What have you done to your 5th Gen 4Runner today?

Yes. Although your 2018 is too new to have the problem and I'm unsure if you are lifted or not, which exacerbates the problem:

The driver's side needle bearings between the front diff and the axle can fail, exacerbated by any degree of lift. It's a known issue and it cause a rumbling / vibration that is similar to an out-of-balance tire. My 2014 failed at about 40,000 miles, with 2.5" lift.

Other than that, or the possible wheel bearing failure, there's no known (to me) issues with the driveline that would cause symptoms like what you describe. Your assessment is likely accurate - tires out of balance.

I will say that the 5th gen 4R seems to be particularly sensitive to balance issues and those issues are easily felt through the steering wheel. I have wheels go out of balance because of a little mud caked on them, and I can feel it. I've reached a point where I no longer really care... if the truck vibrates, I go faster, or slower, until it stops vibrating. Usually faster. Okay, always faster.

 

The first was an approved installer (Tire Pros; Atlantic tire Center on Monterey Road in Stuart) on Tirebuyer's list which had excellent reviews and was recommended to me by another accessory shop I use. They did not do me good even with a Road Force. The second was Golden Gate Tire on Dixie Highway. Golden Gate was only on the second set after Tire Pros messed up the replacements. I used a specialty shop (Auto XPerience in Port St. Lucie) for the front two prior to my trip which got the front ones right on. But as I said the back ones were still off on the trip to NC.

Who have you been to up here?

 

No lift. Completely stock suspension with KDSS. Thanks for your input. Leaning toward some KO2s.

 

I have used St Luice battery and tire and Amazonia 4x4. And have had balance jobs done with Treasue coast Toyota and my local Toyota, Eral Stewart.

 

Not crazy about Treasure Coast but like Earl Stewart even though have only used them once. Who did the best for your balances? There are a bunch of St Lucie Battery and tires in the area. Which one and what for? I like good recommendations or notice who to avoid. I'll have to check out Amazonia. They used to be a Dodge dealer. What did they do for you? Good or bad?

 

St Luice batt: i had them install lift/ level and bigger tires on a 2015 tundra, did a good alingment on toyo at tires, i used the one close to me on beeline and military in riviera beach.
Treasue coast: did an alingment after useing amazonia, did an okay alignment, not very good for lifted vehicals.
Amazonia 4x4: they installed my trd pro shocks and front axle skid plates, did good work for really cheap, he restores old land cruisers and sells them, was recommended by my buddy who own 12 diffrent tacos and 4runners.
Earl: they do basic service for me and do good alingments, but the wait times till they fully expand are insane expect a 2-3 hour wait.

If you dont mind a little bit of a drive there is a DV8 across from earl stewart, they installed my lift wheels and tires, excellent work and great balancing, but they are not cheap, however the quality is insane and are usually booked out 2 weeks in advanced, but a simple tire job they would more than likly be able to squeeze you in sooner.

Avoid royal palm and palm beach toyota awful people working there and dumba$$ mechanics who poor oil on top of the engine and skid plate, left work gloves in my skid plate and never cleaned it up, got home and i thought i was leaking oil.

 

We went for a little drive with my friend and his family. He ended up getting stuck but all was good. All the doo-dads on these rigs don't do anything with bald tires on ice lol.

https://youtu.be/OJacmCWIoKM

 

I gave our new baby a new set of License Plates - Wonder how many others have unique 4R plates for their machine?

 

Thanks to all for the inputs. Have been researching tires to decide on what to replace the Falkens with--SOON. Unfortunately research leads to confusion and thus indecision. Reviews of tires on the tire websites aren't to be trusted IMO as the manufacturer probably writes many to boost their product. Probably true of other product reviews on sites like Amazon and eBay too. As you can tell I am a bit skeptical of reviews. What I think I can trust however are reviews and comments from actual Toyota 4R owners on sites like this. So I now solicit inputs on what tires you all are running on your 4R and what your impressions of them are. I have seen many UNVERIFIED reviews of KO2s, Nitto Ridge (the new one) and Terra Grappler G2, Toyo Open Country, etc. My Falkens get very good reviews too especially at the price point. Appreciate all opinions, positive or negative.

 

How do you know that the reviews you might get on here aren't from bots? Reviews, in my opinion, are to be taken with a grain of salt not because they might be propaganda from the manufacturer, but because most reviews are authored soon after getting something, when it is still shiny and new, and hasn't been used long enough for the negatives to be noticed.

Asking for tire advice is like asking for oil advice, or asking what sort of woman is best (or man, if you are into that sort of thing, not that there is anything wrong with that!). Lots of individual preferences come into play.

Additionally, you aren't telling us what you want to do with the tires. Off road? Highway? Gravel roads? Sand?

So I don't know that you will get a ton of answers, especially in this thread, but you may want to reconsider your question and offer up some info about your intended uses to get answers specific to your requirements.

 

Thanks Mark. You raise very valid points and I was remiss in my usage intents. My 4R is my daily driver and I don't have major off-road aspirations but intend to do some. I'd say 95% of my time will be on pavement. My wheeling experience is nil so it will be new but it is something I want to try without getting into rock crawling and the like. I want an aggressive look, good ride, and "relative" quietness. I know an AT tire will have some noise compared to passenger tires but so be it. That said after my original post I found some other threads on wheels and tires and I talked personally to some tire people locally with no skin in the game and have settled on going with the Toyo Open Country AT II. Good bang for the buck, aggressive look, balance easily, quieter than most, good wear. Hopefully they will get rid of the balance issues and vibrations I have been having with the Falkens, which BTW were an awesome tire on my Tacoma. Just don't seem to be good fit on the 4R for me (but they do look awesome on the Pro wheels). If they don't it's time to look at the truck itself.

 

I run the Toyo Open Country A/T 2 at a 285/70/17 and have no complaints except on wet pavement, if you need to step on it at a dead stop to get around someone they very bad traction, notice it more on the tundra than 4runner, my guess is because of the raw power of a 5.7. They are quiet and aggresive looking, they preform very well in off road situations. As for tread ware, i have over 15k on them and they dont look any less than the day they were installed.

 

OP - I'm waiting on your follow-up to see if your balance/shimmy issues are solved with the Toyo tires. Please keep us posted. Thanks!

 

You have issues too? I will know soon enough if my problem is solved. Ordered the Toyos today and will be installed post haste.

 

Only problem I have had with the Toyo's is that they tend to get noisy as they have a number of miles on them. Run the 235/85-16's on my Taco during non-winter months. Told the local dealer about this (Les Schwab) and apparently this is a known issue and he said that they'd give me a big discount in the spring when I buy new fair weather tires. Run the Toyo M/T's in the winter. If you are wondering about the size - This is so I can chain up all 4. Clay

 

This is the first thing I did as soon as I could after bringing the 4 Runner home. ECO light Pfft!

 

Yep. The first 4Runner I brought home I only kept for a few days. Swapped it due to the fairly significant steering wheel shimmy. My new one (5 months old now) still has a minor shimmy. Only noticeable under certain road conditions. Approx 60 mph and up. Nothing like the first one. But when I look for new tires, balancing will be a priority. Thanks for any updates on your Toyos in advance. Best of luck. I like the looks of the Terra g2 tires, also.

 

Hmm. I'm glad I didn't know about these vibration issues before we bought the wife's new 4runner. We've got just under 9K miles on the all original all stock tires, wheels and suspension with no shimmies or other bad vibes.
We have a 2017 SR5 daily driver and trip taker. We tow a teardrop camper and put a canoe on the 4runner with no problems.

 

It really only happens if you have certain all terrain tires or if your wheels are caked with mud, 4runners are really sensitive when it comes to tires being off balence.

 

As you already know from first hand experience, there's not "vibration issues".

Yeah, the 4R is more susceptible to slightly off tire / wheel balance than some other cars, in my experience. But, I think a lot of people come into 4R ownership with eyes wide shut, and have no idea of what they are buying. It's a utility vehicle. It's going to have creaks and groans and clunks from underneath, and, yes, it's going to have a rougher ride than a Mercedes, and have some vibration. That vibration and those noises and oddities are going to be exacerbated by lifts, and big 10 ply tires, and wheel spacers, and all the other shit that people bolt on to their trucks.

Every instance of severe vibration from an out of balance wheel on the 4R that I've experienced has been due to off road gunk (mud, mostly) caking the inside lip of the wheels, settling once the truck is parked, and then causing a shimmy once it's driven again. I don't post about it or try and get my tires replaced... I spray that shit off with a hose and keep on driving it. Eventually it goes away, or I get used to it (so it goes away).

I'm not saying that people shouldn't strive for a satisfying ownership experience, but if a vibration is so bad that it causes you to "return the 4Runner" (as one guy noted above), or buy and re-buy and balance and re-balance tire after tire after tire... maybe just give up and go buy a Corolla or something.

I don't know. Maybe I'm the anomaly. I buy a vehicle as a tool. I don't care if my tool gets dented, scratched, shimmies when it drives, makes weird noises... I want it to start and run reliably, so when I turn it off on top of a fucking mountain to go hiking I know that it will start again when I get back in it. That's it. I maintain it to standards of reliability and driveability and don't give a shit about anything else.

 

I agree in the mud thing, i have the same issue does not bother me, i just get a hose and take care of it as soon as i get home, but for the guy who is having this issue he has the same shimmy, without taking the truck offroad, and his truck as stated above loses balence in a matter of miles, not saying i would return my 4runner when it could be a shop you have used or certain tire.

 

My T4R is a dream compared to my Jeep with the 32 bolt steel beadlock wheels. And worse yet, is the heavy equipment we used to road from one job to another.

Steve

 

Since it is winter also check for snow and ice buildup on the rim. A lot of cars get ice buildup on the rim between disk brakes and the rim when traveling in snow. I have had it happen on Toyotas, Fords, VWs, Hyundais. It isn't a fault of a manufacturer, just something to take care of it it pops up.

Also, if tires are causing issues when getting balanced try getting them road-force balanced.

 

The Toyo AT II are great tires and give great traction on pretty much everything (snow, sand, mud, rain). I have them on my Tacoma and had them on the Cherokee I had before that. They will be going on my wife's 4 runner as well when the stock tires wear out. With that said if you are looking for a smooth and quiet ride then these aren't what you should get. They get louder as they wear down and the ride will get rougher as well. This is common with any tires with an aggressive tread as they tend to not wear as evenly as a standard street tire.

 

Have been using my original Trail rims loaded with Nitto TG2 s for about two weeks now. Absolutely NO shimmy.. at all. The Nittos are a little noisier than the Michelins, but that is to be expected, what I still want to scratch my pointy head in wonderment about however, is the smooth ride of the TG2's. Makes me almost want to take the TRD rims/ Michelins back to the dealer and play "swap" to see if the vibration is linked more to the Michelins, or the TRD rims. FWIW, the 4TH road force balance on them seemed to work.

 

Great! Appreciate the review. I’m glad they balanced out well for you.

 

Update on the Toyo Open Country AT IIs. Unlaced the Falken Wildpeaks and put new shoes on the TRD Pro rims on Friday. Very satisfied so far. No wobble or shimmy or vibrations after the first balance. Thanks to Tony at Auto Xperience in Port St Lucie, FL for that on the first try—without a Road Force. Only had it up to 65 mph but haven’t been on Interstate yet to try 75 or 80; don’t expect any issue. Not knocking the Wildpeaks by any means as they are great tires. I loved them on my Tacoma on the same TRD Pro rims. They just did not agree with my 4Runner. As stated by Curmudgeonly the 4R is “sensitive” so a good match is needed. The Toyos are 4 ply instead of the 6 ply Wildpeaks so they ride smoother and are less noisy. They take rumble strips nicely and overall ride better. They also have less of a footprint as to section width by just a bit. I guess tires are like shoes. The same size does not not mean the same dimensions based on the manufacturers. I did love the aggressive look of the Wildpeaks. The Toyos are less aggressive but still look great.
Many thanks and kudos to Tirebuyer.com for their great customer service and patience. As of this writing the Toyos are a hit. Like driving a different 4Runner.
This is not a review; just preliminary observations. More to follow.
I have to admit, with all respect to Curmudgeonly, my $40 +K 4Runner is not a tool. I expect, even with all it’s Off Road capability, that it will behave comfortably while on the road to grandma’s house. Off road it can bounce and shake all it wants. Back on the flat top it should act civilized. I think that’s what Toyota had in mind.
Factoid: Toyo is the parent company of Nitto.
Another note: while wheels were off I looked at the shocks and recorded the Toyota part numbers. Googled them. $35 shocks on a $40K + TRD Off Road Premium 4Runner. WTF? Couldn’t even put on Bilsteins?
Added note for you military veterans. Tirebuyer offers a 7% discount when verifying your service through troop ID.me. Awesome company. Will discount your purchase even more when shipping to an installer on their preferred list.

 

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to update. Congrats on the wobble-free ride. And great looking 4Runner!

 

Can you post a link to where you bought?

 

https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/...Salex+Organizers&ref_=bl_dp_s_web_15267523011