otherwise indicated. Notice anything weird with the pressures?

Test the u-joints. This is pretty easy to do. Anywhere you see a u-joint, grab on either side of the joint and try pushing/pulling the joint in every direction (in/out, up/down, left/right B-A-Start). You can always take the necessary measures to jack up as required to spin the driveshaft by hand also, listen for noise. While you're at it, do the push/pull and spin test above on the rear wheels to check for a bad wheel bearing.

Inspect the carrier bearing. Is the rubber intact, any tears? Does it look rusty? Are the mounting bolts snugged? Based on the symptoms I doubt it's the carrier bearing, BUT the fact it's intermittent could indicate one or more missing or loose bolts on the carrier.

But in general, after looking at these things, after you're 1,000% sure this isn't a lower balljoint, do the general tests one would do when trying to suss out a driveline problem:

• Observe: What speed range does this start/stop at?
• Does the issue start/stop/stay the same when you tap the brakes?
• Does the issue start/stop/stay the same when you let off the accelerator?
• Does the issue start/stop/stay the same when you punch the accelerator?
  
• Do you hear any noises at the same time, howling, screeching, squealing, squeaking, ticking, thumping?
• tl;dr - try to isolate how to make this issue repeatable, because the process will likely lead to your answer ... issues like this typically have a set of unique symptoms, i.e. wheel/tire issues often start around 55-60mph specifically. Certain bearing/joint issues will start/stop at certain speeds and disappear/start happening when you either give gas or begin coasting.

 

And RE: frame, if you ever want to have more eyes on that, share some pics. You already notice delamination at the framerail supports.

Where the spare tire carrier crossmember meets the frame is another hot spot.

At the cab mounts is another.

Where suspension components tie into frame: Shackles/hangers, front leaf spring mount, strut tower, etc.

The framerails just below the brake master cylinder, and below the A/C drain nipple (behind each of the two aprons on both sides of the strut tower).

Swaybar mounts.

We have a couple of experts here at spotting lipstick-on-a-pig situations.