08 urban runner - steering wheel shimmy

U

useport80

New member
hey guys,
i've read a few posts about this and right now im looking for advice on what i should do next.

background: i bought an 08 urban runner in july 2008 and since then i've always had a weird steering wheel shimmy at around 63-67mph.

i've taken it to the original dealer and they said maybe its the road i drive on. so fine, i take my car back and it seems to do it on every road at that speed. after the run around and 3-4 more trips to the dealer i kinda gave up.

granted i dont drive the car much, and rarely on highways at that speed it hasn't really bothered me that much.

then i started driving the car more and it got more irritating. so i took it to ANOTHER dealership. they took the time to look at it and they acknowledged the shimmy and after a few days they said it was due to irregularities in my tires and that i should goto a tire shop and get new tires under my warranty. at the time i only had like 3-4k miles on the car.

i took it to tires plus and they said my tires didnt have enough air and that i probably have some irregularities due to the car sitting at the dealership for too long. so they add air into my tires and i leave. still happens.

i decided to goto a firestone shop and they recognized the problem and decided to replace my front 2 tires. and the shimmy did lessen, but is definitely still there.

i end up going in for my 5k check up and they rotate my tires and my two new tires are now in the rear and my front 2 tires are the ones purchased with the car. shimmy is back.

so i get them to replace my 2 stock tires again. and now im at about 7-8k miles on my car. now i still have a lil shimmy but its around 65-68mph. not sure how that changed.

what do you think i should do? since i've already replaced all 4 tires, would it be an alignment issue? or maybe something with the steering column that is shaking the steering wheel?

again sorry for the long post. but i've been battling this shimmy for a long time.
 
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Which tires are on your 4R? Take them back to the tire shop and have them road force balanced and have them use stick on weights that go on the inside of the wheel instead of the hammer on ones. Make sure they center the weights inside the wheel.

When they remove the wheels clean the hub with steel wool and around the hole in the wheel where it contacts the hub. Once cleaned put a light coat of anti-seize on the hub where the hole in the wheel contacts it. Then torque the lug nuts evenly in a star pattern to 80-83 FT Lbs.

Make sure all 4 tires are at 32psi air pressure cold.
 
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i have the bridgestone duelers.. i know they suck, but i'd hate to buy new tires for a car with only 7-8k miles on it. i shouldn't have to do that with a fairly new car.

i dont remember the exact tire sizes, but they are the stock duelers that came with it.
 
After all of this if you still get a shimmy at speed have your dealer check the hub & brake rotor assembly for excess runout.
 
do u think i should go back to the tire place or back to the dealer?

firestone has been great, but i dont know if they have a roadforce tester. i know the dealer does.

i kinda feel like the dealer has more responsibility for some reason.
 
also another quick question.

for the weights that go on the inside of the tire, is that an option for ANY rim?

my urban runner has the 18" rims so im wondering if they can support the weights on the inside.

sorry for all the questions. im so not a car person.
 
useport80 said:
yeah im worried about the "for free" part. im sure they will push back and make me pay.
Click to expand...

its under warranty. not normal wear and tear. you have documented the issue from the start. squeaky wheel gets the grease.
 
I would go back to the tire place because they should have a machine that can road force balance your wheels. Hunter makes a good one. This actually applies the same force to the wheel that it gets while on the street while it is being balanced. The stick on weights will go on any wheel. Be sure to have them clean the hub and wheel back that contacts the hub. Also make sure they torque the lug nuts with a torque wrench and air them all to 32psi.

This regimen is about the best you can do for tires. If it fails take the documentation to the dealer and make them look further.

Normally I would go back to Toyota but you want the problem fixed and the tire people should have the equipment to do it. You might ask the tire shop to check the runout on the wheels as well.
 
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I had a warped wheel do this to me once. But your problem should have went away once you rotated them. I would make the dealer fix it, but a good tire shop should be able to check the wheel too. After all, it was a tire shop that found my bad wheel. Maybe you have two bad wheels which explains the change after rotating.
 
I agree with a lot of the advice you've been given.

I also have an 08 Urban that I bought in October 2008. When I test drove it, it had a vibration issue. Once we reached an agreement on the price, the dealer also agreed to swap out the crappy Duelers that were on there for the Cross Terrains. No more shimmy.

Maybe it's the wheel, maybe it's improper balancing, I don't know, but I'm a huge believer that inferior tires cause a lot of that problem.
 
useport80 said:
hey guys,
i've read a few posts about this and right now im looking for advice on what i should do next.

background: i bought an 08 urban runner in july 2008 and since then i've always had a weird steering wheel shimmy at around 63-67mph.

i've taken it to the original dealer and they said maybe its the road i drive on. so fine, i take my car back and it seems to do it on every road at that speed. after the run around and 3-4 more trips to the dealer i kinda gave up.

granted i dont drive the car much, and rarely on highways at that speed it hasn't really bothered me that much.

then i started driving the car more and it got more irritating. so i took it to ANOTHER dealership. they took the time to look at it and they acknowledged the shimmy and after a few days they said it was due to irregularities in my tires and that i should goto a tire shop and get new tires under my warranty. at the time i only had like 3-4k miles on the car.

i took it to tires plus and they said my tires didnt have enough air and that i probably have some irregularities due to the car sitting at the dealership for too long. so they add air into my tires and i leave. still happens.

i decided to goto a firestone shop and they recognized the problem and decided to replace my front 2 tires. and the shimmy did lessen, but is definitely still there.

i end up going in for my 5k check up and they rotate my tires and my two new tires are now in the rear and my front 2 tires are the ones purchased with the car. shimmy is back.

so i get them to replace my 2 stock tires again. and now im at about 7-8k miles on my car. now i still have a lil shimmy but its around 65-68mph. not sure how that changed.

what do you think i should do? since i've already replaced all 4 tires, would it be an alignment issue? or maybe something with the steering column that is shaking the steering wheel?

again sorry for the long post. but i've been battling this shimmy for a long time.
Click to expand...

This is the dealer's problem! Make them fix it! The truck is new and unless you did some type of damage to it you will not have to pay. Man up and go back to the dealer.
 
status update:

so i went back to the other toyota dealership(not the one i purchased the car at)

they dont have weights to put on the inside of the rim.

after 2 hours, they said they got it fixed. the tech wrote on the paper that its the best they will ever achieve. apparently, they shifted the tire around the rim so that they can compensate for each other better.

after driving it last night, there is a slight lean to the right(which has happened before when the first toyota shop attempted to fix it). at all speeds, the car seems to turn to the right on any road.

i called back and they said they didn't mess with the alignment, so i'll drive it over the weekend and see.

the services manager was pretty nice tho and said that they would do their best.

since the duelers suck, i asked what he would recommend and he said michelin tires are the best, is this true?

i'll take the car back in next week to see how it goes.
 
this post is a little old but i have to chime in here.
nobody has told urban runner to have the dealer balance the wheels with the haweka adapter.. which holds the wheel onto the hunter machine by the lug holes instead of the center hole...
not all the dealers have it.. this will clear the shaking completely , given you are running stock wheels. i had this same exact problem. it was all perfectly straight no shimmy even with my spidertraxx on.
but now i just got new wheels and have to start over. having some shimmy but cleared up most of it , i think i need better lugs than the ones that are on now.
p.s dont let the dealer or tire shop tell you that it dont make a difference or "weve never had a problem, make sure they use the adapter.
theyre sellin you lug centric wheels, your truck is lug centric , so why are they balancing them for hub centric? thats how i see it.

d
 
wow dandlt ty so much.

i took the car into a 'trusted' car shop and they had a roadforce machine and a haweka adapter. they rebalanced the tires and made some minor adjustments and now the car is perfect. omg ty so much. :)

yay !!
 
cool, i figured it was a balance issue. I recently replaced my dunflops and they shimmied at that same speed. When i got the new tires the shimmy went away.
 
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