Engine pulsing while cruising

Hey guys,
for some reason while cruising I can hear (and feel through vibrations) my engine pulsing like a sin wave. It doesn't pulse while in neutral or at low speeds, but from 45+ you can start to hear and feel it.

Any ideas what could be going on? It's annoying and seems to gradually be getting more noticable.

Does anybody have any ideas? It's a bit concerning to me because it wasn't there before and I really don't need something else to break if I don't take care of it.

I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but I would check your tire pressure, lug nuts, and driveshaft bolts. Report back to us after you do.

I re-torqued all the lug nuts, checked the tire pressure and the driveshaft bolts. Everything is fine on those. Any other ideas?

A little more information, the pulses are continuous and match the engine, not the speed. I also only get the noise when in fourth gear (4-speed auto) and you start to notice it around 60+ mph.

Have you checked your u joints ?

No, I'm nott sure how to check them properly..

Does the engine stutter or anything while going up an incline when you have cruise control set? My 2010 dodge 1500 was pulsing, and would also stutter when I would go up a hill with cruise control set. It eventually got to where it would do it out of cruise control, driving up a hill or on flat ground. It ended up being 2 fouled plugs. (It has 2 plugs per cylinder.)

If it doesn't feel like an engine thing, start looking at everything that rotates. Wheels, u-joints, bearings, rubber ball joints, etc. Start with the simple things and work back. Make sure your wheels are balanced, and your tires aren't wearing abnormally. Either of those would cause vibrations at higher speeds.

The only time the car stutters is for the first minute after I start it and put it in gear. Once it warms up it acts like I described above.

I sent a short datalog to Bama and they seem to think it's due to an exhaust leak. I found that I have two very small leaks on the passenger side of my exhaust and the driver side long tube is cracked on one of the tubes, but no exhaust gas is escaping.

Is it possible that an exhaust leak could cause this?

Ehhh.... No, I've never heard of an exhaust leak causing something like this. A vacuum leak would be a much more likely culprit than an exhaust leak. Have you checked to make sure you don't have any lose hoses or anything? That's what it is starting to sound like to me.

kitsune1324 said:

The only time the car stutters is for the first minute after I start it and put it in gear. Once it warms up it acts like I described above.

I sent a short datalog to Bama and they seem to think it's due to an exhaust leak. I found that I have two very small leaks on the passenger side of my exhaust and the driver side long tube is cracked on one of the tubes, but no exhaust gas is escaping.

Is it possible that an exhaust leak could cause this?

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I was thinking the same thing too, I'll be replacing one of the rubber gaskets that pull from the valve covers, not sure if that will fix it or not. The only other place i can think of would be the vacuum line that i plugged when I swapped to a hydroboost setup.
I'll see if i can upload a pic of what i was talking about with the fuel banks.

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If you have an exhaust leak ahead of an O2 , it will act much the same as a vacuum leak .

Interesting...I do have a small leak that I noticed coming from where the pipes from the engine meet further down the exhaust. I only noticed it because water was leaving a trail removing some of the black soot from the exhaust.
Do you think that exhaust cement would be a good thing to plug it with? They're ceramic headers.

kitsune1324 said:

Interesting...I do have a small leak that I noticed coming from where the pipes from the engine meet further down the exhaust. I only noticed it because water was leaving a trail removing some of the black soot from the exhaust.
Do you think that exhaust cement would be a good thing to plug it with? They're ceramic headers.

Click to expand...

Does the packaging specify what exhaust materials its compatible with?

Exhaust leaks can absolutely cause these issues. The engine corrects itself based on what the 02 sensors tell it, and an exhaust leak will change their readings outside of the normal range.

I ended up ordering some high temp jb weld apoxy putty to try on it. If it fixes my issues, then I'll go and get it welded. Otherwise, it's a VERY small leak, not big at all.

O2 sensors do fail, so if it doesn't work, don't rule out a bad O2 sensor.


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You know, I think they might be the stock 02 sensors and I'm at 200k miles..I'll keep that in mind if this fix doesn't work.

kitsune1324 said:

You know, I think they might be the stock 02 sensors and I'm at 200k miles..I'll keep that in mind if this fix doesn't work.

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it could be they were close to needing replaced and the exhaust leak put them over the edge. Good thing is they aren't expensive and pretty easy to replace.

So I tried plugging all of the leaks and that didn't seem to help at all. Do you think it could actually be the 02 sensor? I don't want to spend $40 to have it not help at all.
Any other ideas that I could try first?

Do you guys think this could be related to the transmission or maybe a failing diff?
I'm on the stock trans as well as stock diff. Neither have ever been rebuilt to my knowledge.