Hi all,

I've been visiting this site for a while now and this is my first post.

I own a 97 Limited all stock 2WD. I bought it from a shady dealer who went out of business just after my warranty expired. When I bought the vehicle, it had no apparent problems. I first started noticing the following issue about a year ago. (actually, I bought new tires)

My "poor Runner" has been violently shaking at times. It is more apparent at freeway speeds. I've brought it to two different highly rated shops. Nobody can figure out what is happening. The real kicker is that the shaking will get worse and worse and then GO AWAY!

Here is a list of all of the repairs I've paid for to try to fix this issue:
- Resurfaced rotors, they warped again quickly, then I just had them replaced
- new drum brakes in rear
- drive shaft was straightened
- u joint replaced
- tires balanced, rotated (the tires are about a year old)
- my driver rear wheel's brakes kept dragging, had them replaced again
- parking brake adjusted twice

That's all I can think of at the moment. I've had the brakes and the steering inspected several times.

More specifics:

When I drive in the city, I can feel the truck "lurching": no throttle, just coasting along in gear, I can feel it being held back by something. The slower I go, the slower I can feel the lurch, the faster, blah blah you know.

On the freeway, this violent shaking/vibration gets really bad at 45 through 70 (as fast as I'm willing to go). Just for fun, I pulled up gently on the parking brake and can feel it though the handle quite well. It seems like the entire rear end is going to shake itself apart. The rear view mirror image is totally fuzzy at this point. The steering wheel isn't shaking like the rest of the car, only a tiny bit. When I brake, I can feel my brakes pulsating heavily. I just keep trucking along and it eventually goes away, as if nothing ever happened. The brakes actually go back to normal as well!

So frustrating. I've gone on 3 ride alongs with my mechanic and it only happened once while he was in the car. Of course, now it is happening all the time.

If someone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful for your advice. I really do love this truck but it's trying my patience.

I would look into steering rack bushings. They are known to go bad.

And unbolting the DS and spining it 180*s and reinstalling. Maybe your DS lost a couple weights. When looking at your DS, see if you can notice any imperfections were a weight could have been.

As far as the lurching, have you looked at each corner independantly? Raise the rear, and spin the tire by hand? For the front, you can raise one corner at a time.

Cylinder misfire? I had a awful violent shake going on with my runner, and turned out a had a spark plug fried causing one of my cylinder to misfire. Just a idea..

did you just have the brakes replaced? what about the drums? hows the rear axle?

Check your main crank pulley . I know it sounds stupid. But on my maxima there a little rubber vibration isolater in the middle of the pulley that fell apart on me. And was cause vibrations throughout the hole car.

I did the same thing as you , I think I changed just about everything on the car. And finally when a belt shredded on me I noticed the pulley.

Good luck bro.

So we have balance shafts or any of those vibration dampering devices? I would also ckeck motor mounts and suspension mounts. Also. It may sound stupid but you never mentioned doing an alignment.

I think that's your issue. The big question is.. what the hell happened to it (and the truck) to need to be straightened?

I read the 3.4 is internally balanced - no harmonic balancer to go out of whack like on a Jeep

The harmonic balancer is right behind the crankshaft pulley on the 3.4.

There is sometimes countershafts in the engine to further dampen NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness)

There is pretty much a Harmonic Balancer on everything.

The harmonic balancer is always made from two pieces separated by rubber. The purpose of this setup is to isolate engine vibrations from the belts. In a four-cycle engine, you get four distinct torque twists. The rubber insulator absorbs some of those shocks


Sounds like the same thing that happened to my and my Tacoma. I had the lurch also. You will want to new drums machined before you put them on. They are always out of round from factory unless you bought OE Toyota ones. The drums are out of round when they get hot. That's probably why the issue comes and goes. Either the rear ebrake is adjusted too tight, or your Bell Cranks (see link) are frozen on, which occurs all the time.

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...ank-repair.pdf

How are you rear panhard bar bushings? It could lead to death wobble in the rear end.

Does it feel like the axle is moving side to side under the car when this happens?

I had the same issue with my 98. It would shake then stop! I posted a thread last year asking about this issue, and told people that I had lost my coolant in the rad. We decided to do a pressure test of the cooling system, and were able to determine there was a leak. I ended up finding out that my rear coolant lines that lead to the rear heater were leaking!

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR: Check your coolant level! Top up the rad and fill the reservoir to its mark. If that cures your problem, that's what the issue is! You'll find the coolant lines run along the passenger side frame rail. THere is a plastic shield that covers the lines, the shield can be removed using a socket wrench. Check your lines, and I'm willing to bet you have a leak somewhere!

How's the undercarriage of your truck? Any rust issues? THe lines are made of steel, and rust out!

Please take this seriously and check out your coolant levels. If it is your issue, just cut out the rusty section, and replace with rubber coolant hose that is the same size. Use a small hose clamp to secure the line and that should be it!

Keep us posted!

Did you have your drive shaft rebalanced after it was straightened? Toyota drive shafts need balancing.

If it were an axle or drive shaft problem, wouldn't it start out minor, get worse upon accelaration, and then continue???? This shaking is stopping with no apparent reason......I would still recommend the coolant check 1st.

Think about it, if the mechanics keep checking the wheels, brakes, and driveline stuff, and find nothing......maybe it's something totally unrelated to the driveline??? Check the coolant, if all is good with the coolant, then at least you ruled it out, and you can move on.

You never mentioned having the tires balanced and/or rotated...

maybe you threw a weight, or even worse maybe a cord shifted in the tire...
what kind of tires are they?