# 2006 Dodge Humming At Highway Speed



## TwoElkhounds

Hi Guys,

Need a little help from you all, especially the Dodge guys. My 2006 Dodge truck has recently started making a droning humming noise at highway speed. The noise begins at about 55mph and will continue as long as you maintain speed above this level. Once the speed drops down below 55mph, the humming sound will go away. If you re-accelerate above 55mph, the sound will come back. The noise does not seem to be related to the speed of the truck, meaning once it starts, going faster or slower does not seem to affect the pitch of the hum. If you slow down below 55mph, the hum will sound a bit clunky (very subtle) before it eventually stops. It seems that the sound is coming from the front of the truck, but it is difficult to tell exactly where in the front. After all, you have to be going 55mph in order to have the problem, so it is a bit difficult to isolate. Truck is running fine, no indication that there is anything wrong with the powertrain. However, I should note that I recently had my transmission serviced, flushed and belts tightened. Truck has about 60k miles on it.

I did some searching on the Dodge forums and it seems many people have complained about a similar problem, but I could not find a thread where anyone specifically indicated how the problem was solved. General consensus is either gear lashing in the pumpkins or bearings (carrier bearing or front wheel bearings). Some have also suggested it is transmission related. I am currently camping on Lake Champlain and will try to nurse the truck home tomorrow (Hey, if I stay below 55mph and crank up the music, the problem goes away!). I leave next week on a two week road trip to Cedar Point and points west, I really think I want this fixed before I leave. I do not want a bearing (or worse) going out while I am on the road.

Any ideas where I should look? I need to figure this out quickly as we leave for Cedar Point next Tuesday.

Thanks,

DAN


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## RDS

TwoElkhounds said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> Need a little help from you all, especially the Dodge guys. My 2006 Dodge truck has recently started making a droning humming noise at highway speed. The noise begins at about 55mph and will continue as long as you maintain speed above this level. Once the speed drops down below 55mph, the humming sound will go away. If you re-accelerate above 55mph, the sound will come back. The noise does not seem to be related to the speed of the truck, meaning once it starts, going faster or slower does not seem to affect the pitch of the hum. If you slow down below 55mph, the hum will sound a bit clunky (very subtle) before it eventually stops. It seems that the sound is coming from the front of the truck, but it is difficult to tell exactly where in the front. After all, you have to be going 55mph in order to have the problem, so it is a bit difficult to isolate. Truck is running fine, no indication that there is anything wrong with the powertrain. However, I should note that I recently had my transmission serviced, flushed and belts tightened. Truck has about 60k miles on it.
> 
> I did some searching on the Dodge forums and it seems many people have complained about a similar problem, but I could not find a thread where anyone specifically indicated how the problem was solved. General consensus is either gear lashing in the pumpkins or bearings (carrier bearing or front wheel bearings). Some have also suggested it is transmission related. I am currently camping on Lake Champlain and will try to nurse the truck home tomorrow (Hey, if I stay below 55mph and crank up the music, the problem goes away!). I leave next week on a two week road trip to Cedar Point and points west, I really think I want this fixed before I leave. I do not want a bearing (or worse) going out while I am on the road.
> 
> Any ideas where I should look? I need to figure this out quickly as we leave for Cedar Point next Tuesday.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> DAN


It is going to be hard to pin point without hearing it myself but I will eliminate a few things for you.

A bad bearing, gear or noisey tire are all going to change with speed. A bearing or gear will only change by speed the pitch will stay the same. A tire will change in pitch and speed.

A belt could make a vibrating droan type noise if to loose or to tight. Can you duplicate the noise by holding the engine rpms the same as when your going 55 mph or does the truck have to be moving at 55??

If only when moving maybe a air damn or heat shield was moved when doing service work and now its flopping around at 55.

The transmission could have been over filled causing the fluid to become aerated which would cause the trans oil pump to whine.

There are many things that could cause a noise, you have to start with the process of elimination.

Hope this helps.


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## CamperAndy

To help eliminate or confirm front wheel bearing as the cause.

1 - visual inspection of the front u-joints. Look for rust rings around the caps. Rust indicates a bad ujoint. 
2 - in a parking lot drive in as tight a circle as you can and listen for bearing noise or feel it in the steering. 
3 - jack the front of the truck up and try to move the top and bottom of the tire. Any play is bad.

As for the carrier bearing. I ditched my two piece steel drive shaft and replaced it with a OEM one piece aluminum shaft. It is a wonder how they don't do this from the factory on all of them.


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## W5CI

I would say that it is tire ware.


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## RDS

Remember any tire, bearing or gear noise will change with speed, not just appear at one speed but not another.


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## Herbicidal

I'll throw in my .02. About eight years ago and on a different Tundra, I installed one of those billet aluminum front "grills" with the closely spaced flat, horizontal bars. At highway speeds the wind blowing across it created some kind of weird harmonics like a hummm or vibration. I was able to add some rubber spacers between several of the flat bars and eliminated the sound. Not that this is your situation, but perhaps check your truck grill and maybe temporarily block 1/2 of it with some sort of plastic cover to alter the wind flow and see if this changes anything.

My good buddy and a Toyota Master Diagnostics tech has access to a kit that has several microphones they can magnetically attach to a vehicle to help locate strange sounds at speed. It is a tricky thing to figure out exactly where the sound it coming from especially going down a road at 55mph+.

Good luck!


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## TwoElkhounds

Hitched up and made it home today without issue. However, the noise is now gone. Drove 150 miles and did not hear the hum once. After I got home, I took the truck around some of the country roads here to see if there was anything I could do to make it happen, I was unsuccessful. So, for two days the hum was there all the time, I could make it repeat on cue. Now there is nothing. On the one hand, it is nice that it is gone, on the other hand it is a bit irritating since it was a definite, distinct sound. I am sure it will come back when I am far from home.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will definitely put the truck through the paces this weekend and look into all the potential issues you have all suggested.

Thanks,

DAN


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## TwoElkhounds

I spent all day yesterday going over the truck. I can find nothing wrong. I pulled the wheels, everything looks good. Hubs are tight, no play in the bearings. Inpsected the entire front end suspension, all looks good. I drained the front differential (it was time anyways), no metal inside, everything looks good. Drive line looks good, though it is really hard to see anything wrong without pulling it apart. I took the truck out again and tried to see if I could get the noise back, nothing. Took it out again today, and nothing.

A good friend on another site suggested it might be my front mounted bike rack. This might make sense as I added another bike on the day I left when the hum went away. Something to look into.

Another online friend suggested it could be the drive shaft. Regardless of whether this was the problem, he suggested I rebuild the whole thing because it is a known issue on Dodge trucks. My research online seems to confirm this.

CampAndy, you also suggested this in your response, but you took it a step further and replaced the entire system with a one piece unit. Any info you can provide on this upgrade would be appreciated. Where did you get the parts? What was the cost? Did you do this yourself or pay to have it done?

Thanks in advance.

DAN


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## CamperAndy

I can post the info tomorrow when I have internet access for my laptop. Currently on my blackberry and do not have all the details.

The job only took 30 minuts and is actually very easy to do. Biggest pain is taking the old steel shaft out. It weighs a ton.


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## Insomniak

That's weird Dan, because on my new 2013 Ram, on its first towing trip last week was making a dual sound at around 55mph. One part of the noise was a rattling sound that didn't really have a pattern and seemed random. The second part seemed like a harmonic vibration that sounded like a lawn edger from about a block away, but with a slightly lower pitch. It wasn't the turbo because I could hear that clearly from the front and it has a much lower pitch. I could make this noise come and go as I wanted by pressing on the accelerator with the engine under load (as on a grade) at 55mph, but not before then. The kids said it sounded like the noise was coming from under the right-rear seat, but all that's under there is exhaust. Other than the mysterious noises, the truck pulled very well and got me between 11 & 12mpg, loaded very heavy. The truck has the new AISIN heavy-duty 6 speed transmission that is a huge improvement over the 68RFE trans on my old 2012 truck, so I doubt that's the problem (unless it's a normal breaking-in noise). A little hard to believe, but I'm getting about 20% better fuel economy with the new transmission, 3.42:1 rear axle, and DEF system. Finished my first week of back and forth to work with the truck and came in at 19.3mpg (about 3/4 highway & the rest stop & go city). But I digress!


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## TwoElkhounds

Insomniak said:


> That's weird Dan, because on my new 2013 Ram, on its first towing trip last week was making a dual sound at around 55mph. One part of the noise was a rattling sound that didn't really have a pattern and seemed random. The second part seemed like a harmonic vibration that sounded like a lawn edger from about a block away, but with a slightly lower pitch. It wasn't the turbo because I could hear that clearly from the front and it has a much lower pitch. I could make this noise come and go as I wanted by pressing on the accelerator with the engine under load (as on a grade) at 55mph, but not before then. The kids said it sounded like the noise was coming from under the right-rear seat, but all that's under there is exhaust. Other than the mysterious noises, the truck pulled very well and got me between 11 & 12mpg, loaded very heavy. The truck has the new AISIN heavy-duty 6 speed transmission that is a huge improvement over the 68RFE trans on my old 2012 truck, so I doubt that's the problem (unless it's a normal breaking-in noise). A little hard to believe, but I'm getting about 20% better fuel economy with the new transmission, 3.42:1 rear axle, and DEF system. Finished my first week of back and forth to work with the truck and came in at 19.3mpg (about 3/4 highway & the rest stop & go city). But I digress!


You got another new truck!?







Holy cow, I still have the same underwear from the last truck you bought!







Congratulations! I knew you were a little disappointed in the mileage on the last one.

We actually toyed with the idea of trading in on a new 2013 Ram. Our current 5.9 liter Dodge Blue Books for nearly what we paid for it 7 years ago. Maybe wouldn't get that much if we tried to sell it, but we could recoup much of our money for the new truck. In the end we decided against it. Our current truck is paid for and we really like it, so we will stay with the gray lady.

Funny on the noise. Maybe there was a harmonic convergence with the east and west coast Rams?







Our humming is now gone, I have not been able to get it to repeat. When it was happening, I could get it to hum on queue. We are leaving on a two week road trip tomorrow, maybe it will come back. We shall see.

DAN


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## CamperAndy

TwoElkhounds said:


> I spent all day yesterday going over the truck. I can find nothing wrong. I pulled the wheels, everything looks good. Hubs are tight, no play in the bearings. Inpsected the entire front end suspension, all looks good. I drained the front differential (it was time anyways), no metal inside, everything looks good. Drive line looks good, though it is really hard to see anything wrong without pulling it apart. I took the truck out again and tried to see if I could get the noise back, nothing. Took it out again today, and nothing.
> 
> A good friend on another site suggested it might be my front mounted bike rack. This might make sense as I added another bike on the day I left when the hum went away. Something to look into.
> 
> Another online friend suggested it could be the drive shaft. Regardless of whether this was the problem, he suggested I rebuild the whole thing because it is a known issue on Dodge trucks. My research online seems to confirm this.
> 
> CampAndy, you also suggested this in your response, but you took it a step further and replaced the entire system with a one piece unit. Any info you can provide on this upgrade would be appreciated. Where did you get the parts? What was the cost? Did you do this yourself or pay to have it done?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> DAN


Sorry it took so long. I only had internet access on my Blackberry and could not easily search and get the info you wanted. The link below is the thread with all the details. Go to the last post.

CamperAndy Dodge Parts


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