I have a '99 Durango 4WD that has begun to lightly vibrate and roar (for lack of a better term - maybe LOUD low pitched hum is better) when I drive above 40mph. When I accelerate (espcially climbing a hill) it gets VERY loud and begins to vibrate more. The moment I let off the gas at any speed, the vibration and roar stops and all is quiet again.

I just put 4 new tires on today hoping the problem was that but to no avail. In fact, the quieter tire noise allows me to hear and feel the vibration and roar better.

I can feel the vibration in the steering wheel and throughout the entire vehicle. The noise is definitely coming from the rear end. This is not engine noise.

I've seen and heard a lot of talk about bad universal joints, etc. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

I'm so thankful for forums like these. Sharing the knowledge and experience of people like you has saved many people thousands of dollars I'm sure! I'm hoping the same will be true for me!

Thanks for any help or advice you can give!

ricrog

definately would check out the u joints, and the fluid level in ur rear, and possibly change it if it has never been changed

What solved your problem, Our 2000 D is doing the exact same thing, put new tires and changed fluid in rear end. and no change to the noise, Was it the u joints?

What solved your problem, Our 2000 D is doing the exact same thing, put new tires and changed fluid in rear end. and no change to the noise, Was it the u joints?

It ws the u-joints. Once I replaced the u joints, the vibration and noise went away. I replaced them myself which wasn't too difficult. If you choose to replace them yourself, be careful because aftermarket u-joints don't always fit as expected. I purchased a couple of u-joints from AutoZone with the intention of replacing both joints on the rear drive shaft. (As it turns out, it was the u-joint on the front end of the rear drive shaft -nearest the transmission. Many people had indicated that it would probably be the rearmost u-joint that would fail first.)

Although the u-joint I purchased from AutoZone was what they say fit, it actually wasn't. On my '99 Durango, the rearmost u-joint actually has 2 different size bearing caps. And the front u-joint was a smaller bearing cap than what was spec'd by AutoZone. I ended up having to go to a Dodge/Chrysler dealer and getting a Mopar u-joint. It's cost was 4 times the cost of the AutoZone part. But...it fit as I expected. The Mopar part was about $80. I was able to get an aftermarket u-joint through Advance Auto parts for the rearmost u-joint for only $22.

All in all, I consider my foray into u-joint replacement a success and much less expensive to do it myself.

Thanks for the help everyone!

Rich

u joint just did mine... no more squeak done in an hour

u joint just did mine... no more squeak done in an hour. i ran into the same problem wit the u joints one they are all the same size and the other is thw different sizes.. i got mine at autozone. model # 4800 the other they took from another model truck and just matched up the sizes.. so u might want to take it off and bring it ddown for them to size