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2008 Colorado Driveshaft squeak - Front (to transmission)


2008 Colorado Driveshaft squeak - Rear (to differential)

Squeak is loudest from front of driveshaft. Rear axle is lifted on jack stands, truck in neutral.

 

Updated first post with a TL;DR

 

Transmission mount replaced, did not fix. Replacing u-joints tomorrow

 

I would closely examine the drive shaft and see if you have a weight on it. Driveshafts are balanced also when they are made. I assume you've rotated the tires to see if the vibration goes from the seat to the steering wheel if you rotate front to back. If you jack up the rear of the truck and run it in gear at a very low speed, do you see any "wobble" in either of the tires? Slightly bent rim or bent axle? Does it make a difference if the truck is loaded? And last, but not least, I've had a problem after having tires put on a car that after the work was done I had a vibration that I couldn't figure out, so I went to rotate the new tires and found that the lug nuts were incredibly tight and I took it to a performance shop where a friend works and with some laser gismo they determined that they had actually warped the mounting surface of the wheel by overtightening the lugs one at a time instead of torquing them down a little at a time.

 

U-joints replaced, did not solve the problem.

If anything, the problem is now worse. the truck now shakes more than ever (though strongest at 60). When I let off the gas, there is a humming noise, not unlike the sound of rumble strips. Going to look into it a bit more, but at least the basics are covered.

 

My guess would be the body mount bushings are collapsed and hardened up.

Are you the original owner of this truck and did it have any accident damage in the past history?

 

sounds like a lot of bases have been touched but no one has hit home yet.
Sense this started out of the blue and no repair or crazy driving event.
I am thinking a component has failed or thrown a weight.

there is a lot of talk about the carrier bearing (center support) of the rear drive shaft seizing, rusting, and binding.
I would look at that pretty close. it could fail in service

Also the rear drive shaft has to be clocked correctly if the front and rear halves have ever been removed. this could be what caused it to get worse but not the initial fault.

It would take a little effort but can you remove the rear driveshaft put this thing in 4wd and drive it up to 60mph as a fwd? the issue would be the transfer case possibly leaking out the slip yoke. but if you can find a way to do that. it would definitively answer the drive shaft question. and also pull the front one and drive it as a rwd only truck. if it goes away then you know its related to the front drive shaft.

your brake drum question. drums are balanced like tires some need more weight than others. the really good ones don't need any weight.

 

Just to update on where we stand...

Strongest vibration felt at around 25 and 60 mph. Not felt in steering wheel, felt in seat/cab. When letting off the gas, the truck hums like driving over rumble strips as well. Does not do that when accelerating. These symptoms are always present under these conditions. Cab vibes at 25 and 60. Rumble strip hum when coasting.

In regards to tires: 4 wheel road force balance has been applied by two separate shops... a dealership and a tire shop, 3 times per tire in the past two weeks. Tires have also been rotated 3 times. No affect on symptoms.

In regards to transmission: Transmission mount was super sloppy and jumpy. Replaced, no affect on symptoms.

In regards to the driveshaft: New front and rear u-joints. Inspected driveshaft weights (found 2) and no obvious signs of one falling off. With that said, there was enough surface rust making inspection difficult. This model does not have a carrier bearing. Transmission directly to diff, one piece. Driveshaft and new u-joints currently out for a balance at a separate shop, should be completed tomorrow.

In regards to the differential: Took it apart, everything is nice and tight. No obvious issues. Minimal shavings. Then, this:

I am not the first owner of this truck, but to me, that looks like a junk yard axle. Not sure if all colly's have these markings on their diff.

 

To respond to the suggestions:

Body mount bushings Wouldn't the symptoms described be related to rotational components?

Accident history Clean, though I am the second owner. See pic above as this may have been in an unreported accident?

Thrown tire weight All four tires are currently being balanced the the fifth time (much to my dismay, lol)

Removing driveshaft method I suggested that to the shop that it is currently with now. Going to see if the driveshaft balance helps and go from there. Trying to eat the elephant one bite at a time for now!



Apologies if this all comes off a bit blunt. I do appreciate the help!

 

No apologies needed. this is frustrating and sometime difficult.
We had one in with a nasty vibration.
checked axles, drive shafts, wheels, tires, diffs, all sorts of stuff.
I have a remote camera that was tapped under the vehicle and we found the skid plate was loose and flapping at speed due to wind.

Maybe and just a thought...
any body panels loose?

 

If this vibration starts around 25-mph+ only when costing or deceleration with rotational speed, you may want to check the transfer case gears and chain.

https://www.355nation.net/forum/i4-i5-engine-drivetrain/120898-grinding-noise-when-coasting.html

 

Does it sound like this?

https://youtu.be/j0OwI0wjcjo

 

Wow, THAT sounds bad! Mine doesn't have that sound. Shifting through the gears doesn't change the vibration either.

 

Driveshaft shop says inner tube is bent and the driveshaft needs to be replaced.

New driveshaft will be checked for balance with the new u-joints and reinstalled by next tuesday.

I'm wondering if this is a result of me possibly overloading the truck earlier this year with mulch. Otherwise, the truck has been babied since I have owned it.

 

did the noise start after you unloaded the mulch?
I personally don't think load should do that.
I would suspect a mad wheel hopping burn out to do inner shaft damage.
Or just age as the rubber inside there breaks down (oh goodie something else to look forward too.)

Hope that fixes it.

 

Last time it had a significant amount of weight in the back was... March 2017 maybe?

Did not have any shaking then. The last thing that was touched when I noticed the shaking were the drum brakes. Even then, the shaking was noticeable a week or two after that service.

As for burnouts, I WISH this thing was capable. To be honest, I've tried on dry pavement with no luck. I just gave up.

As for the rubber inside, do you mean inside the driveshaft? To be honest, I'm not familiar with the core contents.

 

Update:

I think it's fixed.

New u-joints and new drive shaft tube with a rebalance. Drove the truck at 60 mph and I do not notice any significant shaking anymore, though the CT roads absolutely suck so it's hard to tell.

The new transmission mount seems to make the truck vibrate more at idle, though no changes to vibration when shaking. Hopefully this will go away with time as the rubber softens a bit. More on that: the old transmission mount was some flimsy, hollow rubber piece held in by a metal bracket. The new mount is a solid brick of rubber held in by a metal bracket. Pretty sure it is simply transmitting more shakes through the cab. Not really complaining, just an observation.

I'll give it another week or so and I'll report back any significant changes.

 

Partial pic of the driveshaft:

 

Update:

Still shakes at 60mph, back to the drawing board.

- New driveshaft and u-joints with balance
- New transmission mount
- Tires balanced and rotated, no change

Going to load up the back and drive around to see if that changes anything.

Could a bad engine mount cause highway shakes?

 

Could a bad engine mount cause highway shakes?

I would check all the rubber mounts especially if the vehicle had been in a previous collision.

I'd look for split engine mounts, control arm bushings, exhaust hangers, body mounts etc.

 

Check the tie rod ends & for sure check for excess play in the pack & pinion when the tires are pointed straight forward. Excessive wear in the very center of the rack is pretty common because most drivers are constantly making tiny corrections when driving straight ahead so wear is generally worst in the center. Who would have ever predicted that American pickup's would ever have rack & pinions especially a 4X4 which could have some big, heavy, & very lumpy tires.

 

I determined to live with the newly introduced cab vibrations introduced by the transmission mount replacement. Hopefully the mount will soften up over time.

As for the shake at highway speeds, deflating the tires from 32 to 30 psi seems to have helped a lot. I can live with this for now as my mechanic is stumped as everything has been checked and no significant wear or problems can be found on any bushing, bearing, suspension component, or tire on this truck.

 

Mine shakes at around 65 mph no matter what I do. I’ve swapped out half my drivetrain and it still shimmy’s at highway speeds.

 

I went thru this a number of years ago. It took me a year too figure it out and several specialized mechanics before I found the real problem. Check the back side of the wheel where axle pilot or hub goes into the wheel. I was running H3 wheels that had been incorrectly machined from the manufacture. They had bored the countersink taper to deep and the wheel never made a good contact with the axle hub. My solution was tack welding a 3/16 thick washer to the axle hub or pilot extending the pilot so it would contact the wheel. keeping it centered.
I bought " Bridge " washers and had a machine shop cut the outer diameter to 100mm and open up the center hole. I had OE canyon wheels that did not shake with a good center bore and used those to center the washer on the axle and tack welded them on. One was perfect but the other wheel I had to ply the wheel of and file the edges of the washer to get it to fit smoothly.
This problem eat an axle and bearing which lead me to a tail shaft bearing and seal a drive line balancing, 2 u joints balanced wheels 3 times including Road Force, and dyna beads. a brake drum balancing. Finally I found the wheel bore was bad.
Best of luck Hope I helped..

 

I'll be sure to check my rims and wheel hub one more time, but since my rims are stock, I doubt we have the same issue.

 

My wheels that caused the shake were OEM Hummer H3 wheels. I know other members with the same wheels with no shaking issues. I just got lucky with a oddly machined wheels. It happens.. Please let us know what you finally find as your solution..
Happy Motoring..

 

My 09 Z71 Crewcab had the same exact shake at the same speed.
I replaced everything that you replaced and more including rear wheel bearings and even a rear axle.
The only thing that helped at all was 2 sixty pound sand bags in the bed.
That made the shake tolerable but it was still there.
Three weeks ago I solved the problem permenatly this way.

 

Update: Sent the truck somewhere else for another four wheel road force balance, just to be sure. That seemed to have helped a lot. Using the shaking of my phone mount as a reference, it seems to have been nearly eliminated and I cannot feel the shake in the floor anymore. It's not perfect yet, but its a helluva lot better. Going to drive around a bit more just to be sure and will report back.

 

I am greatly interested in this case, as my '07 Collie is having the exact same issue. My suspected culprits before reading your post were shocks, tires, brakes, and the ever-present RF camber issue.

I have not changed shocks yet. Cheaper things to fix before that.

Tires were recently replaced, seemed to have reduced the vibration, but it's definitely still there.

Vibrates coasting and under braking, so I don't think it's braking related, unless a brake pad is hitting the caliper, maybe the cylinder not releasing all the way? My last front brake replacement was way more arduous than I remember in years prior.

RF caster - My tire shop, after replacing the last 6 sets of front tires with absolutely chewed up RF inner tread, still refuses to address the RF camber. They put it on their machine and insist it is in acceptable range. If the camber or toe-in is that bad, it would have to affect the ride of the vehicle, but seems like that would be noticeable in the steering wheel, not the seat of the pants, where all documentation of this problem has been diagnosed.

For the first 180,000 miles of this truck's life, it rode like a Cadillac down the road. I was always amazed how smooth a little truck could feel after having a 80s Ford Ranger for so many years. Something has to have worn out or fallen off for this to be an issue.