WindomEarles
New member
I think my next step is to try a tire store to balance the tires. It's $15 a tire to balance. Seems like the next logical step before arbitration/contacting gm. Thoughts? I'm not confident that they can balance a tire.
Steering wheel vibration Poll
- Thread starter WindomEarles
- Start date
I think my next step is to try a tire store to balance the tires. It's $15 a tire to balance. Seems like the next logical step before arbitration/contacting gm. Thoughts? I'm not confident that they can balance a tire.
Jeremy556
New member
The day I bought my Tacoma the steering wheel shook. After 3 tries at the dealership I brought it to an independent shop with the hunter machine I linked to before. I had to call around to find a shop that knew what a hawke adapter was.
They informed me that 2 of my wheels were out of round, but with indexing and always keeping those 2 wheels on the rear axle, my steering wheel shake was gone for 100k miles.
I got my 4runner in February and immediately put on new wheels and tires. Discount Tire tried 3 times and was not able to balance them, so I started calling around until I found someone knowledgeable, and they were able to fix it in one trip.
They informed me that 2 of my wheels were out of round, but with indexing and always keeping those 2 wheels on the rear axle, my steering wheel shake was gone for 100k miles.
I got my 4runner in February and immediately put on new wheels and tires. Discount Tire tried 3 times and was not able to balance them, so I started calling around until I found someone knowledgeable, and they were able to fix it in one trip.
WindomEarles
New member
Who did you go with? I was actually going to take mine to discount tire.
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Jeremy556
New member
The Taco was some place back in Tampa when I lived there. Some small shop I forget the name. The 4Runner I took to Massey Automotive in Marietta, GA.
The key to getting it done right, was to "interview" the tech a bit, and to explain that many had tried and failed, and that you need "the guy." Both times cost me around $100, but was well, well, worth it.
The key to getting it done right, was to "interview" the tech a bit, and to explain that many had tried and failed, and that you need "the guy." Both times cost me around $100, but was well, well, worth it.
harper7
Senior Member
I had my KM2's put on yesterday at Discount Tire and actually paid attention and asked questions while they were balancing them. Even though my Konigs are lug centric they used a hub centric cone adapter to balance them that he said is designed and made specifically for Discount Tire. They said they came up with it for Toyota trucks because of how hard specifically that Tundra's and Sequoia's are to balance and that they are the hardest to balance for him.
Anyways ,my KM2's balanced fine and are the smoothest set of tires I've had yet on my 4Runner.I think I got lucky and might have got one of the best sets of KM2's on the planet. One of them took zero weights and another one of them only took 3 oz. with the worst one only taking like 8oz.. One of my last Goodyear tires took a double stack in 2 places and all but one took alot of weight.A couple of my old set of KM2's took alot of weight too.
Just a thought....Reading the Lexus TSB and them talking about wheel flutter and heavier duty steering control valve preload springs to reduce the flutter makes me wonder if too low of caster setting might exaggerate the problem and a possible fix would be to realign with max caster. Surely Toyota would have thought of this and tried more caster ....right?
On my truck at least and several others on here ,more positive caster stabilized the steering so it doesn't have the light steering ,wandering feeling that it came with.I can let off the steering wheel and it will drive straight ahead for as long as the road allows it and no more battling the constant steering corrections of when I first had it. For me,it was like night and day and the reason why the second or third time I had it aligned I had the pos. caster increased to max and 5.6+ degrees I running now.
Anyways ,my KM2's balanced fine and are the smoothest set of tires I've had yet on my 4Runner.I think I got lucky and might have got one of the best sets of KM2's on the planet. One of them took zero weights and another one of them only took 3 oz. with the worst one only taking like 8oz.. One of my last Goodyear tires took a double stack in 2 places and all but one took alot of weight.A couple of my old set of KM2's took alot of weight too.
Just a thought....Reading the Lexus TSB and them talking about wheel flutter and heavier duty steering control valve preload springs to reduce the flutter makes me wonder if too low of caster setting might exaggerate the problem and a possible fix would be to realign with max caster. Surely Toyota would have thought of this and tried more caster ....right?
On my truck at least and several others on here ,more positive caster stabilized the steering so it doesn't have the light steering ,wandering feeling that it came with.I can let off the steering wheel and it will drive straight ahead for as long as the road allows it and no more battling the constant steering corrections of when I first had it. For me,it was like night and day and the reason why the second or third time I had it aligned I had the pos. caster increased to max and 5.6+ degrees I running now.
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WindomEarles
New member
I called the gm and told him I'm going to a tire shop before starting arbitration he said they will compensate if they fix it.
Oddly enough, I just drove my 4Runner from SW WV to Dayton to Columbus back to SW WV between yesterday and today. I did notice a little (and by little, it was just enough to notice... I simply let go of my death grip on the wheel for that section of road) vibration on a section from Dayton to Columbus.... and only there. It is entirely possible that certain road types match up with the resonance frequencies of the 4Runner and exasperate an out of round/out of balance condition.
Have you tried finding a seriously smooth patch of road and seeing if the vibration is present? If the vibration is present on a really smooth, nice road, I think you'd have more ammunition that there is a problem. (Good luck finding that in Ohio! :cheers: )
As far as the field technical guys, you must keep in mind that most of them are going to drive the vehicles and do what they can practically do at that time. They could waste everyone's time and money throwing parts at the problem and not understand and, likely, not correct the issue or create some other problem. Most of their work is in data collection. In my past life as a quality engineer, sometimes I'd go to our customer and I'd be able to quickly diagnose an issue and get the repair done. That was pretty rare. Sometimes I'd have to ask if we could do a larger repair and take all the parts back to me so I could do a deep dive on the issue (in your case, that could be a steering rack, bushings, suspension bits, wheels, tires, etc). Other times we'd compile and review the documents that the field techs made and send back requests for every single part replaced for a certain problem and then we'd have 5 or 10 failed parts that we could review side by side comparing build dates, part measurements, witness marks, etc. From what has been posted, the field tech probably drove your car, drove the car off the lot, noted the vibration on both along with tire types, road surface and materials, speeds, etc, and made a complaint document to go back to Japan for the actual design engineers to review. Fully understanding and correcting issues is a very difficult and involved process.
Trust me, we aren't happy when a customer isn't happy with their vehicle. I HATE when a Toyota lets someone down because I have a lot of pride in my company and we want to give you the best product we can. We know that happy customers are repeat customers and we'll do what we can to make the customers happy, but sometimes it takes time to really understand the real root cause behind an issue. Document everything, check out some different road surfaces, and be patient. If you have the documentation in place and Toyota figures out a fix for your condition, corporate is usually very good about making sure it doesn't cost you. Note I said corporate and not the dealer.
Have you tried finding a seriously smooth patch of road and seeing if the vibration is present? If the vibration is present on a really smooth, nice road, I think you'd have more ammunition that there is a problem. (Good luck finding that in Ohio! :cheers: )
As far as the field technical guys, you must keep in mind that most of them are going to drive the vehicles and do what they can practically do at that time. They could waste everyone's time and money throwing parts at the problem and not understand and, likely, not correct the issue or create some other problem. Most of their work is in data collection. In my past life as a quality engineer, sometimes I'd go to our customer and I'd be able to quickly diagnose an issue and get the repair done. That was pretty rare. Sometimes I'd have to ask if we could do a larger repair and take all the parts back to me so I could do a deep dive on the issue (in your case, that could be a steering rack, bushings, suspension bits, wheels, tires, etc). Other times we'd compile and review the documents that the field techs made and send back requests for every single part replaced for a certain problem and then we'd have 5 or 10 failed parts that we could review side by side comparing build dates, part measurements, witness marks, etc. From what has been posted, the field tech probably drove your car, drove the car off the lot, noted the vibration on both along with tire types, road surface and materials, speeds, etc, and made a complaint document to go back to Japan for the actual design engineers to review. Fully understanding and correcting issues is a very difficult and involved process.
Trust me, we aren't happy when a customer isn't happy with their vehicle. I HATE when a Toyota lets someone down because I have a lot of pride in my company and we want to give you the best product we can. We know that happy customers are repeat customers and we'll do what we can to make the customers happy, but sometimes it takes time to really understand the real root cause behind an issue. Document everything, check out some different road surfaces, and be patient. If you have the documentation in place and Toyota figures out a fix for your condition, corporate is usually very good about making sure it doesn't cost you. Note I said corporate and not the dealer.
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rocket67
New member
After 2 sets of duratracs and now bfg a/t and 6 times balancing mine still has the wobble. My passenger seat vibrates a lot @ 100KM/H speed and it's really pissing me off. I hate spidertraxs but it was doing it previous to the install of those. Wondering when I put my new wheels on soon will it fix this because its pissing me off.
WindomEarles
New member
:driving: <-- steering wheel without touching it
WindomEarles
New member
wow 40%? I bet some of you people are getting the shake but just don't notice it. Or you're in denial! :frog:
74huggerorange
New member
I had the steering wheel shake at like 45-60 after I put on 265/70/17 load range e duratracs on kmc bully wheels. They rebalanced the 1 tire that was having issues and it made it better. I aired them up to 45 psi and it got even better and intermittent. On the next tire rotation the shake went away so I know it was a tire/wheel issue. On the following rotation it came back, I got a screw in 1 of the tires soon after, it was patched and rebalanced and no vibration since (several thousand miles later) :guitar3:
I am now at about 20000 miles and I did the wheels, tires, and front bilsteins and alignment at about 2000 miles.
I am now at about 20000 miles and I did the wheels, tires, and front bilsteins and alignment at about 2000 miles.
probos
New member
When it was happening for me my truck was completely stock.
I've had these new tires on for almost a month now -- so far so good.
icsa
New member
Thanks for posting this. I'm not a mechanic, however, I have a couple of observations from reading the GX TSB.
1. It looks like a non-trivial surgery to get to the control valve spring. You need a mechanic that you really trust to ensure nothing gets broken in the process, and all the pieces are installed back as they were before.
2. The fix itself appears let's say interesting to me. You try with multiple springs (4 of them) until you find one that gives a specified preload torque. Is this a common practice to fix a steering wheel shake? Is Toyota going to do this trial & error at the factory for each new GX from now on? It looks that a non-deterministic margin of error shows up during manufacturing.
3. Estimated at 4.2 hours of work, will Toyota issue a similar TSB for the 4Runner, to be covered under warranty? It is an expensive TSB. It will be interesting to see what answers people get when they show this TSB to a Toyota dealer.
The steering wheel shake is real, I've seen it in multiple brand new 4Runners, during test drives.
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Air pressure
Dont know how accurate this will be or last. Aired up my dunflops to 35psi from 32.5.....which is what they were set at.....
Someone here mentioned about checking your tire pressures and making sure they're set to 35psi.
Drove home from work today (27 miles) and no shimmy. 55mph,to 57,60,63,65,70 back down the same way. Then put on cruise control and waited.....for the shimmy but none.
Trucks in front now. Tommorow morning I'll check again on the highway....knock wood all will be well.....
Also getting kumho road venture sat kl61's tommorow in stock size....about $200 per tire,balanced and installed.....pre-tax.....figure around $875...
Guy said he had 4 at the Mavis warehouse in CT. So, I guess if I want to do the spare (steelie under truck floor) can buy at tirerack.com and install it at fleet services at work.....
Only thing MAVIS tire doesn't have hunter9700 road force machine which im praying I don't need.....this whole shimmy things got me a little scared.......any/all opinions on the tire deal please post
Anthony
Dont know how accurate this will be or last. Aired up my dunflops to 35psi from 32.5.....which is what they were set at.....
Someone here mentioned about checking your tire pressures and making sure they're set to 35psi.
Drove home from work today (27 miles) and no shimmy. 55mph,to 57,60,63,65,70 back down the same way. Then put on cruise control and waited.....for the shimmy but none.
Trucks in front now. Tommorow morning I'll check again on the highway....knock wood all will be well.....
Also getting kumho road venture sat kl61's tommorow in stock size....about $200 per tire,balanced and installed.....pre-tax.....figure around $875...
Guy said he had 4 at the Mavis warehouse in CT. So, I guess if I want to do the spare (steelie under truck floor) can buy at tirerack.com and install it at fleet services at work.....
Only thing MAVIS tire doesn't have hunter9700 road force machine which im praying I don't need.....this whole shimmy things got me a little scared.......any/all opinions on the tire deal please post
Anthony
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KevinG
New member
Well this is my last post on this forum and it is bittersweet. I am all too familiar with this issue and finally got to the point where I said enough is enough and traded her in for a new Tundra. I wish all of you that are experiencing the best of luck and will check back to see if they ever resolve this, as it seems to be widespread (I also posted this issue 2 years ago). If anyone is looking for a few 5th gen accessories, I have posted some stuff in the classified section. Great people on this forum and I hope that the Tundra forum is filled with the same amount of knowledge!!
its back........
shimmys back but at 60 mph exactly. weird!!!
getting the kumho's today. see what that does......
shimmys back but at 60 mph exactly. weird!!!
getting the kumho's today. see what that does......
Jivewalker
Member
2012 TE at 5000miles with zero shimmy and a drive highway and back roads 70 miles daily. I did however test drive two brand new prior to the trail purchase that had serious shimmy so I know it's real and very annoying. They were both sr5 not that that has anything to do with it. Good luck guys.
I have black rock yuma 17x8 with 285 duratracs, on bilsteins 5100 all around, third notch.
Im getting real sick of the shake between 50-60 exactly. Im almost thinking of selling my truck because it has irritated me to that extent!!!! Ive sold my old wheels (xd addicts) bought new ones (yumas) and balanced them 4 times now. Im real close I mean real close! to trading it in. I understand its a truck and it will have this noise and that feel. But going down a paved road the stupid thing should not have this problem.
I looked under the car yesterday and even noticed my upper ball joint area is starting to leak i see alot of grime collected around the upper ball joint, uca, and top of spindle, as if oil or grease had leaked and now collecting dirt (you know). I dont know what to make of it. I jacked up the car and shook the wheel nothing was off or loose. I give up. I just hope my ball joints dont' fail because of the shaking.
Im getting real sick of the shake between 50-60 exactly. Im almost thinking of selling my truck because it has irritated me to that extent!!!! Ive sold my old wheels (xd addicts) bought new ones (yumas) and balanced them 4 times now. Im real close I mean real close! to trading it in. I understand its a truck and it will have this noise and that feel. But going down a paved road the stupid thing should not have this problem.
I looked under the car yesterday and even noticed my upper ball joint area is starting to leak i see alot of grime collected around the upper ball joint, uca, and top of spindle, as if oil or grease had leaked and now collecting dirt (you know). I dont know what to make of it. I jacked up the car and shook the wheel nothing was off or loose. I give up. I just hope my ball joints dont' fail because of the shaking.
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