Please help, Vibration only while accelerating.

toddsemail1977

toddsemail1977

New member
I have a 97 4runner SR5 2wd. My favorite vehicle ever! I bought it with 80,000miles and now have 230,000 miles. Ive only done tune ups and oil changes up until last month when i put in a new radiator, time belt, water pump , pulleys, and all that. Drives great until Friday. I got off the free way on the way to work and it felt like i was driving over lines on the road when i got to about 20 MPH. After driving it home later that day i found that it vibrates like that any time i give it gas. no matter what speed over about 10 MPH. If I'm doing 70 it vibrates and feels like its kinda grogging down. If i let go of the gas peddle the vibration goes away and its smooth. As soon as i give it gas and i feel it accelerate everything vibrates. RPM is about 2000 so it good. And it shifts fine. And in park or nutral it runs great and smooth with gas. My tires are due to be rotated so my thought is to do that and balance first but riding smooth at 70mph while no gas tells me its not that. Stearing wheel vibrates but dosnt shacke, and i dont get a shake when i use the brakes. I feel the vibrate in the gas peddle, on the automatic gear shift and the mirror gets fuzzy from vibrateing. Maybe drive line balance or u joints?

A little extra info was the day before i heard a snap underneath or something not to heavy hitting underneath the truck. I drive an hour and a half to work on the freeway so once in a while i get some type if garbage underneath or a lug nut from another car. When i hear the noise i looked in my mirror and didn't see anything in the road. I then drove an hour to work, And hour and half back home and a hour and a half back to work before noticing this problem. Maybe just a coincidence? I have to drive back to work on Tuesday and I'm low on cash till Wed. But I'm very worried about driving it. Right now I'm going to pull the drive line and look at it for Blank spots ( weight broke off maybe) and loose u joints though i don't really know what to look for if there bad... Any help?
 
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vibration

i just had this exact same problem. i just bought a 96 sr5 4wd 4runner with 220000 miles on it for 1700 bucks. it would drive fine until i hit about 40 mph and above and it would begin shaking violently,but when i took my foot off of the gas it would ride perfectly smooth. thanks to this website i determined that it had to be the u joint and sure enough it was.. 200 bucks later i got a perfect 4runner for about 2gs.. CHECK THE BACK U JOINT!!!
 
U-joint is a good possibility. If all you've done in 140K miles are oil changes and tune-ups, I would highly recommend servicing your tranny and diff. How's the fluid levels in those? Hopefully it's a u-joint, but without service for that long, I suspect blown rear end.
 
i am having the same problem. my u joints were inspected by 2 people and they both said they were fine. my upstream O2 sensor was reading off so replaced it and it's better but still shakes. it happened out of no where and i want it fixed cuz i'm scared to go on the freeway. advance website tells me it can be the TPS but when i googled symptoms for a bad TPS, they don't match mine. i need help.
 
My 1998 2wd V6 is doing the same thing. I got te tires balanced and rotated yesterday (it was due anyways) and that did not change a thing. It is at the dealership right now and has been there since 7am. I called and they have a senior guy working on it, they can't quite figure it out. I told them to check the U-joints first. I will let ya'll know.
 
U joint

Yep mine was my U joints. I found you can test them all you want but you have to replace them to know for sure that that was it. mine tested fine but after replaceing them im good now.
 
So ive had the same problem too. I recently was working on the rear diferential so i was thinking that possibly i missed something and didnt put it back together correctly. I checked my Ujoints and they seemed to be pretty tight without any play. can they still be bad and be causing that problem?
 
I have a 2007 4 runner and when accelerating it starts to shake and vibrate, but once I hit the gas it smoothes out. I took it to toyota and they said I need a new transmission. I have never changed the transmission fluid in the truck since I've had it and I bought it brand new. 5500 hundred dollars. It that a normal price for a trans?
 
gdavis45 said:
I have a 2007 4 runner and when accelerating it starts to shake and vibrate, but once I hit the gas it smoothes out. I took it to toyota and they said I need a new transmission. I have never changed the transmission fluid in the truck since I've had it and I bought it brand new. 5500 hundred dollars. It that a normal price for a trans?
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Confused a little...accelerating or hit the gas? What is the difference? I think I would start with what everyone else did to solve their similar problem (u-joints) before I replaced the transmission. Cost has too many variables not listed to say it's high or low.
 
Thanks

I just wanted to bump this post to say thanks to this forum for helping me with my shaking issues. I typed "shaky" in the search bar and found this thread to see that the OP's description of his problem was exactly what I was dealing with. Couldn't have been more spot-on. And now I have changed my U-Joints and the problem is solved. Thanks guys!
 
toddsemail1977 said:
Yep mine was my U joints. I found you can test them all you want but you have to replace them to know for sure that that was it. mine tested fine but after replaceing them im good now.
Click to expand...

Now that you have new u-joints, make sure you grease the zerk fittings on a regular basis to keep them in good shape. I believe many of these failures are due to people not knowing they need to grease them or they get their truck serviced at a shop that doesn't bother greasing them.

I give my u-joints, double cardan joint and the slip yokes a little grease every oil change. Proper maintenance goes a long way to making things last.
 
mtbtim said:
Now that you have new u-joints, make sure you grease the zerk fittings on a regular basis to keep them in good shape. I believe many of these failures are due to people not knowing they need to grease them or they get their truck serviced at a shop that doesn't bother greasing them.

I give my u-joints, double cardan joint and the slip yokes a little grease every oil change. Proper maintenance goes a long way to making things last.
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Yeah, for sure, but the problem I had is that the 2wd 4runners don't come with greasable u-joints (no zerks) for some weird reason. I replaced mine with Moogs that come with zerks.
 
1998 Limited
The shaking was unbearable over 70, it has now declined all the way to the point I can not go over 55mph.
I replaced:
Upper and lower ball joints in front
CV joints
New tires that are balanced and aligned problerly.
New brakes and rotars

I have an acquaintance that is stating it is the transfer case. I do not think this is the issue as the vehicle has been in 4WD less than a handful of times.

Can someone please help? If I take this vehicle to the shop I will get a quote of no less than $3k and I will be forced to sell.
This is my son and my "mud toy" and back up vehicle.
So my second queation is, if vehicle only shakes at high speeds can I still drive in lower speeds (before the shaking starts)?
 
TheAsMom said:
1998 Limited
The shaking was unbearable over 70, it has now declined all the way to the point I can not go over 55mph.
I replaced:
Upper and lower ball joints in front
CV joints
New tires that are balanced and aligned problerly.
New brakes and rotars

I have an acquaintance that is stating it is the transfer case. I do not think this is the issue as the vehicle has been in 4WD less than a handful of times.

Can someone please help? If I take this vehicle to the shop I will get a quote of no less than $3k and I will be forced to sell.
This is my son and my "mud toy" and back up vehicle.
So my second queation is, if vehicle only shakes at high speeds can I still drive in lower speeds (before the shaking starts)?
Click to expand...

Is it shaking just when you're giving it gas or does it do it while you're coasting as well? Like others that posted on this thread, did you inspect the u-joints?
 
TheAsMom said:
1998 Limited
The shaking was unbearable over 70, it has now declined all the way to the point I can not go over 55mph.
I replaced:
Upper and lower ball joints in front
CV joints
New tires that are balanced and aligned problerly.
New brakes and rotars
Click to expand...

Sounds like the U-joints or some other drive shaft related issue. Mine had bad U-joints and was out of balance which caused horrific vibrations. It was a cheap fix at a local drive-line shop.
 
I get shaking around 45 mph, and 70 mph on highway feels like front end, but tires are 5k miles on them and been balanved. Been doing it for awhile. 33 x 12.5 15 w spacers. Planning on downsizing soon.


Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
I just wanted to thank the earlier posters in this thread, I've inherited a 3rd gen and it was vibrating on acceleration. I replaced the u-joints, since that was the cheapest first step, and now she drives real smooth!!
 
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