Infamous HWY Steering Shimmy

C

captaininsano

New member
2006 T4R Sport 4wd with 93k miles, <1 year old Bilstein 51's

:violin:I have read multiple times in multiple places that this infamous shimmy is usually something to do with alignment or wheels being out of balance... well I've tried fixing both of those and even tried balancing twice and to no avail the problem is still there.. although it is a little better. Additionally, as long as I hold the steering wheel straight the car drives straight as an arrow, but I let the wheel go and it naturally wants to sit about 10-15 degrees clockwise to the right, which will therefore cause it to go right at all speeds. shimmy happens at 65-75 ish as usual. I am debating getting some new tires but I feel I could go ahead and make the current ones last a little longer. (sorry in college and kinda broke)

additonal Notes: new front rotors and pads when bought <8 months ago

* sorry for the long post, but I felt all this was necessary so as not to make it a pita for someone trying to help....:violin:
 
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Did you inspect?

Did you get down there and inspect for loose steering linkage? Ball joints, control arm bushings, or whatever steering linkage and suspension parts the 2006 has?
 
Rad4R,
Thanks for the reply! and yea I just re checked everything for the second time. I jacked up each side independently and pretty much "went around the clock" with my hands to check for play in any of the joints as well as check the actual linkages that I could see. no play was noticed. I did some more research and found that the 3rd gen T4R's need to have a Haweka adapter used for the balancing to account for the "lug centric" geometry of the wheels... so I dont know if that carries over to the 4th gen... Ive also seen that some other places say that giving the wheels a little more then stock caster angle will help the vehicle track more... if only I had my own alignment rack......:caked:
 
tires.
its almost always the tires.
the alignment wont cause a shimmy.

Toyota wheels are notoriously hard to balance.
 
Tires?

nevada,

Again thanks for the reply... this is definitely the consensus that I have come to find.... additionally I dont think it helps that I have a set of really Sh**y goodyear tracker 2 tires on there from the previous owner( no real apparent uneven wear, just slight cupping).. I searched those as well and found numerous complaint/ defect complaints.... and to back up your claim I would find it really hard to believe that a T4R with this low of easy hardly 4wheeled miles would already have tie rod and ball joint issues... looks like I'll be making a big purchase in the near future... I'm thinking maybe some Falken Rocky mountains..... Any Thoughts??
 
I bought a 2011 T4R SR5 last month (24K miles on it). It's got the steering wheel shimmy at around 60 mph and on gravel light washboard roads. I changed the OEM Dunlops to Toyo Open Country and it still has the same shimmy. From all the complaints about it I'd say it's a manufactured defect in the steering by Toyota. Of course the dealer will not own up to it. The service departments hear this complaint constantly and just pass it off on the tires. If the dealer can't fix it then it just re-enforces it's a manufacture's design defect. Try rotating the tires front to rear and see if that changes it. I bet it doesn't, because it's in the Toyota steering. Good luck.
 
Defect!

Scout Dog,
Yea Ive heard that its a defect many times... I mean Id rather not have a shake... but if I get that instead of everything else being total shit like a lot of cars on the road then I will take it.. at least we know they will get us a to b.. Im now thinking Im actually gunna try out some michelin ltx at2's.. who knows fingers crossed
 
Not saying it might be tires but , I have Toy wheels & 2 are bent so bad can't get enough wt to balance them so good ones on front & these are off 010 4r , so make sure wheels are true ! probably going back to orig ones so I can rotate them .
 
bent rim

yea I could also see that, basically I've looked from the outside in...tires then rim, ball joints, rod ends, rack bushings etc... eventually I think Ill find it hahah...but I would imagine tires would at least help a bit.....we shall see, I'll post a reply when I get the new shoes
 
I watched the guy at discount & they just louped , meaning I could see them wobble bad . Good thing about they let me watch so I knew it was wheels 1
 
yea im gunna take them to discount, I've had somewhat acceptable experiences over the years... Im gunna ask them if I can watch as you did.. that way I can narrow that out of the loop....
 
I actually tried to get them to road -force balance & manager said nay waste of my $ then showed me the 2 bent ones very good business practice IMO !
 
damn well ill ask them to check for bent rims... I feel like that is very unlikely considering this 4runner I bought was very well taken care.. but you never know, does it cost extra to road force balance at discount? I thought that was their standard procedure for balancing....????
 
well if they find that the wheels arent bent then I will definitely be willing to pay that if it might fix the annoying shimmy. I hear it from a lot of people that the machine really is a nice useful piece of equipment.... Ill let yall know what happens. Thanks for the info...
 
!!!new tires!!!

Well... luckily my $1,216.53 investment earlier today paid off... new shoes for the T4R and no more pull and tire shimmy... thank god! I put on a 5 new Falken rocky mountain ATS 2's 10 plys. I think they look pretty nice, definitely ride better then the last set of shoes that were there.
 
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