Steering Wheel Pulse, The Struggle is Real

[CutthroatSlam]

We own a 2014 SR5 with 437,000 miles and a 2023 ORP with 70,000 miles. Throughout ownership we have off and on dealt with the dreaded steering wheel pulse. I do all the maintenance and repairs and feel that makes me qualified to opine on this issue.

Yes it is due to wheel balance or out of round tires. Yes road force balancing helps address it, but I will go further. You need to rotate the tires every 5K, else you will burn the uneven tire wear further into the tire. Rotating the tires front to back, even diagonally front to back, helps scrub the uneven wear off the tires when they are in the rear.

Friday, while my wife was off geocaching and camping in the 2014, I drove her 2023 across the valley to get a hike in. Noted steering wheel pulse at 60-62 mph. Tires are Cooper Rugged Trek AT LT (e-rated) with 10K miles on them. Checked the tread on the front and there was very slight feathered wear on the outside. So Saturday between football games, I rotated the tires diagonally front to back. Did a road test and the steering wheel pulse is completely gone.

I have had similar vibration at highway speed on my 1999 K2500 Suburban. There it was due to flat spotted tires which happened when wheels were locking up due to the ABS module being out of commission. The vibration was very annoying between 70 and 75 mph. Old timer suggested I shave the tires round again. So I rigged up a Makita planer on a cheap Chinesium milling table attached to a piece of plywood and I shaved the tires. Lo and behold, it worked. This further convinced me that it’s the tires.

 

[premise]

^Great sleuthing! I've seen shaving done at the factory, but not at home, so good on ya!

 

[CutthroatSlam]

^Great sleuthing! I've seen shaving done at the factory, but not at home, so good on ya!

Tire shops used to shave tires. Tried to find ones that still do from Montana to SoCal, but no. Tirerack will shave a new tire purchased from them to match the depth on the remaining tires on an AWD car. That’s it.

A sage old former truck fleet manager suggested shaving them myself. Sent me his video where he used an angle grinder mounted to the cheap mill table. Then he sent others where guys were using a planer. I had a Makita planer up at our Montana home. Ordered the $31 mill table plus extra sets of blades for the planer off Amazon. Fabbed up the set up and I was off and shaving.

I got it to where 95% to 98% of the vibration was gone. Friend said keep going. I stopped because I felt I was at the point of diminishing returns for all the material I would be removing. The vibration is so little now, pretty much only I notice. I think it will scrub out with normal wear and tire rotation.

 

[CutthroatSlam]

I posted this to help others know that it is the tires. I proved it by first using a brand new tire and moving the suspect tires around to isolate the vibration. That worked and the flat spotting was largely in the former rear tires that were locking up, as suspected. I could just buy new tires, but the existing had 60% to 70% tread wear left. Now it’s like 50%.

Anyway, the flat spotting on the tires was a more extreme example of what I’m certain is going on with poorly balanced tires. We probably don’t need to shave 4Runner tires as the wear issue is not as extreme. We can address with road force balancing and regular tire rotation, which I have also proven this weekend. As noted, I have dealt with this on and off the entire life of the 2014 and and dealing with it now on the 2023. Neva give up.