Steering wheel vibration Poll

[Finnslr]

Vibrations

I have a new 12/limited. All Stock. Had the wheels rotated @ 5000 ans felt small vibe in the wheel when I hit 60-70. It seemed to be during acceleration. I have driven over smooth, rough and dirt. It seems to come and go on the smoothest roads, and it's not there on the others. I have had Jeep Wrnglers and know what happens when you let a little vibration go. It doesn't get better on its own. I went to another shop that balanced my Jeep. (31.50x15) and it is better but I can still feel it. I'll see what happens @10,000. It is irritating and makes wonder if I made a $45,000 mistake!

 

[cbielat]

Had slight steering vibration but once the lift and tires went on, the rest is history.

 

[harper7]

I have a new 12/limited. All Stock. Had the wheels rotated @ 5000 ans felt small vibe in the wheel when I hit 60-70. It seemed to be during acceleration. I have driven over smooth, rough and dirt. It seems to come and go on the smoothest roads, and it's not there on the others. I have had Jeep Wrnglers and know what happens when you let a little vibration go. It doesn't get better on its own. I went to another shop that balanced my Jeep. (31.50x15) and it is better but I can still feel it. I'll see what happens @10,000. It is irritating and makes wonder if I made a $45,000 mistake!

You didn't have the vibe for the first 5000k miles and then you rotated the wheels and feel it now. I would venture to say there's a problem with one or both of the wheels you have on the front now since they are connected to your steering wheel that your feeling the vibes on.

I would have them swap one side at a time back and you'll narrow the bad wheel or tire down if it's not both of them.

 

[AnthonyMV]

Hey Harper . Brother......

Well,I don't know when I noticed the shimmy. I'm at 7300 miles now. Maybe at like 6k. But just this past Thursday I put on kumho kl61's (had the dunflops). Great looking tire. But the techs there did a "regular" balance and the shimmy was worse. So I went to the stealership they did another balance. Drove home and shimmy came back (58,60 mph). Savages! Im 40 yrs old. I'm not supposed to lose my temper. But I effing snapped. They said "we'll reimburse you for the balance" ($75-supposedly road force -bullsit!!!) man! Even toyotas going the way of American car companies of the 80's...... They wash their hands of the issue and I'm on my own. A-holes!
So today I go for a real,see it with my eyes road force hunter 9700 machine and the tattooed sleeves guy with the goatee gentleman- I think did a great job. I left went on errand on the expressway and it was here and there,the shimmy.
In way home non existent. But felt it like once or twice at 60.
Don't know if it was you. But I think there was a complaint to the NTSB link that either you or someone else posted and can't find anymore.....damned search!!!
And am also looking for that LEXUS TSB I think you mentioned.....seems like you're the spear head for this.......I guess when I get your response(s) I'm going to compile the rest (I'm guessing pages on this forum of the same issue) call Toyota HQ complaint line. S'gotta do something like at least get a TSB out of it.....think LEXUS owners complained enough of their flutter....no?
Thx again harp......your help will get me going brother

Anthony

You didn't have the vibe for the first 5000k miles and then you rotated the wheels and feel it now. I would venture to say there's a problem with one or both of the wheels you have on the front now since they are connected to your steering wheel that your feeling the vibes on.

I would have them swap one side at a time back and you'll narrow the bad wheel or tire down if it's not both of them.

 

[bigbillyt]

My Experience - For What's It's Worth

I purchased my 2012 TE about two months ago and noticed a vibration right away around 50-65mph. It is a very subtle vibration that is difficult to tell where it is coming from. I had to return to the dealer a week or so later to get my step rails installed that they owed me from my original purchase. I took the opportunity to ask the service tech about the vibration. They said they checked the tire balance and the alignment and could not find any issues. So they had a tech ride with me to see if we could reproduce the problem. Unfortunately, we were not able to get the problem to occur. The tech suggested it was maybe flat spots on the tires etc. and maybe it had worked its way out. That seemed reasonable at the time as I had experienced this before. Now, six weeks or so later, I have almost a thousand miles on the vehicle and I still have to problem intermittently. It seems to get worse as I drive a few miles, like some highway miles.

I am still contemplating my first mods and I am planning on getting a Toytec lift kit and some new tires installed in the near future. So, I am torn between messing with the dealership again to try and straighten it out vs. just waiting to see how it feels with the lift and tires. This also makes me wonder if I should just do the lift first and not change the tires just to avoid adding any confusion if the problem persists. Unfortunately, the shop doing the work for me is a bit of a long drive so that adds some difficulty as well.

The OEM tires are Bridgestone Dueler H/T 265/70/17 and the tires I am contemplating are the Toyo Open Country AT2 285/70/17. One good thing is the Toyo tires are reported to be pretty nice to get balanced so maybe that will help.

 

[Jtraskell]

Just for Shirts and giggles, try adding a few lbs of air in those crappy OEM tires and see what happens...... if your at 35, got to 38 or so. It might help.
Be Safe.

 

[WindomEarles]

Who do we contact to complain?

 

[Jtraskell]

From a post by 5thGenJenn: (Different Issue but.....)

Call Toyota (800-331-4331) and tell them you want to file an official complaint, they will give you a reference number and a case manager will call you back. Make sure to get names and numbers and time of day and keep records of anytime you talk to anyone, and how many times, how long and what dealers you have taken your truck to.

 

[Awynt]

Been a couple months as well as a set of new tires, all balanced correctly, and shimmy is still gone.

 

[AnthonyMV]

thanks

i was thinking that this morning. i have 35 psi in em right now.
i will be airing them completely out some time this week at work. We have Nitrogen here at work and was going to add nitrogen in the tires. I'll go to 38 psi when air up with the nitro this week. thx for the reminder man.

Just for Shirts and giggles, try adding a few lbs of air in those crappy OEM tires and see what happens...... if your at 35, got to 38 or so. It might help.
Be Safe.

 

[Jtraskell]

If you have to pay for the nitro, I would experiment with Air First, then if it works, go with whatever LBS you find good with the nitro. If it's free, please disregard.....be safe.

 

[AnthonyMV]

thanks for the response.....HELP!!!!!

If you have to pay for the nitro, I would experiment with Air First, then if it works, go with whatever LBS you find good with the nitro. If it's free, please disregard.....be safe.

well, the shimmy is back......witht the kumho kl61's
are these tires as bad as the dunflops??? soft, then in the morning flat spots, and gives shimmy at 60 mph???
cant be the tires again. i had the kumhos balanced 3 times. the last time with a hunter 9700 road force balance.....shimmy came back.....burned my bridge with the last moronic dealership so........guess have to go to another dealership?????:wtf:

 

[Jtraskell]

I know nothing about the tires you have. But I can tell you this. Even with the very good tires I am running, first had them installed, had a shimmy.....but after two road force balancing, very bright Discount Tire MGR came out and looked at them as they were spinning "slowly", discovered two tires where the tread was "crooked" . There is a word for that I have since forgot but it causes a perfectly balanced tire/wheel to shimmy, wobble whatever, it was not a good thing. He replaced those two tires, no problems since.

You could also have a separated ply, slightly bent wheel, ply bulge (although if the later was the case, you should see that) might even be an out of balance drive shaft. (Had that happen to me on a old Triumph Spitfire. Could be many things above and beyond balancing.

 

[stevec5000]

Have you had Steering wheel vibration/shimmy/wobble problems in your 201X 4runner? I am running a stock Trail model.
I've had no success getting rid of mine. Dealer tried tire balances with GSP9700, new Bridgestone tires, and new Michilin tires

Maybe not applicable to the 5th gen model but my 2004 had some vibration on rough pavement and a good front end alignment fixed it. Toe in and caster was a bit off, which they fixed and gave me a nice print out of the results. They just opened a new Brakes Plus store down the street and they already have the lowest prices for alignment at $58 but with a discount coupon it was just $45. Might be worth a try.

 

[RubiconSS]

I have owned Toyotas since the early 80's (Trucks, T4R's, Fj's and more) The Toyota IFS is notorious for being "sensitive" drove myself nuts. Aftermarket wheels, Bigger tires and lifts were a formula for mental disaster.
I test drove about Five(5) T4r's (Sr5,TE and LE) before I bought my LE and every single one had a vibe some worse than others.
This one is not dead smooth but I have come to expect some vibe, I suppose it varies from rig to rig BUT also from driver to driver as to what constitutes a vibration. Some probably consider it "feedback from the road".
IMO Michelins are the best tire when it comes to quality control and roundnes/balancing/etc. OEM wheels and the Hunter Roadforce all help as well. The fact that some are noting the vibe is intermittent is troubling, that certainly makes the "Fix" more difficult. Factors like road surface and temperature variance come into play all else being static (tire, wheel, etc)
Generally vibe felt in the wheel is the front and felt in the seat is the back.
Take it by thye numbers and isolate factors starting with measuring the runout on the wheel and then the tire then move to the balance.
Finally swapping the wheels and then the tires - but is all laborious, time consuming and frustrating for sure.
Finally, I have experienced luck in the past by "tweaking the tire pressure".
Deliberately making the PSI out of balance FL- 32/ RL-34/FR-33/RR-32 the pattern doesn't matter, the fact that there is variance has worked.
Air is free - Give that a try.

 

[AnthonyMV]

Thx rubicon

I have owned Toyotas since the early 80's (Trucks, T4R's, Fj's and more) The Toyota IFS is notorious for being "sensitive" drove myself nuts. Aftermarket wheels, Bigger tires and lifts were a formula for mental disaster.
I test drove about Five(5) T4r's (Sr5,TE and LE) before I bought my LE and every single one had a vibe some worse than others.
This one is not dead smooth but I have come to expect some vibe, I suppose it varies from rig to rig BUT also from driver to driver as to what constitutes a vibration. Some probably consider it "feedback from the road".
IMO Michelins are the best tire when it comes to quality control and roundnes/balancing/etc. OEM wheels and the Hunter Roadforce all help as well. The fact that some are noting the vibe is intermittent is troubling, that certainly makes the "Fix" more difficult. Factors like road surface and temperature variance come into play all else being static (tire, wheel, etc)
Generally vibe felt in the wheel is the front and felt in the seat is the back.
Take it by thye numbers and isolate factors starting with measuring the runout on the wheel and then the tire then move to the balance.
Finally swapping the wheels and then the tires - but is all laborious, time consuming and frustrating for sure.
Finally, I have experienced luck in the past by "tweaking the tire pressure".
Deliberately making the PSI out of balance FL- 32/ RL-34/FR-33/RR-32 the pattern doesn't matter, the fact that there is variance has worked.
Air is free - Give that a try.

That's about the best answer yet. 1engineer mentioned the air pressure thing too.....it's sooooo frustrating man. I chucked the dunflops. Go to Mavis tire buy the kumhos, mount and (regular)balance the kumhos....shimmy comes back. I snap at Mavis they give me refund for balance. I go to smithtown Toyota where I purchased the truck-they supposedly "road force balance" them. I snap again. They're not happy with me. Eff them hard. I go to a Gemini tire place. They have the hunter 9700 road force balancer...yay,they use it for my tires!!!! I don't drive my truck for 5 days. Then a week later shimmy comes back......maybe they didn't use the "haweka" tool? Dunno.
Guess I can mess around with the tire pressures.....I think I put 37 all the way around. Maybe I'll put 38,39......Christ! I had the same issue with my e39 BMW. I change control arms,struts....u name it. But the answer ended up being the tire pressures - weird.....I don't want to purchase another set of tires (michelins) don't even know or think Mavis would do an exchange/return. And I don't want any white lettering on my tires.......annoying this is. Guess this is the succession of what I will do. Chime in if u think different......
1-change tire pressure...anywhere from door sticker to 40psi ?
2-go back to the shop to re-force balance the tires.....if still problem go back to dealer? OR Mavis to exchange tires?
3-go to a Toyota dealer tell them the facts with all the balance receipts and give up and tell them to fix their WHEEL or SUSPENSION (ala Lexus TSB spring load crap fix)

Whaddya think?
Help?!?!!:sadwave:

 

[deekoi]

I had this problem but it seems to have gone away after lift and realignment.

But mine wasn't that bad to begin with.

 

[AnthonyMV]

well the shimmy reared its ugly head again.....

this morning on the way to work.....
as soon as i got up to speed 55-65 the shimmy said hello......
about 20 miles in it said good bye,kinda
i checked my air pressure an hour after i got to work and pressure was 31-32 psi all around..........hmmmmm. well i did have the tires re-road forced balanced for the last time (this was the 4th balance (2 of which were road force) ) And im quite upset........sigh.......WTF!!!
i aired up to 38 psi at work just now. truck sat for a lil over an hour before i put air in. lets see what happens. This is soo frustrating. Are Kumho KL 61's that bad????
im pretty sure when i leave work this afternoon all will be ok. and then tommorow AM......dunno.....maybe the higher psi will help?????
i sure wish a TSB would come out.......Lexus has one.....i called toyota to complain about the shimmy.......took complaint and i think that was it....
dunno what to do next.......

 

[AnthonyMV]

bumpty bump

bump for response
anybody

 

[1engineer]

this morning on the way to work.....
as soon as i got up to speed 55-65 the shimmy said hello......
about 20 miles in it said good bye,kinda
i checked my air pressure an hour after i got to work and pressure was 31-32 psi all around..........hmmmmm. well i did have the tires re-road forced balanced for the last time (this was the 4th balance (2 of which were road force) ) And im quite upset........sigh.......WTF!!!
i aired up to 38 psi at work just now. truck sat for a lil over an hour before i put air in. lets see what happens. This is soo frustrating. Are Kumho KL 61's that bad????
im pretty sure when i leave work this afternoon all will be ok. and then tommorow AM......dunno.....maybe the higher psi will help?????
i sure wish a TSB would come out.......Lexus has one.....i called toyota to complain about the shimmy.......took complaint and i think that was it....
dunno what to do next.......

Do you always drive the same roads?

When you do the air pressure adjustments do them in 2-3 psi increments and test drive on a section of highway you normally do not drive.