2015 Tahoe right side front end shake at 80 mph

[Rrunner]

My 2015 Tahoe (118,000 miles) front end on passenger side begins a shake/vibration around 80 mph, it's a smooth ride up to this speed. I've had all four wheels high speed balanced two times so I know it's not the wheel balancing. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

 

[Jplasse]

With vehicle on the ground, have someone turn the steering wheel left and right gently and another person watch for any jumping/popping of tie rod ends or odd movements in the steering rack that are not linear to the left or right force. If you do not see anything there, while jacking up the passenger front tire (using the chassis frame behind tire as jack point), watch the upper and lower ball joints of the upper and lower control arms for slop. Once tire is in the air, you can put a pry bar or tire iron at the 6 oclock position and put pressure on the tire to look for ball joint slop, as well as a wheel bearing/hub assembly starting to wear out. At speeds of 45-60mph, that typically is a sign of out of balance tire

 

[Tahoe14]

Try a Road Force Balance.

 

[OR VietVet]

What @Jplasse and @Tahoe14 said. I would also be interested if the people doing the balancing are checking for a bent wheel.

What happens when the rf wheel is swapped to the rr?

 

[Sparksalot]

My 2015 Tahoe (118,000 miles) front end on passenger side begins a shake/vibration around 80 mph, it's a smooth ride up to this speed. I've had all four wheels high speed balanced two times so I know it's not the wheel balancing. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

What tires do you have? Some seem to have this challenge staying balanced.

 

[Rrunner]

What tires do you have? Some seem to have this challenge staying balanced.

I have Mitchlen all the way around probably half life left on them. The two times I’ve had them balanced. The shake never goes away, even after just balancing.

 

[Rrunner]

What @Jplasse and @Tahoe14 said. I would also be interested if the people doing the balancing are checking for a bent wheel.

What happens when the rf wheel is swapped to the rr?

Actually, I haven’t tried that but very good idea. I will give that a try and let you know. Thanks.

 

[B-train]

I just had a similar issue on my 2017 yukon. We had new tires installed on the factory 22 inch rims. I've had a shake that shows up at highway speeds, annoying, but not lose control bad.

Took it in for a trans service and some other stuff. I asked them to check the tire balance and he said 1 wheel had 8 Oz on it! I said nothing has been touched since they did the work. The tech road force balanced it and had no luck. He broke the tire down, rotated 180 degrees and it balanced fine......which should've been caught the FIRST time, but not all techs are seasoned.....

So, in getting to my point, I agree with a possible bent wheel and with changing locations to see if the vibration follows. If it does, have a good shop inspect the wheel and tell you how much weight is on the wheel. You might actually be able to see that yourself and compare to the others.

If the vibration doesn't follow the wheel, then I'd look at tie rods and steering linkage for play that can let the tire flutter when rotating.

 

[OR VietVet]

Yes, I should have said this: Breaking down the tire and spin 180 degrees sometimes gets the heavy spot on tire and heavy spot on wheel, 180 degrees from each other. They could have been originally mounted right on top of each other. I have even had to breakdown again and spin an additional 90 degrees.

 

[Sparksalot]

I have Mitchlen all the way around probably half life left on them. The two times I’ve had them balanced. The shake never goes away, even after just balancing.

I've heard of it, and seen it myself with KO2s, but have wondered if any other AT types have the issue.

 

[Rrunner]

What @Jplasse and @Tahoe14 said. I would also be interested if the people doing the balancing are checking for a bent wheel.

What happens when the rf wheel is swapped to the rr?

I did the wheel swap and the problem remained in the left front exactly the same.

 

[Rrunner]

I have Mitchlen all the way around probably half life left on them. The two times I’ve had them balanced. The shake never goes away, even after just balancing.

I too have Mitchlen, probably a little more worn than half life. I had them balanced and rotated on regular schedules and I did try moving front left to rear left and the problem remained at front left so pretty sure it's not a tire/wheel issue.

 

[OR VietVet]

Mitchlen=Michelin

 

[Rrunner]

Update on my 2015 Tahoe shaking issue, to reiterate shaking starts between 75 and 80 and increases intensity the faster higher your speed and yes, I live in Texas where 80 will get you run over. High end Michelin tires, all purchased new at the same time, they’ve been rotated, and road force balanced on a regular basis. I just noticed that three tires read 5 on the tread depth and one on the left rear is at 2. Maybe this one worn tire is the cause but what would cause this? Shake/vibration is not really felt in steering and alignment is good, steering is tight and responsive, vibrations are felt in seats and body. The Tahoe rides very hard, you feel every slight deviation in the pavement, no bouncing though. Had one mechanic say the right rear wheel bearing that he could replace for $800, I couldn’t hear any grinding or anything wrong with it and when pressed he wasn’t really sure. I can’t throw thousands at this until hopefully I hit the fix. I’m thinking maybe shocks, does anyone have suggestions?

 

[OR VietVet]

When you say three tires read 5 and one reads 2, you mean 32nd's, right? If so, one is worn out and 3 are where I change my tires before they are worn out. If you know you need tires, replace them and go from there.

 

[Borrowed_Time068]

My 2015 Tahoe (118,000 miles) front end on passenger side begins a shake/vibration around 80 mph, it's a smooth ride up to this speed. I've had all four wheels high speed balanced two times so I know it's not the wheel balancing. Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

I have the same problem with my 2016 Yukon with 22” factory wheels. Road force balance did nothing to help. Still trying to figure it out. Starts around 77-78 MPH and gets worse from there.

 

[Thrust]

I have the same problem with my 2016 Yukon with 22” factory wheels. Road force balance did nothing to help. Still trying to figure it out. Starts around 77-78 MPH and gets worse from there.

I have the same thing on my 2015 Yukon, but I have 20" wheels. I attributed it to the Bridgestone tires being towards the end of their life, which are about 10k miles from being replaced.

 

[SpyShops212]

I would change my tires with Michelins. When k2xx customers started experiencing this issue GM was replacing with Michelins.

 

[Borrowed_Time068]

I have the same thing on my 2015 Yukon, but I have 20" wheels. I attributed it to the Bridgestone tires being towards the end of their life, which are about 10k miles from being replaced.

I’m beginning to think it is the tires. I rotated them yesterday and the vibration is gone until I get to about 82-83 MPH. But then you can feel it in the back end. The tires are Bridgestone’s and have probably around 30k miles on them.

 

[Thrust]

Yup sounds familiar. Once I get up around 80 on the Turnpike I get a vibration that oscillates.