Steering Wheel Vibration

I just returned from the first road trip in my 2016 Trail Premium. I experienced a high frequency vibration in the steering wheel that became very uncomfortable during long drives. This is not a wheel out of balance kind of shimmy. It's more like holding a power tool for 8 hours. Made my hands numb. Anyone else felt a similar thing?

 

My wheel shakes from 60mph-67mph... Got the dealership to rebalance and check my alignment and it was better for abouuuut a day? and its back to a steady shake at those speeds.. I'm curious as to if it will change when I get my suspension setup installed in a week or so.

 

I had a shimmy in my steering wheel and some vibration when I first got my tires, Cooper Discoverer AT3. I had them balanced 4 or 5 times. The road force balance finally got them straightened out. It was slightly out of alignment one time as well, probably because of the new suspension I had installed a couple of months prior.

 

id say its the tires or you have a severely warped rotor, unlikely to be that though

 

New stage 5 Icon set up and it took care of the shimmy.

 

I just purchased a 2017 4runner limited and my steering wheel feels like holding an electric tooth brush all the time. When I'm in overdrive it's even worse. I went to another dealership and drove two other ones and they do the similar,how can nobody else feel this,is it just me...

 

I have this issue too, after i take a water hose and do a deep clean of the wheels and susspension it does not shake anymore.

 

Dunlop tires removed. Michelin Defender LTX now. Shimmy is gone. Cautiously optimistic shimmy issue is fixed.

 

Good luck. I have had Michelin Defender LT/X since day one. No joy. Have had tires balanced with road force 3 (three) times. No luck. Wondering if front diff is suspect. Now Have just over 8K on the clock. Still vibes at speed. Please keep us posted if this is your magic pill.

 

Just curious here … Equipped with or without KDSS?

 

As my steering wheel vibration was only between 60-65mph, i suspect a wheel balance issue. Butttt, it was sporadic in nature which would indicate something else like a driveline issue. Time will tell. So far so good. 100 miles and no shake at 60.

 

I've had my limited for 9 months now, bought new. I've had it in 2-3 times for the shimmy and it's doing it again. Always about 60mph. I haven't changed anything on the vehicle from when I bought it.

 

Andddd, vibrations are back at 62mph. Back to the drawing board.....

 

Lol, I'll go back to the dealership after the storm passes, that's if I still have Pearl and the dealership and I are still around and Irma hasn't taken everything. Be safe everyone!

 

I bought my 13 FJ off the lot new and it was sitting for a while. Had same problem, but after 3 balances and remounts they realized one of the tires had a flat spot. Sooooo what we did was replace the spare one by one on each tire and drove around until we found which tire was the problem and then warrantied the tire. Simple. Happened on my 4Runner too. Trust me, try it. Tires have warranty for this reason

 

Dealer replaced all 4 original dunlops with michelin ltx. 2 days later, shimmy was back. Took it to my regular tire shop (ntb), and after rebalancing all 4 again, shimmy hasnt reared its ugly head. Yet anyway. Haha. Cautiously optimistic at this point..

 

I'm having the same issue with my 2016 Trail. Dealer rebalanced/rotated the tires twice and the problem persisted. Finally they replaced one of the tires at the 5000 mile service, and the problem was gone for 90% of the time. It came back pretty bad after my truck sat in the garage for 5 weeks, so I replaced all 4 rims with Stealth Custom Series with just the stock tires and the problem got worse. I installed all new tires BF Goodrich AT ko2s at Discount Tire and it was almost undrivable! Discount Tire replaced all 4 tires and still it shakes. I have a tough time believing that 2 separate sets of rims and 4 separate sets of tires were all balanced incorrectly to the point of causing the steering wheel to shake. Its basically been doing it since I drove it home from the dealership brand new and at this point it has only 10,000 miles on it.

I'm at a loss of where to go now. Discount Tire says the wheels are balanced, but the dealership is telling me its a tire problem and won't touch it since I got the tires and wheels elsewhere. I already unloaded the stock rims and tires on offerup..

Anyone tried replacing the steering damper? (is there a steering damper?)

 

I have the dunlops on my 2016 trail premium w/kdss and no issues 18k miles. My jeep would do death wobble around 55-60 mph was tires too.

 

So far so good. Hasn’t come back

 

There's a few ways to diagnose this.

Put vehicle in 4wd, remove rear drive shaft and get up to the speed you feel the vibes at. No vibes? Balance drive shaft.
Put vehicle in 4wd, get up to speed you feel the vibes. Are they gone? The issue is front diff related more than likely.
Rotate tires, vibes gone? Balance them.

Dealers don't do everything they can, the tech will test drive it and start changing parts and everything, it's totally unnecessary.

 

My 2013 4Runner has had this same problem- 60-70 mph and the steering wheel vibrates. Rotated and balanced every 5000 mi, new Michilen LTX and no improvement. Went to local tire shop and now do to the wear (32K on the ltx’s and they wouldn’t touch them. Back at the dealer that sold them, same answer- no rotate no balancing! I have a long trip at Christmas and have to decide on new tires. The 20” wheels have only five or six choices. Won’t buy the Michilen again. Anyone own the Bridgestone recommended?

 

Well, Had mine balanced a 4th time, And they reduced the tire pressure somewhat (down to 36 ), Showed me the figures from the road-force balancer, (they were all low numbers), and said " check it out and let us know if it isn't fixed". It is much better. But, I am wondering if the troublesome tire hasn't been rotated to the rear, and it will show up on the next rotate. For all my experience with Michelins, I find it so hard to believe that they are at fault. I do have my original TRAIL rims loaded with Nitto Terra-grappler G2's, and am just about ready to put them on for the winter. Note: This 4th rebalance was back on Nov 3, so I waited a while to post my findings, as I have put about 2K more miles on since then.

 

32K miles on LTX mich tires and worn to the marks.. that is a vehicle issue or how you drive it.
if the alignment is F'ed up or a suspension screw up would do it ..

I have those LTX mich on my GM truck 2 yrs now 15K miles wear is extremely small .. front and rear tires are exactly the same wear across the total tread. I expect 60-70K miles of use ..

on my 2016 sr5 the wheels back side has pockets that I found when rotating had crap filling those pockets .. toyota should change this design should be flat no pocket to hold road crap...

just rotated my tires 2016 SR5 10Kmiles on them first rotation , all tires wear is perfect / even and I have no vibs.

 

Those pockets are nuts behind the wheels. I make sure to spray them out each time I wash the truck. They do collect grime this time of year.

 

At 20,000 miles, I’ve now been through 2 sets of rims, 3 sets of tires, and 10 re-balances. The car still has a nice vibration at speed. The dealership says the vibration is related to the bf Goodrich all-terrains not being a street tire. I know this is bullshit. I’ve been in plenty of cars with off-road tires that don’t shake.

I’m pissed and the fact that a brand new car vibrates is driving me insane. It’s totally unacceptable. I’m considering getting rid of the car despite the money I’ve put into it.

 

so at what mileage did this occur ? any work done when this vib occurred ?

if OEM tires on it and no one screwed with it rotations or tire changing , lifts LOL.....etc and this vib began then IMO the front diff has a bearing issue or other drive train front diff ..

you have this documented and your paper work.. talk and report this vib to toyota ?

 

my humble opinion. GET THE TIRES BALANCED SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!!!! i.e. Someplace that uses a road force balancer,AND that actually knows what the $# they are doing. IF (and it is a small if) you have a tire that has a problem, it will show up. My Nitto Terra Grappler G2's have run SMOOOOOOOTHLY on my OEM trail rims. Also! do NOT be afraid to have the tech "recheck" the balance AFTER he gets the weights installed. After one of my numerous attempts to balance my freaking michelins, the ride was actually MUCH WORSE than it was before I had them "rebalance" the tires. From my experience with BFG-AT's, they should balance up nicely. Point of note here: Michelins are on my TRD rims, and Nitto Terra Grappler G2's on the OEM rims.

 

I had the oem wheels and tires for the first 10,000 miles. It was an issue then and I brought it into the dealer at 2k miles, 5k miles, and again at 10k. So yes plenty of documentation. At 5k they replaced a tire and it was better but still not 100% gone. At 10k I replaced the rims thinking maybe that was the problem but it didn’t go away. Got aftermarket tires. Still there. Current rim and tire setup has about 10k on them and I’ve had them balanced at 2 different discount tires. I just had them road force balanced at a different dealer, and now it is worse than when I dropped it off. I don’t have a lift or any other work on the car beyond replacing all the lights.

I’m bringing in the vehicle tomorrow and the dealer is going to troubleshoot beyond just balancing wheels. Finally! Though in order to do so they have to swap oem rims & tires on for Toyota to call it warranty work...

I’ll admit it absolutely feels like a tire is out of balance. But again, if it’s just a tire balance issue, is it really possible that these cars are so sensitive to even the slightest imperfect balance? I’ve driven plenty of cars and nothing has ever had this problem. And also why is a tire that falls within balance limits still causing an issue on the car?

 

OK, seems like your experience is similar to mine. Note how I said to have the tech "recheck" the balance after they install the weights.(had the same experience exactly) Also get the readout for the road-force balance as well. Higher numbers indicate a tire problem. Sensitive? I don't know. What still baffles me is my Michelins on my TRD rims that gave me so much grief. If my info is right, the TRD rims have a different spacing than the OEM rims. Maybe that affects the angular moment? But then, What rims did you have? My OEM are the TRAIL rims, that are loaded with Nitto T/G G2's (no problem) and my fancy TRD rims are loaded with my Michelins. (the ones that made me nuts) BTW, good luck, and keep us posted on your results!

 

Hoping for a positive resolution for you. Good luck! Mine wiggles a bit, too, so I’m curious what you learn.