Can steering wheel shake cause damage long term?

So my 2022 4Runner has had steering wheel shake since new. It came stock with nitto ridge grapplers and I’ve had them balanced 3 times so far and can’t seem to get rid of the steering wheel shake between 50-60mph. I’m debating if I should just live with it or try a less aggressive tire like a Toyo Open Country AT3. Seems like it would be a roll of the dice and not sure I want to take the gamble since I love the look of the nitto ridge grapplers. If I were to stay with my current tires and deal with the steering wheel shake, could I have issues long term with the suspension/steering?

 

I’ve had a similar issue but went to a different shop and explained the problem to the technician. I explained that when balancing my tires close enough won’t cut it. I want them balanced to perfection and anything less I would keep coming back until it was done perfectly. I thought it worth it to pay someone else again rather than to keep going to the same knucklehead 3 times for the same result.

 

Most likely its your tires. You NEED your tires road force balanced with the runout numbers less then 20. Next tire ask for the sheet with the final runout numbers.

Ive dealt with this.

Look at the maxxis razr at tires. I have a set waiting install. One of the reasons I chose this tire is from talking to other these tires balance extremely well.

 

A warped rotor will cause that in that speed range. I had that issue in my Tundra. Drive it at the speed that it shakes and quickly hit the brakes. Don't fully lock them up, but get a little heavy on the pedal. If the shaking gets worse when you hit the brakes, look at replacing the rotors.

 

Did it go away completely and what tires are you running?

I went to a discount tire twice and was fed up with them after they broke my center cap and tried to play it off as if it was already broken. I went to a Toyota dealership and they seemed to help the most but the shake has started to come back gradually and it’s probably back to where it started now.

 

Thanks for the info about road force balance. I think I’ll schedule a tire balance with my Toyota dealership and tell the service writer that I won’t accept them until they come back with the runout under 20. Maybe they will warranty the tires for me.

If that fails I’ll probably roll the dice on another set of tires.

 

On that note, they can check the runout on the rotors as well.

 

If the dealer fails to understand your issue, find a offroad/4x4 shop with a road force balance.

 

Maybe you could find a shop with a set of used tires in the same size as yours that were traded in, and try them on your 4Runner for a couple of days to see if that's the issue before you spend money on a new set of tires.

 

someone here had recommended road force balance and that is what I chose when I changed tires and wheels. Knock on wood, so far no shake.

 

It is your tires.

Hunter Road Force machine with the proper Haweka adapter.

Or....get rid of the Ridge Grapplers and get a set of Michelin tires. Do you need the Nitto's. Did the dealer put them on when new?

 

I went and bought some stock wheels and tires off a 2023 from Facebook marketplace this weekend and you were right, it was the tires. It was a huge improvement in ride quality and the shimmy is no longer there. I don’t know if the ridge grapplers I had were defective or if that was considered normal for an off-road tire.

I had about 8000 miles on the nitto ridge grapplers. Do you think driving that long on tires that ride like that could cause damage to any of the suspension components? I know that’s silly but when I put the stock Bridgestone Dueler tires on my first thought was “wow these are so much smoother, driving around on those ridge grapplers couldn’t have been good for my 4Runner”.

 

No, there is no damage to your vehicle. Folks have battled steering wheel shake on and off for 300,000 miles on certain trucks.

In my experience shops that can not balance tires on the 4Runner after multiple attempts come back in the end and say that is normal for the tire, KO2s/Ridge Grapplers/Etc. Heck, Toyota regional tech reps say it is normal for the truck steering wheel to shake with stock configurations. With that being said there are many people that run those tires and have ZERO steering shimmy. Some trucks are sensitive to a good balance, some are fine out of the box. There are many variables at play here and there is tons of good info on this forum concerning the problem.

 

My 2019 PRO had the steering wheel shake. Dealership rebalanced the tires and it went away. My 2023 PRO has just developed the shake around 10k miles. Weird thing is that it's intermittent. The other night in my way home from work, the shake was so bad that my legs were tingling by the time I got home. I could feel it through the seat and gas pedal. Today on the way home....smooth as silk.

 

Depending on load, I must make sure my tires are 34lbs + cold or I get shake. Could be a balance or alignment problem too, but psi seems to smooth it out a lot.

 

I think this thread has the answer you are looking for.

 

Dealer just replaced two of my Ridge Grapplers because of wheel shake. Both fronts force-balanced at like 38. New ones are 13. Much better now.

 

I think you mean Terra Grapplers. Those are standard on the TRD PRO. I have an appt tomorrow morning to get my tires balanced.

 

Yep. Said the wrong one.

 

I’m pretty certain this is the main cause of what I was dealing with. I imagine the manufacturing process of all terrain tires has some variability in it and some tires are produced to where they can balance lower than others. I suspect the Ridge Grapplers I have just inherently couldn’t balance low enough.

 

He my Terra Grapplers balanced last week. Dealer said all tires were out of balance. Guess what? The shimmy is still there for 60-70mph. Bringing it in again on Wed. Not confidant they can remedy the situation.

 

Had that happen several times. The last time I went to the dealer I think they took the tires that could balance the best and put them in the front to make it less noticeable which helped but ultimately the shake came back. I’ve heard that you need the road force balance to come back under 20. I would insist on seeing the readouts for each tire.