Front End Vibration

I recently purchased a 2008 Volvo 730, D16, I-Shift, 660k. Since I bought it, I have a vibration at 40MPH and 60MPH. The harshness of the vibration is not consistent, but it is always present at those speeds.

I took the truck to a Love's truck stop and had them check the passenger-side front tire. It checked out fine. Both steer tires are 80% tread and visibly look great. They even broke the tire down to check for a broken belt on the inside of the tire.

Yesterday, I took the truck to another local truck shop and had them check the balance with the tires on the truck. They said the balance was probably close enough but that both fronts were very slightly out of round. They wanted $175 to true the tires but were not confident that would fix the problem. I wasn't ready to throw one hundred dollar bills down the drain, so I passed on that.

When the truck was lifted, we checked bushings/bearings in the front as well.

This does not feel like a driveline vibration due to the frequency of the oscillations. If it was driveline, I think the vibration would be much quicker. It definitely seems like a tire issue to me.

Short of buying a new tire, or tires, what else can I do to isolate this as a tire issue? Can I move a couple of drive tires to the front, temporarily, to test for vibration?

Thanks for your help.

 

That's good to know that you had the issue at the same speeds and it turned out to be a balance issue. That makes my wallet feel a little better.

I'll ask about the wheel nuts if I can find a good tire shop close by. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

He tugged all around the tire when it was lifted and didn't feel any play. I can't say they exhausted any possibilities of wear on the tie rods or other components, though. I don't know about mileage on the shocks, but I agree that could be part of the problem.

I'm going to take it to a GCR Tires shop Friday. Hopefully they'll be able to diagnose the issue. If they can't, I'll go ahead with the drive tire swap and see how that goes.

I have not had a trailer on it yet.

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm taking it to a GCR tire shop this morning. I'll ask them if they have the balancing sleeves and ask about a runout gauge.