Somethings wrong in my front end...

[sullivan]

Not exactly sure what is wrong, but there is something... It it certainly in the front. Its a violent shake. After installing a rear sway bar, I can for sure tell that something up front is off. I needed new tires desperately, so I got those, new outer tie rods, and 2 alignments.

I have a 2006 dodge ram 1500 sport hemi 5.7 with the 3.92 4x4

It has ranchos on the front, and I think its leveled. Previous owners upgrades.

I did hit a curb on my left side a few weeks ago before new tires, maybe my left shock is out? I don't know. But I need some people to diagnose this with me. I did have this sort of high speed shake through before I hit the curb. So I may be looking at multiple bad things.

As of now, no sounds or noises of any kind are given. it just feels like crap in the front end.
I would think an alignment would pick up this. Dont you? Considering I forked out 170 to them for lifetime alignment.

 

[Silverbullet08]

shocks are prob over extended. stock shocks will bottom out with a level over bumps and stuff. or level on the 06 and up can also have shakes and wobbles caused from the kit

 

[AWE Daniel]

Sounds like the death wobble, I would check all your bushings and check out the steering stabilizer, seems like a lot of people with a lift or level run into this problem, I would start by checking all the steering parts, seems like thats where these problems come from.

 

[truckin151]

You hit a curb? Is the wheel out of balance? Try rotating the tires and getting them balanced first since most places do that for free and see if the wobble moves. If it moves bad tire or wheel or something out of balance, if it stays its something in the front end components

 

[HemiBabe]

I know on my old 4x4, the weights on the wheel fell off and it caused it to wobble pretty bad at a higher speed

 

[sullivan]

Ok, well i am going to go have firestone check the front end out. But maybe it just needs the wheels balanced.

And yes, I accidently hit a curb, that was at an angle, so I didn't hit it straight on, but I was going appx. 40 mph. I had no issues after this. Yet I already had a bad alignment and bad tires. So I got new tires and two alignments.

So maybe it just needs to be balanced. I lifted my front end up today and checked it all out. Most of my bushings looked aged, like any 06 ram would, but it doesn't explain my bad front end.

There is no lift.

 

[truckin151]

If it just came out of no where heck the wheels and tires for balance first. The tire could have the steel belt snap wihout he tire shredding or it could.have lost a weght both will cause a wobble. And are cheaper to diagnos and fix

 

[sullivan]

If it just came out of no where heck the wheels and tires for balance first. The tire could have the steel belt snap wihout he tire shredding or it could.have lost a weght both will cause a wobble. And are cheaper to diagnos and fix

Well its got brand new tires. So no belts are broken.

Balance is the issue then.

 

[truckin151]

If its a bad tire, even though its new, it could still have belt broken. Its rare but not uncommon. Just rule the wheels and tires out first that's all im saying.

 

[RubberFrog]

Rotate your tires and see what happens. Did they check your balljoints?

 

[sullivan]

Rotate your tires and see what happens. Did they check your balljoints?

Firestone quotes they did. But that was only communication between me and the clerk, not the mechanic.

I lifted the front of my truck up yesterday,

cv joint boots looked great, I grabbed the tire on top and bottom and there was no play in ball joints. i inspected the boots and they were fine. outer tie rods are freshly installed Moogs, i made sure they were nice and greased.

Lets leave the tires out of this, they are not the issue. i had this crap going on before. Its something with suspension, or chassis.

Having a bad belt in a tire wouldn't cause my truck to wobble side to side when I turn in my drive way up front. Or make my tuck clunk in the front when braking suddenly and force being put into the steering wheel.

 

[RubberFrog]

How about your a arm bushings. I dont know how to check them, but it is possible the arms are loose and/or the bushings are bad. Wheel bearings- jack the tires up and rotate them slowly, listen/feel for noise or rough spots

You're going to have to go through it one by one.

If it's happening in the driveway, we can rule out the swaybar, that might let the truck roll a little, but it wouldn't wiggle the front end at driveway speeds.

 

[RubberFrog]

And the reason no one is ruling out the tires is because you are just taking the word of firestone. That's like taking the word of the jiffylube guy that he put the oil cap on.

 

[sullivan]

Ahh! Well it looks like a balance on the tires helped. However Discount Tire made me very unhappy again. They were only supposed to balance tires, and they mistakenly swap the pass side front and rear tires. This is a huge no no. The tires are to be cross rotated only. Either way they messed up. And it pissed me off. I didn't realize till I got home, so I just whipped out the impact and jacks, but it took an hour for me to do it all.

Seems like the trucks good now. However, I should get new shocks and sway bar bushings all the way around. I plan on having all new ball joints, bilsteins on all fours, and all new bushings by June. i could fork out the funds on them now but ima wait.

 

[RubberFrog]

All of that "it's not the tires" and then it was the tires? lol

I'm glad you got it straightened out!

 

[sullivan]

All of that "it's not the tires" and then it was the tires? lol

I'm glad you got it straightened out!

I struggle with how to word things often. When I was saying it wasn't the tires I was referring to it as for sure not being a broken belt. I am having a shop check her out tomorrow morning hopefully to make sure there's not some other factor.

But, I am pretty sure shocks, front sway bar bushings, and maybe all ball joints, control arm bushings are greatly needed.

Then I will pretty much have a new truck. haha. She's running great now. But just looking underneath myself the front sway bar needs new bushings/

 

[sullivan]

Somethings still wrong, on the way to the shop which never did check it out he just drove it and told me they cant get to it then.

But as I was breaking and approching a light, I beleive it was my drivers side front tire, hit a bump and it seemed like it bottomed out or didn't absorb the bump, my breaking had a slight delay because of this, it was like it wouldn't break as soon as I hit that thing.

Could my shock be out? What else? Everything looks ok besides sway bar bushings, and shocks I will go ahead and order anyways. But what else could make it bad in the front end. Everything looks good to me.

 

[AWE Daniel]

Yeah that sounds like the shocks, you said you might be leveled? If they didnt add longer shocks it is quite possible the extra travel wore it out, before you order new shocks you need to know for sure if its leveled or not and get the right shock length.

 

[KGBIGCOUNTRY]

A simple pic of your truck from the side would let us know if its leveled or not.

 

[sullivan]

Yeah that sounds like the shocks, you said you might be leveled? If they didnt add longer shocks it is quite possible the extra travel wore it out, before you order new shocks you need to know for sure if its leveled or not and get the right shock length.

I already have the correct shocks picked out. They are the correct length and all. If I want it leveled I need those thingys right?