Like the title of the post says, I get a slight vibration in the front end when I'm driving at highway speeds. It doesn't start vibrating until I get to 70mph. It doesn't feel like anything severe. I had it in the shop yesterday and they replaced a tie rod (not sure which one), balanced all four tires, and corrected the alignment. They did a test drive after fixing all these things and the vibration is still there. I haven't had a chance to get it out on the highway yet, so I'm going by what they tell me.

I went ahead and brought the truck back home because A - I need something to drive and B - I don't feel like paying them a bunch of money to chase this down. They mentioned the possibility of it being a bad rotor or maybe a bent front axle, but they were just speculating.

Any suggestions on where I should start? New rotors would be an easy enough fix. I just don't want to start throwing money at it blindly.

do you have a lift?

No, suspension & tires are stock

A bad u joint somewhere in the drivetrain would be my next guess after rotors or wheels. Is there a noise when you drive also, like a tire noise? Could be wheel bearings too.

Interesting. Greasing the driveshaft & ujoints is actually on my "next things to do" list. I'll see if it helps any. It won't hurt to replace the rotors either since I have no idea how old they are.

There is a known issue with getting the wheels properly balanced. Do you have a bunch of weights on the wheels for balance? There are some threads here that discuss the balance issues. A particular type of balance machine and/or adapter is needed to do it right. That could be the issue.

I doubt it's the rotors. You say it's a "slight" vibration at 70+mph, I think if I were you I'd decide if it's something I could live with. Check the usual things that you don't want failing on you such at shocks/springs, ball joints, steering rack bushings, control arm bushings, inner and outer tie rods, wheel bearings. If you find play in any of these things, replacing them won't qualify as shotgunning parts. Tire treat, tire quality, and balance method can even come into play. In the end though, a slight vibration over 70 can be difficult to diagnose, so waiting until it gets worse might make it easier to figure out. Don't go throwing expensive parts at it. It'll just frustrate you further.

I work in a shop and 99.9% of the time, rotors will only give a vibration under braking. The only time brakes will come into play when not braking is having a brake line swollen that is engaging the caliper or the caliper is sticking and giving brake force without brake pedal being pushed. There is a special hub adaptor that must be used for Toyota wheels. When I got my 4runner it had less than 50 miles on the tires and fresh alignment and I had to rebalance all 4 tires myself and when I checked the alignment it was slightly out of spec. Most shops will balance to within .75 ounces. Our shop sets everything at 0. The alignment was 1/32 out of preferred specs and would run fine like that and not wear tires down but I am very anal retentive when it comes to alignments and I put it back into perfect factory spec. If tires and alignment are good though I would check the CV shafts to make sure they aren't binding up at all as a slight bind will cause a heck of a shake at higher speeds. If you feel the shake in the wheel it is most likely in the front. If you feel it in your seat then most likely in the rear. Hopefully this helps track down your wobble issue. Feel free to pm me if you have any further questions as to what else to check once you have ruled out the 3 main causes of a shake at higher speeds. Also, can you outrun the shake? If it starts around 70 does it clear up around 80-85? If it does then I would put money on it being a tire balance issue.

I haven't gone over 70 yet due to both the vibration & I haven't been on any long trips on the freeway. I'll see if I can get a chance this weekend to drive it a little faster

Tire Balancing...MUST READ!

I'm not sure if it is the same as the vibration you are experiencing but I had a shake/shimmy in my steering wheel at 65-75mph that slowly got worse over time. The resolution for me was replacing the lower ball joints. I believe my mileage at the time was 145k. I'm close to 160K now, have changed tires and done at least one alignment and the shake has never returned.

Boilermaker here!

Yeah I need to get under there & inspect everything thoroughly. I'm at 176k & really have no knowledge of its maintenance history, so I'm trying to go through all the major stuff first. I've done quite a bit of work to it & I've only had it two weeks.

I 2nd the lower ball joints. I had the same thing going on until I replaced them.

I have an 06 V8 Limited, same issue. Vibration from 70-80ish when doing a light acceleration, especially uphill. If you do a hard acceleration or if you are slowing down, no issues/no noises.

We have replaced the front Wheel bearings (both), drive shaft u Joint, new tires, alignment, etc. No Avail.

Everything was done at a independent Toyota shop and they are totally stumped. They want to put an additive in the front differential to see if that quiets it down (i guess to determine if its a bearing in there).

Thoughts?

Do you feel it in the seat or in the steering wheel? Seat = wheel/tire/driveshaft issue, wheel = steering/suspension issue.

Normally the vibration under acceleration is driveshaft but you said you already fixed that one... Differential bearings normally make noise and a harmonic vibration, so that might be it. An additive is a whole lot cheaper than having them pull it and rebuild it so that sounds like a good idea.