Porpoise Hork
Well-Known Member
I have a 2020 Lariat (Nov2019 Build) with locking rear diff and it has the vibration.I can really kick myself in the ass for not spending the extra $10K to buy the 2020 Lariat that didn't have this issue instead of the 2019 Certified Pre Owned XLT.
I was researching yesterday and called a place that does 4wd builds and the first thing I was asked was whether Ford was shimming the center bearing.
When I went looking into this a few months back to see if the EU/AU guys had been having the same issue, the first thing I found were center bearing shim kits. Most if not all of them stated that the Ranger driveline was very sensitive to angle changes caused by suspension lifts. I then looked at how their rear suspension was setup and compared it to ours. And surprise surprise, Ford is using a different mounting plate with a taller bushing on it as well as added shims between the axle and springs for the NA market. They also used a different center bearing and mount for our market. From this it is clear that Ford effectively put a 1.5-2.5" lift kit on the Ranger, but may not have accounted for this for the driveline angle. Thus causing the same vibration experienced by nearly everyone in the EU/AU market that lifted their trucks. Then looking into the forums the number one recommendation to fix it was install the shim kit on the center bearing... This led me to testing out shimming my center bearing and with it currently having a 1/2" shim between the mount and bearing the vibration is nearly eliminated, but the stock bolts are not long enough to safely go thicker. The issue has not been high enough on my annoyance gauge since taking it to 1/2" to pull a bolt out and go get longer ones to add more/thicker shims.
So yeah as far as I am concerned, the shop you called has clearly dealt with this before. I want to say the Frontier and Tacoma also suffer similar issues when raised. So with the AU guys having it as well then they are raised, and all evidence points to Ford installing a factory rear lift for NA, shimming the center bearing is likely going to be the actual fix.
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