My wife drives a 2001 Montero Limited. Tires are one year old. Recently the vehicle developed an odd vibration that will appear randomly and at varying speeds, sometimes 60, 65, other times 30, or 40, then will vibrate for a while, a few miles down the road, the the vibration will mysteriously go away. My first inclination was to have the tires balanced and rotated. Afterwards, all seemed well for a couple days, then the vibration appeared again. After a couple days of this, had the tires balanced again only to have this mysterious vibration show up again a few days later. Whats really bizarre, is that this does not seem to be tire related in the first place. Typically a tire out of balance will vibrate at a given speed, and will always vibrate at that speed until balanced. This vibration comes and goes, and comes at different speeds almost all the time. I'm now thinking that this is a U-Joint, however, the rear driveline on this is a straight drive, going right into the rear gear box, with independant rear suspension. This has no rear U-Joints. So, did my driveline throw a balance weight? Not that I can see after crawling under the thing. Anybody have any experience with this type of problem?

Thanks in advance.

Bryce

I had a similar problem on my SL roadster due to tires slipping on the rims. When you feel the vibration, hit the brakes hard a couple of times and see if the vibration goes away.... if so, it may be slipping tires. To check, mark the tires at the valve stem and see if the alignment marks move over time.

Frank