Steering wheel vibration Poll

[CutthroatSlam]

So when you got new shocks installed. What else did they do to your car?
Alignment, tire rotation, tire balance, etc?

Had the shocks installed at a good alignment shop. They aligned it, but it was not out of tolerance. Same tires, with sawtooth wear pattern. Drove on them another 15K miles and the sawtooth wear pattern disappeared. Tires were rotated every 10k miles.

It was real simple to test the shocks. Simply push down hard on the vehicle at each corner and observe whether it bounces more than once.

The vibration in the steering wheel was from 70 mph to 60 mph.

 

[Hans Moleman]

Try to find a shop with the new Hunter Road Force Elite balancer. It seem to do better job than the older Hunter road force balancers.

I went to Discount Tire today after another Toyota dealer botched the tire balance job twice. Discount Tire had the Hunter Road Force Elite balancer and the techs did an excellent job. They took the time to force match each tire to achieve the lowest road force values. No Haweka adapter was used. No more steering wheel shake. The ride also seems less bouncier. Best $56 spent.

 

[Pieszeckipower]

I have a 2018 SR5 with about 960 miles on it. Haven't noticed any kind of shimmy yet. I'll update here if one develops when she's got some more miles on her.

 

[Big Country VA]

I also have a 2018 sr5 premium no steering wheel vibrations or anything, actually a lot smoother than my raptor (2013) I’ve got 1100 miles on it and stock everything in a week or so I’ll be adding icon stage 2 suspension kit, BFG ko2s in 285/70/17 and new method nvs, hopefully that doesn’t add any issues

 

[1jzgte]

i got an alignment done, a road force rotation and it did go away for a season and...

 

[spiritcollector]

I have it but, seems like it comes and goes depending on surfaces.

 

[skag1T]

2018 4Runner @ 1800 miles. Had the steering wheel vibration at around 65mph from the beginning. Dealer told me I need to break in the tires and it will go away ...:loco:

At about 800 miles I changed the OEM tires with NOKIAN Rotiivas, the shop balanced the tires 3 times (I went back and forth) - vibration was still there, getting better after each balance, and ended up being barely noticeable (still at around 65mph), and on smooth roads was almost inexistent. I could almost llive with it.

Because of OCD though :frog:, I went to a Les Schwab shop that had the GSP9700 Vibration Control System / Road Force Balancer. The tech said he didn't have the Haweka adapter, and that he never heard of it. I told him about the lug-centric vs. hub-centric wheels, and he told me all OEM wheels are hub-centric. Only some after-market wheels are lug-centric.

So I went ahead and had him balance my wheels on the GSP9700, and watched him do it. Two tires came out very bad - the wobble was so bad I could see it with the naked eye actually (this, after 3x balancing on a regular machine at the other shop). 40+ lbs road force variation / imbalance on each. Tech said these cannot be used / balanced. The other 2 tires were marginally ok. (about 25 lbs each - tech said these could be "fixed"). I could see all 4 wheels wobble on the machine when he put them on !! Even the "good" tires had a slight, visible wobble.

So I got a new set of Dantires Backcountry SQ-4 (made by CooperTire) from the LesSchwab shop, balanced and everything, and the steering wheel is rock solid so far, at all speeds. Very big difference.

I had a long conversation with the tech about the whole thing. He said it is highly unlikely that the OEM rims could be out of balance, he said Toyota rims are of the highest quality. He pointed out that 99% is the non-uniformities in the tire material that creates steering wheel vibration.

So it could be that the steering wheel vibration is actually caused by non-uniformities in the tires... This can only be fixed by switching tires until you get a set of 4 (or 5) that come out ok.

Another thing he said was that this vibration has no damaging effect on the steering in the long run, it is just annoying for the driver. I don't know if I agree with that ...

From now on though will only buy tires from a shop that has the GSP9700 machine. So they can swap out the bad tires.

On the flip side, why is this car so sensitive to tires ? I know now a lot more that I ever wanted to know about tires, wheel balancing, tire material non-uniformities ...

 

[Jeremy556]

The tech said he didn't have the Haweka adapter, and that he never heard of it. I told him about the lug-centric vs. hub-centric wheels, and he told me all OEM wheels are hub-centric. Only some after-market wheels are lug-centric.

That is correct, all Toyota wheels are hub centric. If you buy aftermarket wheels with a different center bore than the Toyota hub (106mm), they will be lug centric, unless you use a centering ring.

The Hawka adapter is an accessory sold by Hunter that mostly only Toyota dealers have, and they pretty much never use them anyway.

 

[thinkxingu]

I had a shimmy at 58-65. Dealer road force balanced all tires, which changed shimmy to 55-70. Went back for second time yesterday, and they're replacing the tires because they're out of round.

It sounds like the 4Runner is just picky--big tires, geometry, who knows--and that it's just a game to get the perfect balance.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[skag1T]

The 4Runner is a bit picky with tires, but also tire companies are dropping the ball on quality. At today's level of technology, a new tire that is imbalanced is unacceptable.

In the 70's we wanted to, but couldn't - technology was not there yet.

Nowadays, we can, but we discovered it's more profitable to build questionable quality products 'cause it's cheaper, and most consumers don't complain anyway - they keep buying the same things over and over again ...

 

[Amrcnind]

I had a vibration when I turned. Turns out that the grease in the stearing column was dry, so re-greased it and it all went away.

 

[r6morrison]

I thought mine was a number of things, but I had my brakes done yesterday (rotors and pads) and ALL vibrations went away. Even with 33” KO2’s, which I thought for sure were the issue, there is no more wobble. They did not rotate the tires either, per request as I’d just done that. The rotors were warped pretty bad and that was causing all of my issues. Maybe check how long it’s been since you had your brakes done. Mine has 60,000 now as a 2016 model, and that was the first time they’d been worked on (other dealership insisted they were fine).

 

[mrblah]

I had issues with steering vibration when I got ko2's mounted on stock trail rims. The tire place couldn't figure it out.

It went away completely when I bought new rims, and had the tires balanced with traditional weights vs. beads.

Maybe the weight or the width of the new rims made the tires easier to balance...who knows.

I don't know what the fix was, but I'm just happy that I don't have any vibration issues atm.

 

[wittless]

Ko2's on TRD wheels balanced at the shop. Only happens to me when getting up to speed on the highway that I can tell. 55 - 60 mph.

 

[rayofsi]

i developed vibration 55-65
kumho at51

they were ok for a few months. Then developed out of nowhere

 

[thinkxingu]

I had a shimmy at 58-65. Dealer road force balanced all tires, which changed shimmy to 55-70. Went back for second time yesterday, and they're replacing the tires because they're out of round.

It sounds like the 4Runner is just picky--big tires, geometry, who knows--and that it's just a game to get the perfect balance.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

Just finished driving about 60 miles without a steering shimmy--dealer replaced my "out-of-round" tires.

Talking to a couple tire guys, today's OEM tires are made as cheaply as possible, leading to many imperfect tires.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[baldrik78]

Ko2's on TRD wheels balanced at the shop. Only happens to me when getting up to speed on the highway that I can tell. 55 - 60 mph.

Exact same thing. KO2s on TRD wheels, I get a shimmy around 55-60. I do have wheel spacers and Bilstein 5100s @2.5" tho.

 

[Amtraker]

New TRD OR

So i'm due to pick up my new OR in a few weeks and have been hearing about this wobble problem. Does this problem only occur with the OR trim ? If that is the case I might as well just go with the SR5. The only thing I want to do with it at some point is maybe up some Bilsteins on it and def a set of KO2s. I would appreciate some advice.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

I have it but, seems like it comes and goes depending on surfaces.

Same, it will be fine on one highway or road but show up on a different road

 

[LimeLED]

So i'm due to pick up my new OR in a few weeks and have been hearing about this wobble problem. Does this problem only occur with the OR trim ? If that is the case I might as well just go with the SR5. The only thing I want to do with it at some point is maybe up some Bilsteins on it and def a set of KO2s. I would appreciate some advice.

I’m pretty sure it’s been on all different trims.