Suburban Seems to Vibrate A Lot

[2004Suburban]

Hello,

I recently purchased a 2004 Suburban and notice that the entire vehicle vibrates when sitting in traffic. It is not stalling or running rough, it just seems to vibrate more than at other times when stopped in traffic, in or out of park. I can feel it through the steering wheel and the brake pedal. Is this normal for these trucks?

Thnaks

[Cableguy]

Hello,

I recently purchased a 2004 Suburban and notice that the entire vehicle vibrates when sitting in traffic. It is not stalling or running rough, it just seems to vibrate more than at other times when stopped in traffic, in or out of park. I can feel it through the steering wheel and the brake pedal. Is this normal for these trucks?

Thnaks

Welcome. No I would say thats not normal. 04 you should be able to put a glass of water on intake and barely get a ripple in water :lol: I would say somethings a miss on the tune up side. I would have it on scanner to check parameters are ok. (There maybe a baseline software update.)

[2004Suburban]

I had the car checked out by a mechanic and he said everything was normal. I don't think he did a diagnostic on the computer so I am not sure.
Thanks

[2004Suburban]

The vibration seems to be the engine running rough. What I feel through the floor boards and pedals is exactly how the car is running. I pot my hand on the engine and it seems to be the cause of the vibration. At 50,000 miles, should I consider a complete tune-up?
Thanks

[Cableguy]

At this point you don't really have much choice. Unless you want to wait till your teeth start rattling in your head or the truck quits on you, whatever comes first. Just kidding.
Suburban is already chewing thru gas it doesn't need any more help :biggrin:

[84fiero123]

Not stalling or running rough, hm

Transition maybe, loose fly wheel bolts would cause a vibration in a case like this. Maybe. Or a flywheel out of balance.

Just a thought. I have been known to be wrong, once.

Good luck, because it could also be just a plug wire , but a misfire would show up on the tack and the idle would be rough.

[2004Suburban]

Thanks for the responses. I am trinyg to figure out how to describe the vibration. It is a high frequency low intensity vibration. It happens in or out of gear. It makes the bottom of my feet tingle as it come through the floor boars and the whole truck vibrates the same way. If I put my hand on top of the dash board I can feel it.

Thanbks again for the responses.

[Steve]

Broken motor mount?

[collinsperformance]

i would say a tuneup and look at the motor mounts but at 50,000 they should be good. maybe a slight vaccume leak?.....mike

[Steve]

Yeah, I re-read, it's likely NOT the motor mounts. I'm used to older vehicles and I've experienced this before from a broken one.

[Cableguy]

Oh Steve your showing your age! Like the old 350's had cross fire between cylinder 5/7 if wires were to close.

[2004Suburban]

I dropped the truck off at the dealer and they called me to say they replaced a transmission mount. This did not stop the vibration. The dealer said they don't know what is causing it because it doesn't hapen all the time. It seems to start when the the motor warms up. Hopefully they will figure it out.

[Cableguy]

I dropped the truck off at the dealer and they called me to say they replaced a transmission mount. This did not stop the vibration. The dealer said they don't know what is causing it because it doesn't hapen all the time. It seems to start when the the motor warms up. Hopefully they will figure it out.

uhm what did they charge you to do that, if you don't mind me asking?

[2004Suburban]

The dealer said nothing. Which surprised me because it is a used vehicle and this is not covered by the warranty. I just hope they figure out what is causing the vibration.

[Cableguy]

The dealer said nothing. Which surprised me because it is a used vehicle and this is not covered by the warranty. I just hope they figure out what is causing the vibration.

This type of "troubleshooting" is unacceptable to me. Throwing parts at a problem to your expense, is not cool. I'm a technician myself in the cable industry. Some guys at work do that and it drives me crazy...find fault thru troubleshooting then replace part.
In conclusion I would maybe consider trying another dealer "IF" they do start charging for these repairs.

[84fiero123]

This type of "troubleshooting" is unacceptable to me. Throwing parts at a problem to your expense, is not cool. I'm a technician myself in the cable industry. Some guys at work do that and it drives me crazy...find fault thru troubleshooting then replace part.
In conclusion I would maybe consider trying another dealer "IF" they do start charging for these repairs.

It’s possible the trany mount was gone, because of a weight being lost, ask if they dropped the trany pan. It is just possible a weight fell off the fly wheel.

[2004Suburban]

OK,

I just picked up the truck and the dealer said the Throttle Body had to be cleaned the Power Trans Something or other had to be reprogramed. The truck seems to be running a little better but not much. Anyone have any idea what they are talking about?

Thanks

[2004Suburban]

The car is definitely still running off. The door locks have a mind of their own and keep locking twice, once when I start the car and once when I put it into gear. The vibration comes in cycles. If anyone ever owned an old car with a warn out motor. It's like turning the AC on and the whole car cycles trough shaking. If anyone has any idea what could cause this I'd really appreciate it. Turning the AC on seems to make the car shake more.

[Steve]

Having the AC turned on takes more power for the engine to cycle and charge the compressor. Did you pop the hood and see if the engine shakes? Have they tested for compression and spark in all of the wires? How many miles again?

[2004Suburban]

The truck just hit 51,000.

[TrailLeadr]

The door locks have a mind of their own and keep locking twice, once when I start the car and once when I put it into gear.

That's actually not uncommon. It's an anti-carjacking feature of the alarm. The newer vehicles come with this if it has power locks. It's also not uncommon for todays modern after market alarms to do it as well.

My wife owned a grand am that had an alarm that would do that. Start the car, and the locks would lock. Then they would attempt to lock again once the vehicle hit 7mph. Then they would automatically unlock when the key was switched off.

Our Avalanche does this same thing, and it's a factory setting. I don't think what you're experiencing is a malfunction. It's just apparently undesirable to you. You'll need to find out the manufacturer of the alarm system, and stop by their website. Most of them provide user manuals as a free download.

[Steve]

The dealer said nothing. Which surprised me because it is a used vehicle and this is not covered by the warranty. I just hope they figure out what is causing the vibration.


Your post here was vague. "The dealer said, 'No charge'" or "The dealer said nothing and just handed over the keys." I assume the dealer said "no charge."

[84fiero123]

That's actually not uncommon. It's an anti-carjacking feature of the alarm. The newer vehicles come with this if it has power locks. It's also not uncommon for todays modern after market alarms to do it as well.

My wife owned a grand am that had an alarm that would do that. Start the car, and the locks would lock. Then they would attempt to lock again once the vehicle hit 7mph. Then they would automatically unlock when the key was switched off.

Our Avalanche does this same thing, and it's a factory setting. I don't think what you're experiencing is a malfunction. It's just apparently undesirable to you. You'll need to find out the manufacturer of the alarm system, and stop by their website. Most of them provide user manuals as a free download.

My niece had a car that did that, locked when you started it.

She came up to visit in the winter to go skiing at Sugarloaf. It’s just an hour from us.

Well she went out to start it up and let it warm up before she was to leave for the slopes. Just opened the door, started it with the door opened and then closed the door.

Well of course the doors locked, she left the remote on the key chain.

I had to go out and unlock it with old reliable, a solid shaft car antennae bent just right, hit the door lock button with it and there you go.

She never did that again.

[2004Suburban]

OK,

The dealer told me that they are trying to "balance the exhaust." I have never heard of that. THey said it appears to be in the exhaust and that is what is causing the vibration. Can someone tell me if they ever heard of anything like this?

Thanks.

[84fiero123]

OK,

The dealer told me that they are trying to "balance the exhaust." I have never heard of that. THey said it appears to be in the exhaust and that is what is causing the vibration. Can someone tell me if they ever heard of anything like this?

Thanks.

Sounds like it may be vibrating against the frame or body. If he is right about that being the noise.

I just put a y pipe on our 94 Burb and we tried to make sure everything was as far away from anything that it could vibrate against and make noise.

Your engine does vibrate, and so will anything attached to it, exhaust system.

The complete exhaust system is mounted with rubber mounts that will allow this to happen so it is possible that is the reason for the problem.

[2004Suburban]

I never heard of an exhaust having to be balanced. Also, why would it not happen all the time instead of only sometimes.

Thanks

[TrailLeadr]

I never heard of an exhaust having to be balanced. Also, why would it not happen all the time instead of only sometimes.

Thanks
I don't know about "balancing" the exhaust but if it's vibrating because of the engine, it would happen at certain RPMs, and always at that rpm. It's unlikely that it would cause enough vibration that you'd feel it in your steering wheel.
It might be something related to the exhaust, but I doubt it's entirely the exhaust.

[2004Suburban]

OK,

The dealer told me they welded weights onto the exhaust to stop the vibration. That sounds like total nonsense to me. Anyone ever heard of this?

[2004Suburban]

OK,

The dealer told me they welded weights onto the exhaust to stop the vibration. That sounds like total nonsense to me. Anyone ever heard of this? This truck has a button on the shifter for towing. Does this transmission have overdrive?

[84fiero123]

Never heard of it, but easy enough to see.

Just take a look.

Is the problem gone?