Vibration in '01 4.6 HSE Drive Train

Thanks for making it easier to access the video. I've had the front drive shaft off and the U-Joints seem to move too freely for my liking, but there's no end play at all. I'm going to replace them, (have already replaced the rear u-jonts,) just to eliminate them from the things I had planned on replacing anyway. Yes mine is fitted with a damper. I'm just going out to the garage now to install a new Monroe Steering Damper, and will remove diff damper and take it for a drive to see if that's what it is. I'm thinking if it's not the damper rubber then it's either the transfer case output shaft or the front diff input shaft, or even possibly the flex plate, because when I bought it it had a terrible vibration coming from the flex plate and the lot told me they replaced it, but I'm thinking they probably just centered it and put some lock-tight on the bolts, and tightened it up with the old flex plate still on there. If that's the case, I'll be seeing (sueing) them in court. Chow for now. Thanks for the help.

Well it's fixed! We just went for a drive on the freeway after installing a new steering stabilizer, and it was still vibrating like crazy, nothing had changed and then the wife said it sounded like it was coming from up above, with the sunroof open, so I told her to stick her hand out of the sunroof and put it on the facia strip that runs across the top of the windshield, and sure enough all the vibrations stopped, and all the howls went away. :clap: It turned out to be the clips that hold the strip down are in terrible shape. There is only 7 out of 10 there and none of them are in perfect condition, and as you can see in the previous video, how the sound was able to fool us into thinking that it was coming from the front drive train of the truck. Ha, ha, another cheap fix. :thumb: Thanks Rich for all your help, and also to everyone else who has helped me on my other 3 Threads about this problem. I've never wasted so much time in my life on such a stupid problem that fooled me for so long. :doh: Here's our drive today, when we figured out what our problem was. Unbelievable. :lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1dLDPWr4xM Fixed the noise my Range Rover makes - The cheap way. on youtube.

Hey guys, sorry I didn't get back to you right away on this matter, :doh: it's just that after six months of " working out the kinks", in my truck the little woman and me had to get away for a few days and finally enjoy owning a perfectly running machine that did nothing but impress the hell out of us and make us smile :dance: :clap: :lol: . We went for a tour of southern British Columbia, Canada and what a beautiful tour it was. Carrie, " the wife" took about 700 pictures and tons of videos of fantastic mountians and lakes and we climbed a few mountians without a single glitch in the whole trip. AHHHHHHHHH, finally!, Anyways, about the window strip, it's made of metal with a rubber coating and is stuck down in the center by a glob of silicone. The best way to get it off is to (believe it or not, this is straight from the TSB) use a plastic card, visa, mastercard, American express, HA HA, bank card, any thin strong card will do, and slide it under the strip from the top down and move it to either side until you feel it contact the white plastic clips that hold the strip down and push the clips toward the left side of the truck about a half inch till they can't slide anymore and the clip should come out off the T shaped metal stud sticking out of the truck set in the groove along the top of the windscreen (see the pics of the white plastic clips sitting on top of my bench vise at the top of this page) there should be eight in all that grab the locking "lip" that is part of the window trim. Once you get one to move to the left and release you'll get what I mean, It's so simple it made me laugh and explode at the same time :lol: :evil: and carefully detach the strip from the silcone glob in the middle and it should come out of the ends by pulling it straight out in the center away from the windscreen. The strip only goes under the ends about 1/4 to1/2 an inch and each clip should have two hooks that grab the locking lip on the strip. If any of these are broken, as 13 out of 16 of mine were you can pick them up at any dealership for cheap, in my case $23 Canadian and install them yourself. Here's a trick I learned, starting at either side, put the first 6 on the strip near to where the pins on the truck are and put the last 2 on the other end on the truck and one by one starting at the opposite end of the 2 you put on the truck use your plastic card to slide them back onto the holding pins and for the last 2 pull the side windshield trim out just enough to get the trim in behind it and push them down onto the clips until they lock into place, and don't forget to put a fresh glob of rtv silicone in the center big enough to make good contact with the lip on the strip as a safe gaurd so the wind doesn't pull it off, and let it dry for at least a couple of hours before you drive it for the sealant to cure a bit and your troubles should be over. Good luck and patience, also if you have a sunroof and can fit through it, thats the best place to stand to do the job. :thumb: Big-T. P.S. We will put some of the pics of our trip up after we have a chance to go through them.

Hi,

I thought this excellent post was worthy of a bump.

The guy who fitted the new windscreen for me recently messed up the top exterior finisher. It nearly came off one day at 50km/h

This post was really useful in helping me fixing the problem. Even down to the mounting technique. Excellent

Just to add to the collective knowledge, I also had occasion at the weekend to remove the upper tailgate bottom finisher which also has clips. Spookily enough these clips are different from the ones on the top front.

I love this car