5th Gen Steering Wheel Shake: SOLUTIONS ONLY

No magic. No voodoo.

All that is needed is:

1) The proper equipment
2) The ability to follow a simple procedure
3) Tires that are not defective

And it's not just the 4Runner. Plenty of Toyota body on frame vehicles are sensitive to tire balance.

 

Finally got mine shimmyless… I hope
2023 ORP came with dealer installed Nitto Grapplers. All was pretty smooth.
I added Bilstein 1500s, aftermarket wheels, All was still smooth.
I added spydertrax spacers. All was “OK”, just a bit more “road feel” after the spacers.Nothing to bothersome.
Then after a few weeks started getting progressively worse wheel shimmy and definitely puling to the right. Over the next few weeks it got so bad I was no longer enjoying driving it, but in too deep financially on several customizations to consider selling or trading out of it. Plus I liked everything else about it.

Went to Discount tire and rebalanced… No change.
Went to another shop, pulled the front spacers and rebalanced again… No change.
I was beginning to get quite discouraged given the information without solutions posted.
Finally today, I had DT pull the Nitto’s with only 3800 miles on them,
and put on a set of Michelin LTX AT 2s.

Took a drive around town, focusing on staying in the shimmy problem zone 55-65 MPH wherever possible.
Smooth as a baby’s bottom! No more shimmy. No more pulling. None.

Admittedly, the look is not quite as rugged. But as I am primarily a mall crawler that likes to be prepared for foul weather, or mild off-roading… I am good... Well thrilled!
Hopefully that ghost will not appear again!

I guess I would deduct that likely in many, maybe most cases, it is somehow tire related, magnified by toyota engineering.

I hope this helps some folks find a resolution.

 

Please report back in after a few rain storms regarding wet traction with the Michelins AT’s. I’m considering buying this same tire pretty soon. Running same spacer as you only on a broke in 2014 Limited stock. Congratulations on your new 4R

 

Thanks and will do!
I would like to put the front spacers back on, but skeerd!
Maybe one day, But for now I will let the sleeping dog sleep!

 

Wow, 7 pages of "solutions only". lol

No shake/wobble for my 2019 till first reading this thread, and then it happened..... 4R sat for 3 days and suddenly while getting off an exit the steering wheel wobbled like crazy when applying the breaks. Never had it do this before, and so violently. I chalked it up to sitting for 3 days in humid rain and it was just the break pads gripping oddly and caused the wobble. 50+ miles and it went away no issue. Still fine now and its been almost a month.

I run stock size Duratracs C load.

 

Did you try rotating the tires at all? I found when my tires were wearing uneven it would cause it to shimmy.

I'd definitely get your 4runner aligned.

 

Yes. DT rotated the Nittos when they balanced.
They not even reached the recommended 5k mark.
Will definitely get a fresh alignment next week.

 

I fully agree. The 4R seem to have some kind of suspension/steering flaw that makes them susceptible to the slightest out of balance tire. It seems the vast majority have the issue @60-65mph but goes away at higher speeds. Mine did it on the day I drove it home from the dealer. Brought it back and the dealer balanced them and the vibration almost completely went away. Just 4K miles later it is becoming noticeable again. All my vehicles I’ve owned have never had to be balanced anywhere near this often.
Certain road surfaces seem to aggravate it as well.

 

I respectfully disagree, my 33yr old IFS 4Runner has needed ONE rebalance in 280K miles. My 19 yr/189K old Dodge Cummins has never needed a rebalance. There is a flaw in the design.

 

I bet your tires developed a flat spot from sitting and it worked out when they warmed up as you drove it.

 

This has been my experience. I would think that if it was a tire balance issue, shimmy wouldn’t be limited to a specific speed.

 

The strange thing with the tire "balance" issue is it appears to come and go. I have had an out of balance tire on other vehicle types, consistent and constant upon reaching a certain speed that was quickly solved with a tire shop and standard tire balancing machine. Temperatures, road condition, lift/no lift, OEM tires/wheels vs aftermarket, different tire pressures and the list of variables goes on and on for the 4Runner and what people believe causes the issue. I have also heard road force numbers need to be below 15 pounds per corner.

Some folks can run what many perceive hard to balance KO2s with zero shimmy in the wheel while others get a 4Runner off the lot with highway tires that shake the wheel.

I will share what solved the issue on my particular truck. Before I cut the check in 2019 I test drove the specific truck I was buying. Steering wheel shake and alignment was out @ 11 miles. In fact all of the 4Runners I test drove exhibited similar characteristics. Tech corrected before delivery, shimmy was still barely noticeable but came back at 60 mph+ shortly thereafter. I swapped the stock wheels and tires for KO2s, stock size and TRD Pro wheels, shop put on E loads which would not balance and then could not rebalance. Switched to C loads with a reputable 4x4 shop. Balance was good for about 100 miles, then the steering wheel shakes were back. It then started a long road of shops swapping out tires for me. General Grabbers, Nittos, etc. The closest the problem came to being rectified was a dealer supposedly using the Haweka adapter with Terra Grapplers but as soon as I rotated front to back, the shakes where back. Not constant and most of the time in the winter and cold temps there was no shake but warmer months seemed to aggravate the problem. I went back to the dealer, they then said it was a characteristic of the truck and I should put the stock wheels/tires back on. I can not remember the total number of different balances at different shops.

Needles to say I left the dealer. So in a last ditch effort to solve this problem I called/emailed a local shop to me in Maine. They immediately responded that they fix a lot of 4Runner balance issues that other shops can not. So I decided to purchase a good tire, the Michelin LTX AT2 and have them installed. The shop mounted and balanced them in stock size on the TRD Pro wheels I have. They used the Haweka adapter on a road force machine. I did not ask them for a printout of the numbers. Well, they fixed my particular issue. I was expecting a shake when I rotated recently but nothing. Dead smooth.

The Michelins have proven to be excellent on road, in the snow and have had a lot of time in the dirt in the North Woods on a loaded truck pulling a trailer. My only minor complaints are they do not shed mud as easily and hold on to rocks for a bit.

So in the end, it took a set of Michelins and a good tech with the Haweka adapter to solve my balance issue. My 4Runner is on stock suspension, KDSS, stock tire size and stock recommended 32 PSI.

I will add to make sure you torque your wheel lugs progressively in the proper pattern with the wheel in the air if you can and ensure the mounting surface wheel to hub is clean.

 

Great write up with great details and examples. I went thru a similar drill and swapped the needle bearing bushing for the ECGS one. Problem solved. I run 285s faulken wildpeaks.

 

Plenty of people have solved this issue. The common thread among them is that it involved:

1) A road force balance using the appropriate adapter
2) A knowledgeable shop
3) Tires that balance with low run-out numbers

You can argue this is a Toyota defect and I can't argue with that. My point is the issue is solvable.

A lifetime balance is a good investment with the 4Runner.

 

Adding two more things that came to mind. I have heard multiple people recommended having the "Smart Weight" setting on a Hunter Road Force Machine off when balancing the 4Runner tires. I do not know anything about this feature or what it does though.

My wife drives a 2022 Tacoma TRD. 16" wheels with the same 6 lug centric mounting. Her truck was perfect from 3 miles. Two rotations later still perfect.

 

4Runners have a steering wheel shake, Jeeps have a death wobble:

My old Acura with Bridgestone's did this. But in this case it was smooth as butter till I hit the breaks exiting off the highway. So not a flat spot, but definitely strange.

 

Before I read the rest of the posts here I want to reply to your request. First off, mine is stock. I had the Nittos for 47,000 miles and, while they still had a little tread on them, they were becoming noisy and I was coming up on driving from Conroe, TX to Norman, OK for an event, so I pulled the trigger on stock size Michelins. Drove them for a couple of weeks before the trip and they were amazing. Then put them to the serious test on the drive up and back. Super smooth ride with almost no rain on the way up. Then, for the 3 days we were there and the 4th day driving back it rained like hell. The drive back was like driving in a hurricane except way more rain. Water across the freeway at 75MPH. I can tell you the Michelins were a life saver. They performed exactly as advertised and as every other Michelin I’ve ever owned did. Five star tires.

 

Great to hear. I expected no less. All 4 of my vehicles are wearing the Mich Man.

Probably not the best for serious crawling, but for most, they can’t be beat.

 

75 mph in heavy rain?? Scary.

 

Seems par for the course in FL.

 

There are only two speeds on a freeway in Texas, and one of those is stopped. A large percentage of our state law enforcement personnel are down along the border so there's practically no enforcement. Besides, most of the Interstate is a 75MPH speed limit. And it seems there is way more truck traffic in the past couple of years. I camp in the slow lane when I can though.

 

Dropped off my runner at the dealer for road-force balancing. The measurement for both front tires were in the high 30s. They're ordering new tires to get it under 20.

 

New Nitto's?

 

Indeed.

 

Please post pictures of the Nittos once completed. I am thinking on giving this a try on my next set. Thanks!

 

I believe the PRO still receives the regular Terra Grapplers and not the G2 version? In any case if they don't balance insist on a better brand. Terra Grapplers for me balanced ok but I still had issues with them after the first rotation. They also wear poorly and get loud.

 

Will do.

 

Yeah, I don't think they're the G2s. They wouldn't have been my first choice of tire, and they already seem kind of loud for a light AT. I've had swampers on a truck before, so I'm not especially offended by some noise, but I would expect better road manners from them.

 

Hey, I'm new here but after dealing with a shake/vibration this forum was a lot of help. So I figured I post my problem/solution here to help someone else.

I have a stock 2012 4Runner Limited AWD with 205,000 miles. New Brakes and new tires within the last year. I recently purchased it from a coworker and everything was great... until about a week later. A vibration started coming through the steering wheel and pedals, even the seat too just barely. Then it developed a steering wheel shake when braking and only when braking >50% or so. The car had no sway or pull and would go as straight as the road would let it. The vibration would stop completely when the steering wheel was about 5-10 degrees right but worsened upon straightening out or turning left. This all appeared and worsened over the course of a few days driving to and from work.

I ended up parking it until I had some time off. I was outright shocked when I fired up my '97 7.3L F350 and it drove and rode smoother than the 4Runner.

I jacked up the 4Runner and checked the front end for any play. The ball joints were good, steering was tight, no obvious brake problems, smooth and free spinning wheels, CV axles were good and I shook the hell out of the wheel checking for bearing play. All just fine.

So I jumped through myself trying to find an alignment shop but I ended up making an appointment, I did however get the wheels balanced. Only one wheel was even slightly out and that was a rear.

Running out of time I just sent it on a hunch, wheel bearings. It had been in the back of my head but too many symptoms didn't add up or pointed to other issues that I wasn't willing to just throw money and (more importantly) time at fixing something that wasn't broke.

Well it was broke, the front passenger wheel bearing came out in pieces. The driver side wasn't as bad but the grease was definitely nearing its end of life if not past it. The passenger side was original and the driver side must've been replaced at some point, evident by the gouge from a cutoff wheel on the hub shaft.

Needless to say this fixed my vibration and steering wheel shake when braking.

I did it all myself, reusing the stock hubs and pressing off/on the bearings. BluePit looked cool and all but I wanted OEM and didn't want to drop $700. So if anyone has any questions go ahead and ask away.

I will say this has left me with one problem that the car didn't have before. The damn occasional steering wheel shake around 60 that apparently is common on these vehicles with the added bonus of what feels like a rub that seems to be RPM dependent.

I blame that on the wheel balancing I had done and I'll get that done again with the alignment appointment later this week.

Thank you all for keeping such a good community, I've read a lot on here in the past weeks and I'm glad to have joined.

 

Welcome to the forum.