My 4runner feels like a rollercoaster! Help!
- Thread starter clemsonxplorer
- Start date
clemsonxplorer
New member
I had 18 " wheels with geolanders and the handling was much worse. I agree the dunlops are crap but they are better than what I had. If the caster is too low will it cause the steering to give a lot of feedback?
chaz
New member
clemsonexplorer, when i got my 06 sr5 , similar things bothered me also, steering was way to light, brakes to touchy, nose dive & cornering was terrible, unfortunately, solving this cost $. first off- i went to adjustable COs & shocks with BS 5100s, second- changed the wheels to give wider stance & tires to E load, (less side wall flex but heavier) this added more weight but made steering & braking much better for me, it does make the ride more truck like but thats what i was after. im very satisfied now, but IMO, theres just no real inexspensive way to solve ur problems without spending a fair amount of $. personally, id say use the FJ setup with the bilstein if u cant do the 5100s, if that doesnt help a bit, then get wheel spacers since u have the FJ wheels, & different tires. just my 2c.
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clemsonxplorer
New member
i had wheels spacers with my limited wheels and it didn't make a difference. The FJ wheels with no spacers are doing better (but this is due to different tires and not wheel offset) I'm going to call my alignment shop tomorrow and ask if they remember how close the caster was to 3.
clemsonxplorer
New member
unless somebody has any ideas that do not involve tires, alignment, or suspension I am trading this nightmare in.
I am in Tyler TX if anybody is close enough to look at it with me for troubleshooting purposes.
I am in Tyler TX if anybody is close enough to look at it with me for troubleshooting purposes.
CJ3Flyr
Super Moderator
How soon to Greenville? I'd love to lend a hand and be willing to meet you between Greenville and Atlanta
clemsonxplorer
New member
Dang I wish I had realized you were that close before I moved. I won't be back your way anytime soon. I'm going to look at runners, cruisers, and tacos. I'm starting to worry that my runner has been wrecked even though the car fax says otherwise.
clemsonxplorer
New member
no. I am back in the mode of trying to fix it now instead of trading it in. If you drove it around town you would think nothing was wrong with it other than soft suspension. But when it really sucks is at highway speeds. It wants to shoot one way or the other based on the changes in the road. I drove a 05 Limited and a 08 Sport today and they handle much better than mine.
Mine is still doing it pretty much since new 08 runner limited tried tires alignment and a different set of shocks and struts still same issue only have 19k on it all i can say is weird never had a truck ever act like this i had a 04 limited and wife has 03 sport 170k drives better just weird.
clemsonxplorer
New member
have you thought about trading it in or are you not giving up?
clemsonxplorer
New member
well mine is at Toyota today. They feel like its just the alignment. Thats great if it is but I would have saved a lot of money if my local shop did it right the first three times. Ill keep you posted.
clemsonxplorer
New member
it was out of alignment in both the camber and toe. They aligned it and it seems to be a lot better overall but ther is still a lot of bump steer. Would bilsteins help the bumpsteer? Anyway it seems ok on the highways here in texas, but the true test will be the interstate with all the 18 wheelers and more ruts from them and the crown in the road.
Here are what my alignment numbers were:
Camber L -0.2 R 0.3
Cross Camber -0.5
Caster L 2.8 Right 3.5
Cross Caster -0.7
Toe L -0.13 R 0.25
Total Toe 0.12
new alignment:
Camber L -0.2 R -0.2
Caster L 2.6 Right 2.7
Toe L 0.03 R 0.05
Total Toe 0.08
Steer Ahead -0.01
Here are what my alignment numbers were:
Camber L -0.2 R 0.3
Cross Camber -0.5
Caster L 2.8 Right 3.5
Cross Caster -0.7
Toe L -0.13 R 0.25
Total Toe 0.12
new alignment:
Camber L -0.2 R -0.2
Caster L 2.6 Right 2.7
Toe L 0.03 R 0.05
Total Toe 0.08
Steer Ahead -0.01
I'm in the middle of a 30 day cross country vacation with the family in the 4th Gen 4Runner I bought in July. I Just passed 5,000 miles today and still have a week to go.
I had the car aligned and replaced all four shocks with KYB GR2s before I left ( I had one leaking and the 4Runner was at 100K). There is no lift on the truck. I couldn't believe how bad it tracked on the interstates that weren't completely smooth; especially when you get above 70mph. Every Semi-truck groove and road imperfection would move the vehicle around. At first I thought It was because I haven't really driven for the past three years and was just not used to the roads and higher speeds. It never really got better. I didn't have the bouncing problem mentioned here. Finally i did a search on the forum and read a bunch of threads including this one. I found this thread. I followed the recommendation to lower the tire pressure to 32 psi. The 4Runner drives much much better now. To the point where I am not constantly thinking/anticipating the next surprise. I think the tires still track the road a bit but nothing too egregious. The only other thing I have noticed in all this driving is that the 4th Gen 4Runner really seems to be pushed around by wind more than my 3rd Gen was. Of course this could be because I am so sensitive to how it drives on the interstate whereas before I would have just noticed it was windy.
clemsonxplorer
New member
update:
I got tired of the really bouncy ride and major nose dive braking that the FJ shocks were giving me so I switched the rears back to the 90k mile 4runner shocks that appear to be leaking and they are really stiff. So now instead of being really bouncy front to back i am now getting rocked left to right due to the stiffness of the 4runner shocks.
So does it make sense that my 90k mile leaking 4runner shocks are really stiff? If they were leaking, wouldn't they be really bouncy? When I compared the Runner shocks to the Cruiser shocks the Cruiser ones compressed really easy and returned very fast. The runner shocks were really hard to compress and returned really slow.
I got tired of the really bouncy ride and major nose dive braking that the FJ shocks were giving me so I switched the rears back to the 90k mile 4runner shocks that appear to be leaking and they are really stiff. So now instead of being really bouncy front to back i am now getting rocked left to right due to the stiffness of the 4runner shocks.
So does it make sense that my 90k mile leaking 4runner shocks are really stiff? If they were leaking, wouldn't they be really bouncy? When I compared the Runner shocks to the Cruiser shocks the Cruiser ones compressed really easy and returned very fast. The runner shocks were really hard to compress and returned really slow.
