Hello all!, i recently bought a 2008 4runner sport 4x4 V6 with 108,000 miles on it....i have a couple concerns about it and would like to hear from people who have owned there runners for a while, or have experienced any of what im experiencing is normal or not..if any one has any input or advice it would be great!

my first concern about the truck is while im accelerating...either at low or highway speeds i feel a slight vibration..i was thinking either a wheel hub or bad wheel balancing..but once i take my foot off the pedal it goes away and its smooth as can be...

my second concern is the service records for this truck ended at around 40,000 miles...so i have no idea what has been done since then, i plan on doing a radiator flush because the fluid inside radiator is a brownish color, while the fluid in the over flow tank is the light red... what are some other areas of the truck i should inspect?? there is no milk shake looking oil in the oil cap or dipstick..so im not too worried about the dreaded head gasket leak.

Third concern is the brakes...i dont know if its normal for the truck to pulsate while braking...this is my first SUV..always had sport coupes...but every time i touch the brakes the truck pulsates like crazy..

everything else seems to be in pretty good shape..just that vibration during accel. that i want to get fixed...my drivers side seat has this awful lubar cracking/popping...but from what i have read there is nothing that can be done about it...




Im sorry for the long post but since i have purchased this truck 2 weeks ago it has been back to the dealer twice now for a check engine light with TRAC AND TSC light blinking....the first time they told me it was a bad gas cap..so i went to toyota and bought a new oem cap...3 days later lights came back on...brought it back to them and they said nothing was wrong with the car...after i had the codes read ( P0441- P0455 )..so supposedly they replaced the Purge valve and vent valve...now im getting worried about having bought this, and want to see if what im experiencing is part of the norm of owning a high mileage runner... thank you all who have read this!

Vibration could be so many different things...It's a pita! I would jack the front up, and grab the front tires at 9 and 3, wiggle and look for play somewhere. The pulsating you feel when hitting the brakes is a, or more than 1, warped rotor. I have the same issue right now. This could also mean that you have a brake caliper that is partially frozen up creating drag and heat.
Vibrations could be, but not limited to:
tie rods, inner and/or outer
wheel bearings
ball joints
warped rotor
out of balanced tire/ bad tire
bent rim
bad u-joint in driveshaft
bad cv axle
worn bushings on uca/lca

Check for looseness as described above after jacking the front tires up off the ground. Then go from there.

And I forgot to mention....now that I'm sitting in the truck...it has a really shaky idle...not to bad but deff. Noticeable....it do plan on checking all the suspension....but this is more of a vibration just in the gas pedal...only when accelerating..

1. Bad wheel bearing (s). Replace with two new hub assemblies.
2. Stuck caliper. Replace calipers rotors and pads in front.
3. Time for new plugs and pcv valve.

108k is do for a full maintenance overhaul imo. Fluids... Front and rear differentials. Transfer case. Transmission. Power steering. Radiator. switch spark plugs to iridium. Air filter and cabin filter. Serpentine belt (get Tacoma one, cheaper).

Depending on how bad the brakes are you could just get pads and seat them and the shuddering might go away. It could be brake dust build up causing the warping feeling.


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You can try sanding down the rotors with some garnet sand paper, and running some very aggressive brake pads for a short time to take off the built up pad material from the old pads, then switching to a normal set of pads in stead of changing rotors. This worked with my Stoptech St-40 brake setup on my b5 s4 as those rotors were $300 a piece

ok so i pretty much got everything straightened away besides the vibration when accelerating....

the vibration is driving me nuts...it occurs at at any MPH, but is mostly noticeable around 2-3000 RPM...only happens when truck is under load accelerating....can feel it in gas pedal and floor boards...if im on the high way and put the truck into Neutral it goes away...and i can rev engine while crusing and everything feels fine...once i put it back into Drive it starts again....how can i narrow this down to find what the problem is.. any help would be great

thank you!

A buddy of mine at work had an acceleration issue like you describe. He has a Jeep but it ended up being a faulty mount on the front differential. Power was torquing the diff cockeyed and caused vibration and noise.

Have you checked the u joints for play yet?

i was thinking maybe a tranny mount...never thought of a diff mount...im gonna be climbing under the truck sunday to do diff fluid change/transfer case/ and grease drive shaft...plan on checking the U Joints then....i dont have any clunking though...