when i drive on the highway or put my ranger under a load like driving hard i have been feeling a bad vibration in the pedals and steering that eventually shake the whole truck pretty badly. sometimes when i have to get on the gas to get out into traffic i can feel the vibration to an extent but it mainly happens when i get up to 55 mph and up. it vibration gets really bad when i shift into 5th on the interstate.
at first i thought it might be the wheels and tires i was using like i lost a weight or had a broken belt but when i swapped them out for the other set i have the problem remains. i even had my other set rebalanced to make sure theyr ok and it still shakes.
does anyone have an idea of what the problem could be so i know about how much this is gonna cost me to fix?

 

Engine mounts? Unbalanced shaft? Bad wheel bearings?

 

Could be a bad drive shaft u-joint.

 

yeah i took it up to the local ford dealer and had one of their techs ride with me and he said it was likely my u-joints that were going dry and since i have a newer ranger it likely has the ones that cant be regreased so im gonna have a friend of mine that is a guru when it comes to fords check it out and replace the offending u-joint(s) since it wont cost me the $310 the dealer wants to charge. with my friend ill spend less than $200

 

Any updates on what fixed you vibration?

 

yeah it was the u-joints and had a friend replace them for me since i dont have the tools to do so myself. after putting the new ones on ALL of my previous shakes or slight vibrations went away

 

well that wasn't my fix, just replaced driveshaft u joints with moog and took it for a ride and still get a sound from what sounds like the front right tire. I also had already changed both hubs so I guess I will continue to chase down the problem. I'm thinking maybe my tires since they are pretty worn down . Rotated them front to back with little difference. I wanted to hold off until fall to replace them with new ones.

 

well i am back again

i was having the same problem with the front right wheel on my escape ( bad vehicle )
i kept suspecting it was the replacement CV shaft , but out of curiosity i went and retorqued the lug nuts they were loose , vibration stopped , back again 3 days later WTF!
so i took 1 lug nut off and clamped it in vise , grabbed a tap to check the threads , turns out that the lug nut threads were close to being completely stripped replacement time

trading the escape in for a mint condition 2010 mazda b4000 SE fire engine red