My experience getting Toyota to diagnose steering wheel vibration

With all the people with the shimmy shake it amazes me how relevant this issue is with no real good alternative solutions yet. As in has anyone tried playing with the rack? (I don't dare because I'm not smart enough to even diagnose what I would be looking for or at)

I just have such a hard time believing its tires and wheels and alignment.

I've had 3 different combos of wheels and tires and i've had the shakes on each just at different intervals or ranges. It always feels like its just in the steering wheel and not actually thru to the tires on the road. Its really odd. and a TOTAL BUMMER. This is an expensive truck and I hate when the steering wheel shakes like a 79 chevette running on 1 cylinder.
 
sinks88 said:
With all the people with the shimmy shake it amazes me how relevant this issue is with no real good alternative solutions yet. As in has anyone tried playing with the rack? (I don't dare because I'm not smart enough to even diagnose what I would be looking for or at)

I just have such a hard time believing its tires and wheels and alignment.

I've had 3 different combos of wheels and tires and i've had the shakes on each just at different intervals or ranges. It always feels like its just in the steering wheel and not actually thru to the tires on the road. Its really odd. and a TOTAL BUMMER. This is an expensive truck and I hate when the steering wheel shakes like a 79 chevette running on 1 cylinder.
Click to expand...

Yeah I got the same. All the vibration comes through the steering wheel. Nothing felt on seat or through floor. I wonder if its something not even associated with the tires.
 
Tires with aggressive outer lugs which have begun to wear unevenly (i.e., “cupping”)?
 
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FinntheT4R said:
I wanted to jump in here and let you know that I've had the same exact issue and I have stock suspension and wheels/tires. It's interesting that I'm not alone in this. Mine doesn't happen terribly often but I have had a few moments where the steering wheel shake was very noticeable at those speeds.
Click to expand...

I thought I was the only one! My car barely has 30k miles and has been doing this since 10k miles. I have stock suspension/tires still on the car as well. I just hope there nothing wrong that would be fatal, it's just a little more of an annoyance because none of my other Toyotas do this and I own and drive over 5 Toyotas.
 
I had the steering wheel vibration present itself only a couple since I purchased the 4Runner with stock tires. Never took it into Toyota to have it checked out based on the bad experiences many have had with their dealers here on the forum. Installed BFG KO2s 275/70R17 and road forced balanced them myself and I haven't had it return.

It's my belief that improper balancing at the factory or aftermarket shops not balancing the tires properly and adding too much weight

Just sharing my experience
 
I've had the vibration on my 2016 SR5 since new. Numerous road force balance performed, 2 tires replaced for being out of round, 2 alignments - still vibrated. About 2 months ago I put in stock size falken AT3Ws - still vibrates. It's not all the time - some times does it, some times it's smooth as silk - same road, same environment. No rhyme or reason to it. I've given up on trying to get the dealer to fix it, they obviously cannot.


Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
EddieV4runnin said:
I had the steering wheel vibration present itself only a couple since I purchased the 4Runner with stock tires. Never took it into Toyota to have it checked out based on the bad experiences many have had with their dealers here on the forum. Installed BFG KO2s 275/70R17 and road forced balanced them myself and I haven't had it return.

It's my belief that improper balancing at the factory or aftermarket shops not balancing the tires properly and adding too much weight

Just sharing my experience
Click to expand...

My experience with my former FJ Cruiser was similar to above. Had absolutely no vibration up until 17,000 miles. Put TRD Pro style rims on the FJ and immediately had the vibration at 55 to 65 mph. I noted that the person installing the tires on the new rims had issues balancing the wheels, as one of the wheels had the maximum number of wheel weights added. Made a comment at Toyota dealer at next service and they checked things and indicated the air pressure was not equal in all of the tires. The vibration was present, but very minimal after that, so I chalked it up to bad balancing.

Have had no issues with the 4Runner, but with only 2,000 miles on it, likely not a good example yet.
 
I have a 2014 Limited. Originally noticed the steering wheel slight vibration probably around 15-20k. Had dealer rebalance and align which didn't make any difference in my opinion. Recently around 40k I replaced the OEM wheels and tires with TRD Pro rims and BFG KO2 265/70/17 and noticed vibration still happens around 60mph. Going to take it back to the dealer but not sure rebalancing will resolve. I also cannot explain why the vibration as it is does not always happen.
 
I'm willing to bet the majority of these vibration issues are due to improper wheel balancing + a sensitive steering rack/front suspension. I lived with vibrations for the last 30,000 miles and two road force balances. Took it to another shop last month and asked them to balance the wheels and now my truck is driving with zero vibration.
 
I know that everyone could potentially have the same problem, but with different solutions (i.e. irregular tires, irregular rims, etc). I had the same vibration at a particular range of speed on the highway. It was to the point where I just didn't feel comfortable. Without going into a ton of detail, my issue was the tires. I was fortunate enough to find someone who gave a damn and worked with me for a week to figure the issue out. I am not saying this is your solution, as I agree it could be a number of things, but sometimes we look too far and my issue was simply the tires.
 
Xtremluck said:
I'm willing to bet the majority of these vibration issues are due to improper wheel balancing + a sensitive steering rack/front suspension. I lived with vibrations for the last 30,000 miles and two road force balances. Took it to another shop last month and asked them to balance the wheels and now my truck is driving with zero vibration.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to drive up to SF to the Firestone (I think that was it) that you went to if nothing else fixes this.
 
If you think about how the shimmy happens you will think about those trucks you see on the highway, you know the semi or trailer with that 'tire', the one that is hopping up and down, we have all seen it. Well, this is what your tire is doing, probably not as bad, but it's hopping around, if it's the front, the steering wheel will shake, if the rear, then the car shakes except the wheel doesn't.

Like others have said, this is 99% an issue with the tires, or the wheels. I've got the same damn thing on mine and getting ready to take back to the tire shop to have them re-balance. I know from my experience it's probably the tires or wheels, there is not much else in there that will cause a shimmy at the vibration levels we see at the speed we see.

It might not just be a balance issue with the tires, a lot of times these truck tires will wear unevenly and the actual treads on the tires will be out of round or cupping, and they will hop hop hop down the road. If you visually inspect your tires you can usually just see how bad the tire is and that it is uneven. It's extremely important to rotate the tires as often as possible to prevent the tires from cupping and getting uneven tread wear. They can only do so much with balancing and weights.
 
For me, its the tires........ My tire installer used wheel balancing beads instead of wheel weights. So my tires shimmy if I park for long periods of time, or if I drive for short distances. It goes away, when I commute long distances. It's annoying, but i'm to lazy to fix the issue.

Same problem with my buddy who also runs BFG's..... He fixed his issue with a road force alignment, and going back to wheel weights.

For me and my buddy, we were able to rule out suspension, mainly because I run a fully modded suspension, and he runs a OEM suspension, and only thing we had in common was that we both run the same tires, put on by the same installer, yet we both had the same problems after upgrading to aftermarket tires.

Im not sure if this will be helpful, but you guys should check if your tires were balanced with wheel weights or beads...... then go from there.
 
Shoot, I'm still running stock tires and suspension, no armor what-so-ever and my steering wheel recently (w/in the past few weeks) started vibrating at any speed over 35mph.
--2016 TE w/ 11400mi

Hopefully this with the poll you've got going on Toyota will look again.
Also not going to hold my breath.
 
Am I allowed to post a link to another forum?

Have my account of dealing with shimmy detailed there until we just gave up before the warranty was up.
 
After hundreds of thousands of miles on this platform, in a couple different vehicles, and having fought balance issues constantly, here's what I can tell you:

The steering system is very sensitive to imbalance, the slightest amount you will feel in the steering wheel.
Tires flat spot - you will always have some amount of vibration until you have 10+ miles at interstate speeds, even on perfectly balanced tires.
Most tire shops don't have cones to properly fit the Toyota 106.1mm wheel bore and do a poor job of balancing.
Aftermarket wheels without a 106.1 center bore need centering rings to get consistent centering on the hub.
Many balancers are out of spec
Most techs doing balances don't do a good job - I have found this to be the most important factor. I have a tech at my local discount tire that is the only one I let balance my tires. He does it perfect every time, even on big, heavy, torn up 305/70/17 MTRs.

Other than getting a very good balance, the only thing that has any hope of improvement is to replace the preload springs in the steering rack, outlined in a Lexus GX460 TSB, which requires removal of the steering rack.
 
Jeremy556 said:
Other than getting a very good balance, the only thing that has any hope of improvement is to replace the preload springs in the steering rack, outlined in a Lexus GX460 TSB, which requires removal of the steering rack.
Click to expand...

We explored that option and it couldn't be done...at least with the 2010-2013s. Different rack assembly that is unserviceable according to dealership and Toyota field technician/engineer. Can anyone confirm in the FSM? Perhaps newer year 5th gen is different?

I'll post my link to other forum anyway and remove if not allowed. Mods let me know.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f193/5th-gen-4runner-vibration-shimmy-262624/
 
Last edited:
NrthRnr said:
We explored that option and it couldn't be done...at least with the 2010-2013s. Different rack assembly that is unserviceable according to dealership and Toyota field technician/engineer. Can anyone confirm in the FSM? Perhaps newer year 5th gen is different?

I'll post my link to other forum anyway and remove if not allowed. Mods let me know.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f193/5th-gen-4runner-vibration-shimmy-262624/
Click to expand...

Not many dealers, at least Toyota (Lexus can spend the money) will have the SSTs needed to rebuild a rack since there isn't a recall or TSB on the Toyota side that necessitates it and as such would not be provided by Toyota (meaning the dealership has to buy the SSTs for something they will probably never do).
 
Jeremy556 said:
After hundreds of thousands of miles on this platform, in a couple different vehicles, and having fought balance issues constantly, here's what I can tell you:

The steering system is very sensitive to imbalance, the slightest amount you will feel in the steering wheel.
Tires flat spot - you will always have some amount of vibration until you have 10+ miles at interstate speeds, even on perfectly balanced tires.
Most tire shops don't have cones to properly fit the Toyota 106.1mm wheel bore and do a poor job of balancing.
Aftermarket wheels without a 106.1 center bore need centering rings to get consistent centering on the hub.
Many balancers are out of spec
Most techs doing balances don't do a good job - I have found this to be the most important factor. I have a tech at my local discount tire that is the only one I let balance my tires. He does it perfect every time, even on big, heavy, torn up 305/70/17 MTRs.

Other than getting a very good balance, the only thing that has any hope of improvement is to replace the preload springs in the steering rack, outlined in a Lexus GX460 TSB, which requires removal of the steering rack.
Click to expand...

great info there
 
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