Wildpeak Shimmy!!!!!

Hey guys!!!

Bought a brand new 4runner a few days ago and replaced the factory tires with Wildpeaks. I have owned them before and its my go to tire! Anyhow I'm getting just a slight slight shimmy in the steering wheel around 65mph but all other speeds are smooth as glass. A few mph slower or faster and they are super smooth. I did a search and saw that a lot of Wildpeak owners have similar or many worse! these were roadforce balanced at a reputable shop.

So my questions is should I go back to the tire shop and see if they can do better? Am I being too picky? I certainly don't want them to balance again and then its worse. idk?

 

Hmmm, no shimmy on my Wildpeak 285's. I had a similar shimmy with a set of Coopers on my FJ though. I'd probably have a different shop balance them, which fixed the problem on my FJ.

 

You could try swapping tires front to back and see if that makes a difference. Seems to me if it's a balance issue, the steering wheel shimmy would be from a front tire...if it goes away after the swap, you could at least narrow it down to one of two tires, and get those two rebalanced. IMO. A lot of tire shops do want the customer to be happy, and don't mind taking care of this. Not sure where you got this done.

 

ReBalance check pressure

 

So i just got back from a 30 minute drive and the shimmy almost goes away after driving on the highway for 10 miles or so. Strange..... maybe they shimmy more when cold

 

Tires warm up and psi increase

 

Same symptoms fixed it better by getting a very good tire balance and playing with tire pressures but it still has the slight shimmy at around 60

 

If it remains...either put up with it or needle bearing bushing. Some say diff drop helps too but I've just don't worry about it anymore after 5yrs and no problems it just a shimmy...I think of it as if frank the prius is dancing to the beat

 

exactly what mine has its very slight. I think im just going to live with it. I did find if i bump the psi a little higher to about 36-37psi its better

 

really? my truck is stock except for the wildpeaks and they are factory size. I am coming from a lifted tacoma so im aware of the needle bearing issues but I thought that only effected lifted tacos and runners

 

Sonunds more like psi then, try a rebalancing with the higher psi

 

I have wildpeaks in factory size shop said keep them at 38. Been good to go no shimmy

 

i have them at 34-35 cold so ill bump them up to 38

 

I had the same issue with the Wildpeak couldn't get them to stop the tire shop even did road force balance and it didn't help my case so moved on to a different tires wish you luck I was going crazy trying to figure it out after researching on this forum found out it's a common issue with them I have 265-70-17 size with Trd Pro wheels

 

No, it doesn't matter if it's lifted. The needle bearing was bad on mine pretty much from day 1.

What load range Wildpeaks? LT rated tires require more pressure than a comparable SL rated tire for sciencey reasons beyond my comprehension.

 

they are standard load

 

Ya im now finding out its common. was yours very minor? I almost feel like I'm nit picking. mine are super smooth at all speeds just a tiny bit of a shimmy right around 65mph

 

Yes I run 39 psi and it’s a very minimal shake or if I go down to 32 same ride

 

My stock 4Runner had the needle bearing issue.

What you are experiencing is definitely not the needle bearing issue.

 

from what i have read & understand so far that AT tires have high or heavy spot and its usually marked on the tire by a spot if the tire store knows their stuff the try to offset that to the wheel that might help but it did not work in my case my shimmy was at 59 to 64 mph it would shake my hands on the steering wheel and bugged me but at any other speed no issues crazy i know ITS NOT NORMAL

 

Road force balance?

 

I had them road forced during install. I'm going to drive for a few more days and see if anything changes. If not ill stop by the shop later this week to have em re balanced.

 

I had this on mine...stock size, SL, no lift....the shimmy was fairly substantial when I got them. After a few days I had discount tire road force balance them. This helped for sure but it was not gone entirely so I decided to live with it. In COVID times I just drive around town anyway and rarely hit 65. I just had my tires rotated a month ago and the shimmy is gone. Maybe it was wear or maybe it was just one of the fronts, guess we’ll see at next rotation

 

Ya know what...area52 makes a great observation, I've noticed that too every time I rotate my tires the shakes go away maybe some of these runners are addicted to tire rotations

 

I rotate every 5K miles.

 

Same or at least I try too

 

Ok so I just got home from work and I took the long way home. After driving at highway speeds for about 15 minutes or so the vibration from the tires are completely gone. Once the tires heat up it goes away. This is weird lol. The shimmy was pretty pronounced when I first got on the highway and then gradually faded to nothing after about 10 miles or so.

 

maybe they need to be rebalanced or be checked again i would put the back ones up front and drive to see if the same thing happens mine would never go away no matter what they did lucky for you

 

No shimmy on my wildpeaks but I did have one on the old dunlops. I got them rotated and rebalanced at one of my services and that seemed to help.

 

This. Had my wife’s balanced 4+ times including a road force balance with no luck. Still shimmies over 65 but does level off a bit. Decided to live with it since tirebuyer denied my claim since I have slightly less than the allowed tread wear. Going to live with it for now but still frustrating.