Another Front end vibration

[theBEAR]

******SOLVED****** see last post

2001 SR5 4WD

Truck drives normal on pavement for about 15 minutes and then a fairly harsh front end vibration begins and remains. It is present at 15mph and grows worse as speed increases. BUT it almost disappears on my gravel road to my house (35-45mph). Most threads I have read start blaming the tires and others recommend checking driveshaft u joints. If it were the tires than I would imagine it would
show up immediately instead of being delayed. I checked the u joints for play and they seem solid.

Recent Modifications/Maintenance
Bilstein 3 inch lift (2 years ago)
Diff drop (2 years ago)
Total Chaos UCAs (2 years ago)
LBJs (2 years ago)
Tie Rod Ends (2 years ago)
K02s (18 months ago)

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[ridefast]

Take a look at your steering rack bushings.

I got mine from HERE

 

[theBEAR]

Take a look at your steering rack bushings.

I got mine from HERE

Thank you, brother! They have not been replaced since I purchased the truck! Will post progress once installed.

 

[1985taylor1925]

Thank you, brother! They have not been replaced since I purchased the truck! Will post progress once installed.

Did the vibration start after the lift?

 

[theBEAR]

Did the vibration start after the lift?

No. Lift installation caused zero issues.

 

[theBEAR]

The vibration turned out to be a locked Front Driver caliper. I noticed this when trying to push my truck into the garage - it wouldn't budge.

Lesson learned: DONT BUY CRAPPY PARTS FOR YOUR ORV/ADVENTURE RIG!!!!!!! I performed the Tundra brake upgrade last October and tried to save some $$$ by buying remanned calipers from Advanced Auto Parts. Well, I saved zero money because in less than a year the caliper seized on me. So I basically wasted $200 and a ton of labor hours. Oh, and I replaced both calipers this time around because brake bleeding is a pain in the neck on the 3rd gen 4Runners.

Case closed. Please learn from my mistakes fellas

 

[Rock_Rat]

It's always appreciated when someone actually closes a troubleshooting thread. Thanks

PS: Glad it was as simple as the front calipers.

 

[infamousRNR]

going on almost 3 years of my TBU i def want to look into this...

my truck brakes just fine... but the vibrations are killing me... thought it was tires so i bought new ones... still vibrates just as bad.


i didn't buy remanned ones, i REBUILT OEM sequoia calipers...

it sounds like i will have to take the calipers off the truck and see whats going on.

my wheels spin freely without binding or getting stuck so I'm a little perplexed...

it could be warper rotors. that was my other guess....I have EBC rotors and will invest in OEM rotors next time around. or maybe getting them turned but at that point i'd rather have the piece of mind of having OEM rotors in there.

 

[octanejunkie]

The vibration turned out to be a locked Front Driver caliper. I noticed this when trying to push my truck into the garage - it wouldn't budge.

Case closed. Please learn from my mistakes fellas

Good for you! I rotate my tires monthly and spin the front hubs and rotors by hand when doing so to make sure there is no binding, etc. Never tried pushing the truck to test for that

going on almost 3 years of my TBU i def want to look into this...

my truck brakes just fine... but the vibrations are killing me... thought it was tires so i bought new ones... still vibrates just as bad.


i didn't buy remanned ones, i REBUILT OEM sequoia calipers...

it sounds like i will have to take the calipers off the truck and see whats going on.

my wheels spin freely without binding or getting stuck so I'm a little perplexed...

it could be warper rotors. that was my other guess....I have EBC rotors and will invest in OEM rotors next time around. or maybe getting them turned but at that point i'd rather have the piece of mind of having OEM rotors in there.

Today there's really no such thing as warped rotors; runout maybe, but not warped. You can test for runout with a dial caliper on a magnetic base. Remove brake pads and clamp the dial caliper's magnetic base to the brake caliper and read the rotor as you rotate it by hand, any variation more than 0.01" will be felt while braking. The causes of runout are few:

• bad wheel bearing
• uneven hub surface (affects rotor mounting)
• improper wheel install (wheel not flush to rotor or improper clamping procedure)

My intermittent front end vibration problem was solved by replacing all the bushings up front. I also had my wheels re-balanced for grins and giggles; but new bushings were like the breath of life for my truck. I felt the improvement in the first half mile of driving after swapping bushings.