Rear end vibration at highway speeds.

[Bryan H]

Bought a my first Ram in Nov 2020 after having such a great experience with our 2018 Durango GT.

The wheel alignment was way off straight off the lot. It drove perfectly straight but I noticed at about 2k miles that all my tires were feathering. I also had them check for vibration and ride quality at highway speeds. The found all the tires were out of balance. They refused to replace the feathered tires. So now I have a constant hum at highway speeds. Which is really great in a brand new vehicle!

My truck also has a vibration that comes and goes from the rear end at highway speeds. I don’t feel the vibration in the steering wheel when it happens. I tried adding 500lbs of water softener salt in the back thinking it might be an empty truck bed thing since this is my first Full size truck, but it didn’t change anything. It’s been back to the dealer a few times and they can never reproduce it.

I also have a hard downshift when coming to stop. It feels like it is slamming into gear. I actually checked the spare tire to make sure it was tight. Again the dealer couldn’t reproduce it.

Anyone have these issues? Has anyone gotten similar issue resolved?

The truck is great except for those few things. In my 45 mile drive I can get 28mpg, mostly highway driving. Averaging 24 hwy/city most of the time.

 

[Scram1500]

Rotate the tires and see if the vibration moves to the front. Which tires do you have?

 

[silver64]

Nothing like what you are experiencing. Ask them how much lead they are using to balance the tires. It may be a bad tire that just wont spin well at speed. Everything starts with the tires since they what is in contact with the road. Weight in the bed wont fix vibration/balance issues. Do you have stock tires or are they aftermarket? Same question for the wheels?

 

[silver64]

There are a few threads here about the issue when stopping it feels like the truck will lurch forward. I thought I remembered it had to do with the drive shaft.

 

[jimbotron]

noticed the same thing with my 20 limited. i have about 9k miles on it and noticed the vibration yesterday. never felt it before but it was very apparent yesterday.
the suggestion to rotate the tires above is a good idea. i'll do that today.

 

[tidefan1967]

A road force balance might help too. I’ve found that a regular spin balance doesn’t seem to always work with these larger wheels/tires nowadays.

 

[Drewster]

Your alignment was off? Was the vehicle in some sort of accident during shipping? I would have it checked out to make sure nothing is bent, etc. - alignment on a brand new vehicle doesn't smell right at all.

 

[jimbotron]

bumping this as i have some new developments.

i brought it to the dealer and they took it for a ride and said they couldn't replicate the issue. i told them it happens around 60-65mph so i'm not really sure how they could get to those speeds in boston during rush hour since 93 has a max speed of about 50mph at that time.

once they told me they couldn't find any issue and there was nothing they could do, i asked what was next. they came back to tell me that i was probably feeling MDS. i told them that i was familiar with MDS and it doesn't cause the truck to now shake with a vibration from the rear end that i can feel in the steering wheel and see in the mirrors at highway speed. additionally, i know when MDS is engaged and this is not the issue.

they came back again after i asked if i was OK with a rotation of the tires for $20. i asked if they could rebalance and they came back and said yes, for $65 they'd rotate the tires and rebalance them. i now have high hopes.

i get the truck back and leave and head home. i told them i would try to see if the issue was resolved once i can get the truck to highway speeds. once i arrive home, i notice two very important things here:
1. i lightly curbed my drivers side rear tire a week after i received the truck. funny enough, that curbed wheel was still on the driver's side rear - so they didn't rotate it.
2. i have god awful scuff marks and chips on ALL FOUR of my premium wheels now!! i cannot believe this. i took pictures that don't really do the damage justice.

i immediately called the dealer and played phone tag but finally got in touch with the service manager. i explained the above story and he told me he needs to check on some things and he'd be in touch. i am hoping to hear back from him before the end of the week.

to add insult to injury, i took the truck on the highway today and the vibration is still there - just as apparent as before the dealer touched the truck.

 

[Scram1500]

They definitely looked scuffed from the balancer. As far as the vibration goes, from your description, I can almost guarantee the tires are the culprit, 2nd to that would be the rims. Either your tires are not round, stiff spots in the sidewall, or the rims are bent

 

[Wtray]

This being a limited with Good Years I am guessing? on my 19' I had this issue and FCA would not work with me except to conduct an alignment which did not fix the issue. ended up taking the truck to GoodYear tire and had them assess the tires. All four were deemed "egg shaped" and unable to be balanced. Good year replaced the tires and the vibration of the tires were gone. Truck functioned a lot better after the tires were replaced.

As far as the scuffs on your RIMs. Looks like they did not take the appropriate care when placing the rims on the balancer. S***** Job!

 

[jimbotron]

This being a limited with Good Years I am guessing? on my 19' I had this issue and FCA would not work with me except to conduct an alignment which did not fix the issue. ended up taking the truck to GoodYear tire and had them assess the tires. All four were deemed "egg shaped" and unable to be balanced. Good year replaced the tires and the vibration of the tires were gone. Truck functioned a lot better after the tires were replaced.

As far as the scuffs on your RIMs. Looks like they did not take the appropriate care when placing the rims on the balancer. S***** Job!

your guess is correct - goodyears on my limited. really good info around the angle with goodyear, maybe i'll try that now before fighting with the dealer since now i have to deal with the scuff marks and chips.

i'm seriously livid about the damage to the wheels. i'll keep the name of the dealer to myself for now to allow time for resolution.

 

[brettguercio]

Bought a my first Ram in Nov 2020 after having such a great experience with our 2018 Durango GT.

The wheel alignment was way off straight off the lot. It drove perfectly straight but I noticed at about 2k miles that all my tires were feathering. I also had them check for vibration and ride quality at highway speeds. The found all the tires were out of balance. They refused to replace the feathered tires. So now I have a constant hum at highway speeds. Which is really great in a brand new vehicle!

My truck also has a vibration that comes and goes from the rear end at highway speeds. I don’t feel the vibration in the steering wheel when it happens. I tried adding 500lbs of water softener salt in the back thinking it might be an empty truck bed thing since this is my first Full size truck, but it didn’t change anything. It’s been back to the dealer a few times and they can never reproduce it.

I also have a hard downshift when coming to stop. It feels like it is slamming into gear. I actually checked the spare tire to make sure it was tight. Again the dealer couldn’t reproduce it.

Anyone have these issues? Has anyone gotten similar issue resolved?

The truck is great except for those few things. In my 45 mile drive I can get 28mpg, mostly highway driving. Averaging 24 hwy/city most of the time.

Yes I gave up on my 19 and traded it in they never could fix my vibration saying it's normal

 

[jimbotron]

quick update on the damaged wheels - i called back today as they never returned my call (not surprised). i spoke to a different service manager who told me two things:
1. because i bought this truck at another dealer and because it has 10,000+ miles, they don't know the history of it and when the wheels were damaged - i told him that doesn't matter, that the truck has less than 10,000 miles, and their dealership damaged it. it hasn't been in for work at any other dealership so they can't blame anyone else
2. he will raise this to the dealership manager? or some similar title, and will call me back. i'm not holding my breath.

wondering has anyone else dealt with something like this before? @RamCares is this something i can speak with you about?

 

[silver64]

The real question is will they take responsibility for their lack of proper care of your truck? That all depends on the leadership of that particular dealership. The behavior of the operational employees always starts from the top. If they have high values and are honest they will make you whole. If not we can chalk it up to another disappointing dealer experience and maybe a lost repeat customer. Some of these dealers never learn. Squeeze a penny here lose a dollar there.

 

[jimbotron]

The real question is will they take responsibility for their lack of proper care of your truck? That all depends on the leadership of that particular dealership. The behavior of the operational employees always starts from the top. If they have high values and are honest they will make you whole. If not we can chalk it up to another disappointing dealer experience and maybe a lost repeat customer. Some of these dealers never learn. Squeeze a penny here lose a dollar there.

i'm getting the impression that no, they are not going to take responsibility. lots of excuses from the service manager right out of the gate (truck was bought elsewhere, had more than 10k miles [it doesn't], etc.) first time at this dealer too so i don't have that going for me either.

 

[jimbotron]

This being a limited with Good Years I am guessing? on my 19' I had this issue and FCA would not work with me except to conduct an alignment which did not fix the issue. ended up taking the truck to GoodYear tire and had them assess the tires. All four were deemed "egg shaped" and unable to be balanced. Good year replaced the tires and the vibration of the tires were gone. Truck functioned a lot better after the tires were replaced.

As far as the scuffs on your RIMs. Looks like they did not take the appropriate care when placing the rims on the balancer. S***** Job!

so i called goodyear the other day, made an appointment at the goodyear tire service on bow st in somerville, ma, and went in today. these guys were night and day compared to the ram dealer i went with. i brought the truck in, we talked it through, talked about what happened at the ram dealer, and they went to work. not more than 30 minutes later they call me in the back of the shop and show me that all four wheels were out of balance. they couldn't believe that i paid to have them rebalanced less than a week ago. manager brian was great.

they rebalanced the wheels, put everything back together, and let me go without paying a penny. told me to get the truck up to highway speeds and let them know if the issue was/wasn't resolved. i seriously couldn't have asked for a better experience at this place. i will share the name once everything is ironed out.

they were also beside themselves when i showed them the damage on the four wheels... they said it was probably an inexperienced tech or they just didn't care to do the work properly.

The real question is will they take responsibility for their lack of proper care of your truck? That all depends on the leadership of that particular dealership. The behavior of the operational employees always starts from the top. If they have high values and are honest they will make you whole. If not we can chalk it up to another disappointing dealer experience and maybe a lost repeat customer. Some of these dealers never learn. Squeeze a penny here lose a dollar there.

got a call back today from one of the service managers. he said he has two places i can bring them to in order to discuss repairs. he then told me that he spoke to his boss, and if they cannot repair the wheels, they would give me a service credit for future work performed at the dealer. i politely declined and told him that i would want all four wheels replaced if they cannot be repaired.

i found a different repair shop with much better reviews that i have emailed pictures to. will see what they say.

 

[tidefan1967]

Glad that things are finally starting to go your way. I had a similar thing happen with a Chevy Viberado back in 2015. My local GM dealer also screwed up the wheels on that truck and they couldn’t balance a tire properly to save their lives. That’s the reason why I switched to RAM and never looked back.

 

[jimbotron]

(hopefully) final update:

i spoke to two different wheel repair places in the area, and both told me that these wheels are very difficult, if not impossible to repair. additionally, i reached out to the dealer's corporate office to discuss the issue. wrote a wall of text to them with dates and details. one of their PR people responded and told me that they were sorry for the inconvenience and would be replacing all four wheels free of charge! i opted to not have them remount and balance the wheels and instead will be going to the goodyear in somerville, ma where i had the great experience earlier in this thread.

when i went to pickup the wheels, the service manager had more to say to me here than all of the other interactions we previously had. a mix of "we typically sell jeeps here, not trucks" to "we don't usually balance 22"s" and "maybe our balancing machine needs to be replaced" ok dude.

 

[chuck01835]

Was that Goodyear tire and service on Bow St in Somerville?

 

[jimbotron]

Was that Goodyear tire and service on Bow St in Somerville?

yes. had a great experience there. store manager brian has been wonderful.