Odd Vibration In Floor And Gas Pedal

That has crossed my mind, because exhaust leak and engine mounts seem to be the most common answer I get when I google this. I called a driveline & axle shop and explained my symptoms to them. They did not think it sounded like an issue that they specialize in, and suggested that either something is contacting something that it shouldn’t be or that something that is supposed to be absorbing vibrations isn’t. I’m taking it to yet another local shop on Monday. Fingers are crossed. Thanks for the response!

 

So the new shop couldn’t figure it out. At first they thought it was the fan clutch, but it was determined that it wasn’t. I have attached a couple of photos of my OBDII readings. For perspective, I changed the engine air filter to OEM a few weeks ago (has used an AM one from Autozone earlier in 2022), and have been using premium fuel for about a month (this was suggested by the shop that changed my plugs and did the injection cleaning service). The picture with the blue towel under the scanner is from last week. The other two pictures are from now, about 60 seconds apart after a cold startup. Last week, I disconnected the negative terminal on the battery for about 10 minutes to reset the ECU after taking this picture. I should have taken another, but when I started up again, the long term trim was 0 or close to it, and the short term was 5-6% if memory serves me right. My understanding is that you want all of them to be about 0. Anyone know what might be the problem? Is it possible the fuel:air ratio is out of whack, which is causing my vibration?

 

You said you can replicate the vibration in neutral? Does the engine seem to be the source of the vibration? You’ll need to literally feel this out. If the engine is the source of the vibration, then keep trying to figure out how to properly interpret those trim values.

Use your phone. If you can replicate in neutral, that’s your golden ticket. Find the rpm range that the vibration occurs so you can replicate it. Place your phone recording in different spot and get it to the rpm range. You are recording for the sound. Put it on top the top of the front tires. Remove the skidplates and put it under the front crossmember, then under middle, then under transfer case. Phones have really good mics, and you might narrow down the source.

 

Did you ever find resolution to this floor and gas pedal vibration? I have an 18 Off-Road and have experienced something similar. I bought it Certified pre owned with 43k miles. I cant get toyota to give me the time of day when looking at it.

 

Did you ever find resolution to this floor and gas pedal vibration? I have an 18 Off-Road and have experienced something similar. I bought it Certified pre owned with 43k miles. I cant get toyota to give me the time of day when looking at it.

 

I have not. Taking it to a driveline and axle specialist in a week and a half. This is going to be my last attempt to solve this.

 

I wonder if somehow your drive shaft got out of balance somehow. Slighly bent or dented somehow, like when high centered? Hopefully your truck has never been in an accident. Sometimes weird things happen. Might need to have the drive shaft pulled and mounted on a machine lathe and check the indicated runout. I had a truck with a problem like this many years ago.

 

I’d start with you took it to NTB for an alignment. No offense but usually those are 19 year old kids. I’d take it to a well known local mechanic

 

Did you lift your 4 runner by chance?

they’ll probably just add a shim under carrier bearing to straighten out your driveline

 

Best of luck, let us know here how you make out. I'm experiencing something similar, but I'm not sure if it's "just the way the truck rides". it's kind of like a juddering in the pedal, seat, and sometimes a slight vibration in the steering wheel. almost feels like the wheels are oval, even on flat road. I have KDSS so it could be more of a sensitive ride.

 

No lifts or modifications have been made to it.

 

Well I don’t disagree, but I’ve had NTB, dealership, Firestone, Discount Tire, and a local shop all balance them. Always seems to need an adjustment. Not sure if that’s my issue, though.

 

Possibly, but I have had a handful of shops look at it and none of them can find anything definitively wrong with the car. Took it to another shop at the beginning of the month and they listened to the wheel bearings, transmission, diffs, and transfer case with a stethoscope, and said everything sounds normal. They did notice a slight whine in the rear dif, which started about 30-45 days ago. I can hear it on the highway, but it’s not super loud. Also have weird sounds when hitting 30+ mph. These used to be occasional, but seem to be happening more frequently. Sounds sort of like a groan, but of course they didn’t hear it. They did say there is some minor cupping to the tires, which they suspected is the road noise I hear. I’m not so sure, though. Also doesn’t make sense that the sounds and vibration goes away when I take my foot off the gas even if the car is still moving. All symptoms seem to be the worst when it shifts into 4th and 5th gear. Could be a coincidence, but who knows. The only reason I haven’t gotten rid of it is because of prices of used cars and interest rates. Not that I can’t afford it, but I feel like I’m pissing away money. With that said, I’ve had it with this car. I’m even more annoyed that no one can diagnose the problem. I’m practically handing them my wallet and saying I’ll pay to have it fixed. My luck will be it’s the dif, or something expensive, and I’ll be out $4-$5k.

 

Will do. Tough to tell if we have the same issues. Vibration is such a broad term. I’ve googled this issue hundreds of times, using slightly different variations of wording. Constantly get the same results. Engine mounts, wheel balance, inner cv joint, etc. My vibration is high frequency, and some days it’s more noticeable than others. When it’s not that noticeable, I can live with it. When it’s bad, I hate even having to drive the thing.

 

Sounds like torque converter shudder. Did you try ShudderFix yet?

 

???

 

I bought a 2017 4runner that vibrates between 60 and about 65mph. It's a balance issue. Its alignment is slightly off too.

 

I have watched videos of people with a torque converter shudder, and my symptoms aren’t the same. My rpm gauge doesn’t move, it shifts fine, and there is no audible rattle/shake like in those videos. But I appreciate the input. At this point, I’m all ears to any suggestion. I dropped it off at a driveline and axle shop last night. Haven’t heard from them yet, which makes me think they haven’t diagnosed it. Fingers are crossed, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

So no luck reproducing the sound on command to isolate the general location?

Still seems to me like it might be something flexing into something else as the engine is torqued. Whether it be someting like a heat shield getting close to something else, or a something in the skidplate, or the skidplates themselves slightly touching..stuff like that. Sucks you’ve had this problem for so long.

 

No luck. Driveline place thinks it’s engine vibrations that I’m feeling. Said the driveline looks fine. Rear dif vent isn’t clogged and fluid color looks fine. Either back to the drawing board, sell it, or live with it.

 

I seem to have similar issue but mine is intermittent on top of that. It can be OK for few weeks than acts up for few days and then seems to go away. At one point that vibration and steering wheel shake was so bad I could no go over 30 miles/hour as I could not hold the steering wheel strong enough. Next day was going to drop off at dealer but it want away, smooth like baby butt. Frustrating as tried various tires, multiple balances, etc. Still comes back here and there.

 

Commenting to stay in the loop. I drive a 98 Tacoma but am experiencing almost the same issues that you are Matt: vibration in the floorboard, gas petal and steering wheel whenever I depress the gas, but immediately stops when I let go and rides quiet and smooth when coasting. Most noticeable between 30-55. The only thing I haven't seen you mention is that with mine you can feel an initial thud when pressing the gas, like it’s engaging, and the vibration comes with a pretty apparent humming noise you hear all throughout the cab. But everything is smooth and quiet when letting off the gas.

The truck has been in my family since 03, I started driving it in 16’. It’s got 436k miles, original transmission, and at least since I’ve been driving it, no servicing to the tranny. Anyways, just wanted to be in the loop since it’s hard finding forums related to this issue.

 

Now I am starting to wonder if it is engine and / or transmission mounts that might be the cause. Especially if there is some sort of rubber or elastomer involved with isolating vibration.

 

I keep wondering if a sticking or stuck slip yoke on the front or rear drive shaft might be transmitting vibes. If it’s unable to slide in during the movments of the drivetrain, that means you are literally binding in place things that should be able to flex in their mounts.

The front slip yoke doesn't move much, but there’s a reason it has a slip yoke. It probably only accomodates the movement caused by the flex of the drivetrain under varying loads.

 

Does this happen in 4 wheel drive as well?

 

I haven’t tested it out in 4wd yet I’ll do that today. I’d never heard of a slip yoke so I’ll have to look into that. Also I can’t replicate the vibration in either neutral or park like mentioned above.

The truck also makes a pretty loud clank noise when I put it in drive, it’s always done that so I thought it was normal but it seems to be getting worse.

 

The driveshafts need to be greased regularly. Each driveshaft has three, the two u-joints on either end, and the slip yoke. The slip yoke is a bit tricky to grease correctly. Undergreasing them can lead to binding as it extends and compresses, and over greasing can pop out the seal that holds the grease in. It’s worth researching this on this forum.


Regarding that clunking when putting it in drive….do you use the parking brake to hold the weight of the vehicle when parking it? Or do you let the transmission hold the weight of the vehicle. I think all my vehicles clunk when I move it from park to drive if the transmission was holding the weight. At least all toyotas and a honda I’ve owned have done this

 

(Sorry for the long-ass post here: TLDR-it’s worth considering the slip yokes when you have vibrations that might be drivetrain related)
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For reference, this is where the zerk fitting for the slip yoke is located on each driveshaft:





This is what I believe a properly greased slip yoke will look like (in my admittedly limited experience), after a few hundred miles:


This is the rear slip yoke. The first picture is before I greased it super good, and you can tell the sliding area is completely dry. But now that it’s fully grease, you can see how much it moves in normal city driving. The distance the rear travels in and out will be much more than the front slip yoke, because the rear is accommodating mostly rear axle suspension movement (The rear axle moves as through an arcing motion, so it pushes the yoke inwards at the top and bottom of that arch).

The front driveshaft does not have to accommodate suspension movement, so that means it must be there to accommodate the movement of the drive train as it flexes around with varying engine loads, or gravity loads to the engine/trans/transfer case assembly as it bounces down the road. I have not properly greased my front yet, so I cant tell how much it actually moves, but I imagine it’s only a tiny little bit relative to the rear. I would imagine it’s more prone to stick than the rear since it doesnt spin in 2wd, and gets more corroded due to the relative inactivity.

Now, just imagine a slip yoke that can’t move freely, sticks, or is just plain seized…. When the engine gets loaded and wants to flex in it’s mounts, it wont be able to because that movement will be resisted or stopped by the stiff slip yoke. I could imagine that would translate to extra vibrations being transmitted from the drivetrain to the frame, and then to the body.

Please understand, I’m not a mechanic, but I think about things a lot . It makes sense to me that these need to slip easily in and out, and what Ive read about the toyota design is that they are prone to stick because of how the grease needs to travel a long distance from the zerk to all sliding surfaces inside the slip yoke. The net result being that they stay under greased, even you give them a few pumps every other oil change, like I was doing. It makes sense to me that a little grease should be visible at the swiper seal, as long as you’ve made sure to remove excess grease after you pump it full by removing the zerk and cycling the suspension and loading the engine so the drivettain gets flexed. I’ve run at least a few thousand miles since the last greasing where I really filled up my sticking rear slip yoke, and all is well. Although I dont have any vibration problems like described on this thread, I’ve convinced myself I need to do the same for the front driveshaft, but I havent had the weather and time to do it yet.

When I do, I’ll update and post pics of how much the front moves in this other thread I had going on this topic:
https://www.4runners.com/threads/clunck-kick-when-stopping-driveshaft.28634/

 

Thanks for the feedback I’m pretty new to maintenance and never knew to grease the driveshaft. I’ll look into that today.

I typically engage the parking brake first then shift it to park. I’ve always noticed a modest clank when putting it in drive but it seems to be more aggressive now, or maybe I’m just being paranoid since it’s started having other issues. Sometimes it doesn’t clank at all

 

Thanks for the pictures I’ll definitely take a look when I get home. 7 years and I haven’t greased anything with the drive chain so I’m hoping it’s just that and not the transmission. It won’t hurt at least