A question to fellow endeavor owners.
My 07 AWD seems to have a minor vibration at 60mph and up. The level of vibration I am talking about is something you wouldn't notice when you have your both hands on the wheel, but slight side to side movement of the wheel when you take your hands off completely or hold it lightly with two fingers.

Before I got new tires it was pretty much constant. With the new tires (installed few days ago) it is a lot better. Most of the time there's nothing at all, but I did notice that on some particular sections of the highways there's still some of that.

When I was getting the new tires I asked the dealer to look over everything that may cause it other than the tires. They did and said that everything is in a good shape. I only have about 30 thousand on the odometer.

Last weekend I drove a Yaris we have in the family and that thing exhibits no vibes whatever. I do realize that Yaris has electric steering which is pretty numb while the steering on the Endeavor is pretty tactile and also fairly light.
I wonder if perhaps an occasional minor vibe like this is no more than a normal characteristic of this setup?

Or perhaps there some other factors at play, such as higher center of gravity compared to car, or maybe wind buffeting... Mind you, this is my first unibody SUV and I don't know what to expect. I used to drive a 03 Ranger and that truck would vibrate sometimes with no apparent reason since it was brand new. Which I choked up to be a normal characteristic of that platform.

Again, you wouldn't really notice it unless you look for it.

 

I had the same problem with my '06 Endy. Dealer said everything is ok. I took my car to NTB for wheel alignment and balance. After that vibrating was gone.

 

Do you know if they use a regular balancer or Hunter Road Force?

I might try that.

Btw, do people here find Endeavors more sensitive to imperfect wheel balance than other vehicles?

 

I have no idea, but I did alignment in NTB twice, first time wasn't perfect then I returned my Endy two days later. They fixed it.

 

Did a road force balance..No change. Had it in for service afterwards, dealer took another look and everything and nothing seems wrong.

At this point I think that this is the road conditions. A coworker of mine also has increased vibration on a particular section of the highway where I feel it the most. His car is 09 Camry with little mileage on it.

 

In case anyone is wondering, I am still having the steering shimmy. it's there on 3 sets of tires and 2 sets of rims (factory and winter steelies with mint winter tires). Several balances, including Hunter machine, rotations and alignments have not helped.

I test drove a brand new Endeavor at a dealer today. It does not have any kind of issues at all. Solid as a rock. Drove mine on the same road after, got a shimmy.

So it's something deeper and seems like I convinced the dealer to look deeper and past the regular 'let's balance and rotate' drill. Let's see what transpires.

 

i couldn't clearly understand the issue , is it just vibrating or do u have a stiff steering.. a minor vibration can be put up with but a stiff steering is alarming and can be dangerous while driving.

 

no, it's not stiff, just a bit of a high speed shimmy that my dealer can't figure out. i drove another endeavor they had on the same road and it was not shaking at all. then they took the wheels off that car (to rule out the tires/rims), put it on mine and the shimmy was still there on the same road.

at some point in all this, the dealer found that the upper prop shaft was out of balance and they replaced it, but it did not remove the shimmy.

overall the vehicle is drivable and safe, but there's still something not right.

 

ok....new prop shaft didn't do a thing. also, my mechanic found a leak in the front passenger axle, got that replaced and again no luck.
i've been struggling with this for a year in a half now with no luck whatsoever.

Last few days I have bee noticing a change in the way the vehicle sounds when I am in D with brakes applied (i.e. waiting for the light to change). There's a bit of a whine that wasn't there before. I wonder if my transmission has been the problem all along.

anyhow, any ideas will be appreciated, thanks.

 

oh, great, now it's leaking transmission fluid...