'07 Vue Strange vibration

[AL P]

In March I purchased a 2007 Vue V6 with 29,000 miles; a "certified" vehicle. The Vue had two badly cupped tires, which I made the dealer replace or no deal. The other two tires appeared fairly new.

The vehicle impressed me with it's zip and handling etc. Not to impressed with the body noises. However, the reason for my post involves a vibration at highway speeds,but only after it's driven for over an hour. At the two hour mark, it's worse.

It feels just like a tire imbalance problem. Slight vib. in the gas pedal, at times, and in the seat and door at other time together or separate from the pedal vibrations. It seems to move around with changes in speed. It starts at about 65-67 MPH, but then the range will broaden as the time goes on to 55- 75 or so. The vehicle rides great off- highway and for the first 1 hr on the highway.

So far, the dealer replaced the torque converter, the rear end unit, the "other" two tires and had the main drive shaft balanced. He did a four wheel alignment (after the rear-end replacement) and re-balanced (road force) the tires TWICE.

Still, NG. The problem hasn't changed or been diminished at all. I'm having a second dealer have a go at it, but I'm not optimistic.
Any ideas or comment are appreciated.

[1saxman]

Going back to when you got it, you have to ask yourself 'Why cupped tires?'. Cupped tires are always a sign of rather major problems such as bent/broken suspension members, crash damage, major alignment problems, etc. Other than the spectre of some hidden major problem:

Bent wheel. Take it to a tire shop and have each wheel put on the balancer and slowly turned with the safety hood open so you can see if there's ANY runout.
It's also not impossible that a wheel cover, if so equipped, is out of balance or has something stuck in it. Also, there's no guarantee that the replacement tires don't have similar problems to the originals, such as uneven belts. Lastly, what tire pressure are you running? Set it cold according to the door sticker - no more, not even 1 lb. High pressure makes any problem worse, and sets up a corresponding wear pattern that is hard to break.

[AL P]

1saxman,

They attributed the cupping of the orginial tires to bad alignment and lack of rotation. The alignment was the first thing they did when they replaced the tires, and again when they replaced the rear-end.

They already looked at the tire / wheel run-out- it was OK.

The latest is (after they spoke w/ GM engineering) is for me to bring it in when it's hot & doing the vib. thing. Since this problem (apparently) has a thermal component to it, it make sense to me, a bit of a pain, but it makes sense.

[ozen]

That cupped tire problem and vibration seems to be more like worn out stuts. Have it check out, I know when I got some vibrations on the pedal and on the seat took it into an indepent shop and they told me it was the struts that were causing the issues.