5th Gen Steering Wheel Shake: SOLUTIONS ONLY

Have a 2021 SR5 with blackout package and TRD Pro Black wheels. Got some new Nitto Recon Grapplers, love the tires, about as noisy as snow tires or less, handle great. Ryan at Plymouth MN Discount Tire was super helpful in fixing the 60-70mph shake on the brand new Recons. He said, after the first balance was off, that Black wheels can "trick" tire balancing equipment cameras. All four tires were off after 1st balance, but Road Force balance on the 2nd attempt, eliminated about 95% of the high speed shake.Beware of black wheels, it might throw off balancing equip is the lesson learned today.

 

Absolutely spot on, JQ! There is no fix. Years and years of posts about this issue and they keep coming in droves to this very day. If there were an actual known fix that worked 100% of the time then a 2023 would not be rolling off the assembly line with the exact same problem on mile 1. Nobody has “truly” found the fix for this problem. And a “fix” is not doing 3, 4, or 5 different things at once and it may or may not get better. That’s called rolling the dice. Accept it, or don’t. But it sucks.

 

I'll chime in.

2023 ORP, truck came with the matte black TRD SEMA wheels and factory Dunlops. Had the steering wheel shake almost immediately after taking delivery. Luckily I had already purchased a set of new gen TRD Pro wheels and new ATs to throw on prior to buying our truck since we were actually supposed to take delivery on a different vehicle that never showed up. Got the new set up mounted and balanced, the shake had decreased immensely and now 2200 miles later it's pretty much completely gone.

Was it the tires? Was it the wheels? Was it incorrectly balancing? Who knows, but from the research I'd done it could be any of the three or the combination of all.

And for those curious here's my current setup:

OEM TRD Pro Wheels P/N PTR56-89210-F2
265/70/17 Yokohama Geolandar G015 AT
Truck is bone stock otherwise

The thing I found the weirdest was that our 4runner is not the first we've driven. I've rented a 2018 OR and a 2022 OR before on long extended road trips. We've also test driven a 2019 ORP when considering to buy CPO, and also a 2022 SR5P. None of the other 4 trucks we've driven had the vibrations.

 

I reported above in this thread that I had started to get a slight shimmy at 55mph - 60mph.

Truck is lifted 2" and runs 265/70-17 KO2s which I religiously rotate front to rear every 5K. Truck tracks fine, so did not expect alignment issue.

Tires have 36,000 miles on them and are at 8/32nds tread depth all around. No uneven wear conditions.

Took in today for rebalance and sure enough they had worn into an out-of-balance condition. Four wheel balance took 30min drop in visit and no cost since I bought the tires there.

Problem solved.

Disclaimer: Just posting anecdotal data point for consideration. Not claiming this is the answer to all problems.

Jason

 

Two weeks ago I took delivery of a new 2023 40th anniv model and it had steering wheel shake from the moment it left the dealership principally around 63 MPH. The dealership was able to correct this with a road force balance. FWIW I'd periodically experience the same with my 08 4R on OE FJ wheels and BFG ATs - balance always corrected this.

 

Whenever I exercise the four wheel drive system I notice the shake/shimmy goes away for awhile which makes me believe it might be the needle bearing. Mine has done it randomly since I bought it new last November between 55-60 mph. Doesn't really bother me though since I used to drive a Silverado lifted 9" on 37s, steering wheel/passenger seat constantly vibrated in that thing lol

 

Not a solution: are we starting to think the matte black wheels are more prone to getting a bad balance?

 

New Wildpeaks and the vibration is gone (for now).

 

If it goes away in 4x4 then it’s def the needle bearing & you need to order from ECGS for the replacement. Buy the gasket when you order it too

 

I’ve owned a 2020 4runner for a few years now. Started getting slight steering wheel vibration at 17,000 miles. I took it in and was told one of the tires was damaged, out of balance, and was the culprit. I decided the time was right to install a 3inch lift with new methods and 33” toyo AT3’s. Following install and fresh balance/alignment, however, the shake was worse. Mainly between 55-65 mph. I tried rebalancing, realigning, road force balancing the new wheels and tires at numerous shops and had no luck. After reading as many forums as I could find I decided to just deal with it. I did so for the next 30k miles until my tires were ruined from the constant vibrating which got worse over time. Finally, I took it to a local off road shop. The owner recommended new Toyos since the current ones were thrashed, and Total Chaos UCAs. Before signing for these recommendations I did a quick inspection and discovered my driver side outer tie rod end was also shot (not sure if it was a cause or a symptom of the front end vibration). I went ahead w the new tires, UCAs, and replaced both outer tie rod ends. Fresh balance and alignment and the steering wheel shake was completely gone. It’s been about 1k miles and it still drives better than new. Hope this helps someone else dealing with this annoying issue.

 

I wish I had bought TC UCA over SPC!! That sounds like a nice suspension!

 

My grey SEMAs,on my taco, had no problems with wildpeaks. My black SEMAs, on my 4Runner, do seem worse but their older. I have an older pair of duratracs on the 4Runner too & they fucking suck ass. Loud & shit ride, probably only 30k miles

 

What's wrong with the SPC's?

 

I bought them when they had a bad batch of bushing & it was like pulling teeth for them to own up & replace them

 

I had this issue with my 2022 SR5. Bought it used and the dealership replaced the factory tires with GeoDrive brand. Took it back three times and the fix was a new set of Michelin Defender LTX. Made a world of difference. Not sure if one or more of the tires were defective or just that low quality.

 

I finally found the answer , if you have aftermarket wheels ,get the hub centric rings .60 bucks at your local tire shop . They ordered the parts for me , I got a wheel rotation and balance . Shake is gone. I had this problem for 2 years and couldn’t figure it out . Hope this helps anyone that is really annoyed with it .

 

I wonder if that "heat" is not actually the tires but the needle bearing heating up and thus expanding causing smaller tolerance and less play.

 

Mine comes and goes with varying road surfaces, always @64mph +/-3mph.

 

Vibration in the wheel gradually came back around 50-60, was trivial until I put the (full size, balanced) spare on the front then was pretty noticable. Went away completely again with a balance.

It's just really sensitive to wheel balance.

 

thanks for sharing..
specific brand or a size if needed you went with..? link? i'm getting new tires put on monday stock size but AT tires.

 

here is my solution I have SPC upper control arms and the bushings were bad. SPC warrantied them for me and put them in. Shakes were gone. Im on coilovers with SPC UCA's and on 305's. That was June 20th of this 2024

It is 9/20 and the shakes are back but mild. I need to recheck everything and make sure they are still ok.

 

I must be lucky but my 2011 SR5 with 169k and 2022 Trail special with 285/70/17 Falken WP AT3s have no shake.

having the right tire and right balancing solves 99% of that problem imo

 

I'll add my own experiences in hopes that somebody finds it useful.

When I took delivery of my 4runner last October, I didn't notice any issues. After my 5k service, the techs rotated the tires and I immediately had some pretty noticeable steering-wheel shaking around 60mph. I figured the back tires were just never properly balanced and had my local Discount Tire rebalance all the tires. However, that rebalance did not fix the issue.

I took the truck back in a week ago for its 10k service and the techs rotated tires again as part of that service. With the vehicle tires back (or at least closer) to their original configuration, the shaking was gone. However, I took it back in today to have them have a look at the back tires. They ended up road force balancing all the wheels. They also told me the tire with the worst balance was on the front, which did not make sense to me given that I'd not experienced the wobble all week.

Driving back from the dealership, I'm still shake free. However, what's left to be seen is what happens when the tires are rotated again.

So is the issue a "balance" problem? My data is inconclusive. But the problem does appear to be related to something about a tire and/or wheel detail, and not so much the truck itself.

 

Anything Michelin, balanced with finger plates seems to solve the problem.

 

Since this post has already derailed big time, I figured I’d add more to it
I agree that balance is super important in these. I wonder if there is something about the Toyota setup that is causing it to come out of balance…?? Like it is perfectly balanced and it’s the vehicle causing it to become imbalanced??

It seems to be a general consensus that replacing the needle bearing with the ECG bearing helps some, but doesn’t actually fix the problem.

Lexus GX was having the same shimmy issues as us, their fix was to change out the pressure spring in the steering rack to a stiffer one… has anyone researched, or tried this?

 

I remember something about the pressure spring in the steering rack on the FJ forums a few years back. Not sure where it went from there. But good point to bring up!

 

I think it’s about 15 hours of shop time…so I doubt very many have tried it

 

I skimmed through most of these responses. It seems like nearly everyone is feeling the shake while driving at 55-60 mph. I have a lift and 285s on my limited. I’ve had them for a few years now, no problems. However, it started steering wheel shaking recently when braking from 60mph (ie exiting the highway or coming to a higher speed stop at a light). Happens to my wife also and she brakes much more gently than I do. I had my brakes checked and they are fine. Maybe the tires have become an issue, but the driving is still fine.

 

Cereous, are the tires E load?

As for the breaking shake, i had that one time after sitting parked in a humid area for a few days. The shake from breaking was very aggressive. But after 100mi or so it went away.