Steering Wheel Vibration

I am similar to your situation. Mine has the wobbles for only a specific stretch of highway, about 3/4 mile, at 60 mph, but as soon as I get past that spot, no more wobbles. Kinda odd. Must be the crappy roads, unless it shows up elsewhere too. Hoping not.........

 

got 4runner back from dealer this morning they replaced all 4 GY duratracs seems to be riding smooth , I will update after a few hundred miles.

 

good it could be just the wheels tires .. post back the results after running it ....

 

Mine just wobbles every morning between 60 - 65 mph, then drives fine for the rest of the day. Dealership said if I still have vibrations to let them know at the 1st service. We'll see how that goes.

 

I would do the drive shaft /yoke greasing . moly grease on the yokes and lithium on the u joints.

because after the vehicle runs a bit it goes away could be it was not lubed..

only requires 2 pumps of grease maybe 3 ... do not over grease these parts.

 

Are all these with zerks? I’ve not done this yet.

 

yes use 2 grease guns .. moly for the yokes and lithium on the u joints ..you must do this before winter hits .. 2-3 pumps .. that is how I do it .. gonna do this next month when I do my oil change and tire rotations ...

standard sized zerks ..I use a flex grease gun hose on them so its much easier..with a smaller head on the hose.

 

Update to my wobbles.......my tire pressure light came on, all 4 tires were down to 24 psi.....aired them all up to 36......no wobbles, not even in the crappy spot of road where it showed up. So, maybe just check your tire pressure!

 

that is strange all tires same low pressure . I keep them at 35psi ... I do use highly accurate gauges .when I got the 2016 and I added air to the tires , when I purchased it in 2016 . so far no air loss..

the spare tire when new , day one , the air pressure was 50psi .. so I dropped it down to 35 psi...
low pressures can cause that ...

 

What kind of gauge do you use? I want to get a small, quality, accurate gauge instead of using the cheap-o's.

 

the air gauges I use is about 30 yrs old and I have a pressure gauge that is not used to work on the vehicles kept in a foam box and I do check for any inaccurate reading issues with that one.
this looks good

$18 DIYCO D1 MK2 Digital Tire Pressure Gauge, Digital Hold, 125 PSI

https://www.amazon.com/DIYCO-Pressu...pID=51juAwuReYL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

in today's world possible you can get a electronic pressure gauge .. IMO probably more accurate because the gauges I have can get off if the are shock hit .. so I do be very careful with these.

these old gauges are 3inches in diameter and I can read to the 1 psi.exact.. small gauges can be hard to read and not to my liking..

 

Yeah, weird.....but temps have been pretty seesaw here, dropping 20-30 degrees overnight for several weeks.....I think the tires lost pressure over time at the same rate.....really dopey weather this year......

 

Update on my issue: dealership says tires balanced, alignment is good. Nothing to worry about since it only happens in the morning. I even went to discount tire for a 2nd opinion. They say balanced as well.

Could it just be the tires take time to heat up and get into shape? It's not a crazy vibration but there is a vibration. Kinda annoying.

 

all my vehicles do have this vibe when they are sitting over night when the air temps drop to 20F and lower.. colder the temps takes longer for the tires to lose the flat spot .. if its warm in your area and this is happening tires could be stiff ,hardened , old etc..

 

I have been having a similar issue of the steering wheel wobble on my 2004 4-Runner which has never had any real issues until a month and a half ago when I took it in for an alignment. I took it to Sears as I was planning a trip and had the time to take it in even though it diden't seem to need it. When I picked it up the Check Engine light and the VSC Track OFF light were on but this has happened a number of times in the past. I noticed a wobble in the steering but it went away once i gained speed but it would only seem to occur a a low speed up to about 25 mph then it would be fine. I took my long trip and didn't seem to have any trouble at highway speed. I had expected the check engine light and VSC trak Off light would eventually go out as it has done this in the past but it remains on so there is something going on. My front tires are getting pretty worn down but not over the line just yet so I hope it just may be that replacing the tires will eliminate the wobble in the steering but the Check Engine and VSC Track light is more of a concern to me now. I have not taken it in for service yet as I like to do my own troubleshooting so I at least can have an intelligent conversation with the mechanic. My steering vibration seems to be opposite to most of you on this thread where mine occurs at low speed. When I drive forward it really feels like there is a warped wheel or something but my rotors don't appear to be worn much but it could still be that. After crawling up under there with a light I didn't see anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I cannot help but wonder if the guy at Sears messed something up. I have had a lifetime alignment with Sears (not sure how much longer that will be available) and am considering taking it back there to have them look at it and see if they missed something.

Sport V6 2/4 wheel drive.

Follow up - March 21, 2019. I knew I needed to have new front tires and finally got them replaced and explained the above to the shop. They told me that one of the old tires had a broken belt inside and that is why I was feeling the wobble in my steering. Drove out with new tires on the front and it was like a new car again.

 

check engine light on so post the code .....may have whacked a sensor .. also check for any grease boot damage as this is common when alignment person is not careful.
could have whacked the wheel sensors .

 

I have found a fix. But first - I went to the dealer in Clarksville, AL was told I needed to have a dealer balance the tires. Paid $90 for a balance, left the dealer and it was the worst it had ever been. Violent shaking. Went to a new privately owned shop and told them about my saga - they called me back immediately and said I had two tires road force balancing at over 100#s. Way to go Toyota dealer for sending me out the door with those! Went back to discount tire - they replaced the two tires and had just got in some brand new modern tire balancers - they balanced all 4 wheels and I've never had another vibration in 5000 miles. I guess it was the tires all along, though I would have to say these 4runners are definitely sensitive to it.

 

so what tires did they put on your runner when this vib issue occurred ..this was in 2017 ? I think they put on 3 bad tires ? flat spots etc..?

yes many have had tire problems so post what tires they put on .. made in china ?

 

my steering wheel started vibrating at about 60 mph the day i drove it off the lot of my 60k maintenance service. never shook before and i bought it in june 2018 at about 55k. it had 285s on it and i swapped them for 265 KO2's last november. they rotated the tires, but didnt balance them and im assuming thats the issue. i finally have time to call them today, should be fun :/

 

On a Tacoma or 4Runner, if your dealership or your local tire shop is not using this type of setup you will have a vibration issue.

http://www.haweka-usa.com/marketdynamics.html

 

I just bought a 2017 limited, same problem. The shaking seem to occur between 95-105 km/h... so it seem i have the same problem. I wait an appointement with the dealer in august, i will see if they can fix the trouble.

 

Sorry. The vibration you are talking about is completely different than the "electric toothbrush" or the "power tool" vibration.
Toyota REFUSES to measure or identify the problem with their PicoScope vibration analyzing tool.
I made an appointment with a local dealer to analyze my vibration with their scope at an hourly rate, since they refused to do it under warranty.
I dropped the car off and the next day they called and said "well, the manager and Toyota are involved now and we cant analyze your vibration because we dont have this tool".
This was after they discovered I had a lemon law claim about the vibration problem. During the course of the lemon law claim they finally agreed to use the scope and analyze the problem. Guess what? They REFUSED to furnish me the results of the test!! No kidding.
So that s when I decided to call and offer to pay for the test which they would have done, maybe, until they found out I had the lemon law claim going, which, incidentally, is going nowhere since they wont release the results of the test and NO OTHER DEALER is willing to use their scope on my vehicle!! This dangerous vibration is a dirty little secret of Toyota and other car manufacturers. Since there is no law that requires car manufacturers to limit dangerous vibrations, they feel they dont have to do anything about fixing it. They wont publish the results of the PicoScope test they performed for me because they dont want the results to be made public.
These vibrations exceed the limits set for power tool manufacturers and power tool manufacturers have to publish their data. Now this is where it gets interesting....All the car manufacturers are aware of the power tool vibration regulations for their assembly line workers as per OSHA. They are further well aware of every single little vibration in their cars. So, they know some of their cars produce dangerous power tool level vibrations and they dont care! In other words, they are forced by OSHA to protect their workers against power tool vibrations in their assembly lines but those same workers who are protected are turning out cars with power tool level vibrations! Until congress or the muckety mucks who regulate the car industry do something, the auto manufacturers just keep screwing the general public. I have CARPEL TUNNEL SYNDROME and other WBVS symptoms from this POS 4Runner and Toyota knows it and they wont do a thing about it.

 

Hi carpel so it seem your problems are much worse than mine. Mine is currently doing some shaking at highway speed, but its more annoying than anything else. What is really weird in mine is that sometime the shaking occur at 98kmh and sometime at 105kmh and sometime no shaking at all ! I have the stock 20 inch geolander tire with stock wheel. I wonder what it could be.

 

Hello 4Limited! Yah, sorry to vent on you. That didnt help your problem any but I wanted you to know what you are up against. From what I have read about your type of vibration it can be the tires, the drive shaft(s), virtually any component that spins. They will "attempt" to fix your problem, out of warranty, you are gonna pay thru the nose, but in the end, if they do fix it, they wont publish the problem or even admit anybody else has the same problem. Divide and conquer, thats their philosophy. They want you to feel like you are an idiot and that nobody else has problems and that they are doing you a favor trying to fix your problem which they already know what it is but they have to put on a show and make you grovel.
If you are out of warranty I would just find a reputable private mechanic in your area.

Best of luck,
Carpel T.

 

Hi Carpel, i’m really sad for you, did they repair your under warranty ? and yeah it suck when they make you feel like an idiot, i already feel the same with my previous Rav4. The 4runner i just bought is a rented one that i bought from the dealer here. Luckily, they gave me an additionnal 5 years /100000km warranty on the complete truck and the dealer in my city seem to be a good one since they are rated the best one in Canada, so i have little hope they can find and resolve the problem. I’m new to the 4runner world, and i wish it is a reliable truck !

 

I had a new Tacoma with bad vibes. Went to 2 different dealers for a total of 10 tire balances (maybe more) 4 alignments and 2 brand new sets of tires. The second set they let me pick anything I wanted which was Michelin Defender. Non of that fixed the steering wheel shaking and I ended up dumping it at a loss. What blew me away was when they had me drive another Tacoma on the lot and it was worse than mine.

Fast forward a year and my wife has always wanted a 4Runner. I go to test drive and it was smooth as butter. 3 days after purchase she mentions to me that the steering wheel is shaking and my heart drops. She goes to the dealership and they balance the tires, no difference, then they try to align it twice which made it worse. With 200 miles on the clock and a full warranty I said take it to Firestone. Firestone asked why we didn't get it aligned under warranty? We explained the ordeal. It took them about 2 hours but they got it perfect. 1500 miles later and still no vibes. It made me wonder why I didn't think to try that before loosing thousands on the Taco. I had just started a new position at my job and didn't have time for the lemon process before anyone asks lol.

Last tid bit I'll add. I recently test drove 2 new Tundras and both had bad vibes, dealership tried to tell me it was from flat spots on the tires and would work itself out over time. NOPE not going through that again. I don't understand this issue and why so many Toyota trucks have it.

TLDR: Try a real alignment shop before giving up or buying new tires.

 

Yeah,
It's weird, there seem to be several people who have this problem. What I don't understand is why Toyota is not doing anything to fix the problem. In any case, I hope my problem will be resolved by my dealer.