The Vibrating Ford Van

A Technician was asked to solve a vibration problem on a Ford Van.

During a test drive, the vibration was felt everywhere- the dash,

steering wheel, front seat, shoulder belts; everything was vibrating!

The Tech. balanced all four tires on a Computerized Balancer,

even though wheel weights were put on all four wheels and tires,

the vibration was even worse than before.

The Tech. rebalanced all four wheels, time after time, but the vibration

was still present. The Shop Supervisor then took over the job of solving

the mystery of the “Vibrating Van”. The Supervisor balanced one wheel/tire assembly and then tested it again after installing weights.

The Balance was still way off !!

The Supervisor broke the tire down and found about 1 quart of liquid

in the tire !...Liquid was found in all four tires……This is why the tires

couldn’t be balanced, every time the Van stopped, the liquid would

settle in another location.

The Customer later admitted to using a Tire Stop Leak Liquid in

all four tires ! Besides Stop Leak, another common source of liquid in

the tires is water that accumulates in the Storage Tanks of Air Compress-

ors, which often gets pumped into tires when air is added. All air

compressors storage tanks should be drained of water reguraly to

prevent this from happening.