vibration in steering wheel (not tire balance)

[coltm4]

2016 TRD Pro with 45,000 miles. BFG KO2. Went to Discount tire to have them rebalanced, told not out of balance. Also told me they thought they could hear something and likely mechanical in nature. Any ideas as to what it could be? I'm fairly handy and went under the truck to see if anything seemed loose. I noticed there was more give on the drivers side CV but from what I gather, that appears to be normal compared to the passenger side CV. Thoughts?

 

[eelliiss]

2016 TRD Pro with 45,000 miles. BFG KO2. Went to Discount tire to have them rebalanced, told not out of balance. Also told me they thought they could hear something and likely mechanical in nature. Any ideas as to what it could be? I'm fairly handy and went under the truck to see if anything seemed loose. I noticed there was more give on the drivers side CV but from what I gather, that appears to be normal compared to the passenger side CV. Thoughts?

Do you get a groan when slowing down at around 40mph? I read that there are the occasional 4Runners that have had issues with the needle bearing in the front differential. Could explain the loose CV feel, too, I believe.

 

[Xtremluck]

What are the symptoms of your vibration? When do you experience it? At what speeds?


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[coltm4]

I haven't noticed a groan, but I will make an effort to listen. It feels like an out of balanced tire, but between 60-65mph.

 

[Lionel_Hutz]

There's a huge thread kicking around this forum on the ~60mph wobble.

I don't know if there's really a consensus but the 4Runner is definitely sensitive around that speed. I dialed mine almost all the way out with a very good tire balance (took three tries).

 

[Off-choader]

yeah super common, mine fixed first balanced for the most part..... still occurs occasionally but most people (according to the poll) seem to never get it resolved

 

[renau001]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attac...teering-wheel-vibration-poll-l-sb-0020-12.pdf

Tons of info in this thread:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/117887-steering-wheel-vibration-poll.html

Also, get em to show you the road force balance numbers. They can be in spec, but still have a little vibration. If you get a really good set of tires/wheels the numbers can come down a lot and get rid of problem. When I first bought mine, the balance numbers were in spec. Got em balanced and they were improved but still not great. Close to 20 lbs on one of them. Vibes mostly gone, but not completely. I suspect once I replace tires, if I can get a set that balances closer to 10lbs issue will be gone.

The groan mentioned is a front diff needle bearing. It does not cause a vibration. At least not for me.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attac...ront-differential-groaning-cyclical-noise.pdf

 

[mnofpeace]

i dont doubt what they told you about the tires being balanced. but when i had my Cooper AT3s mounted, i was told they were mounted also...twice. yet i still had the wabble.

then i took the truck to toyota for a scheduled maintenance, and i told them about the wobble...and they came back telling me the tire needed to be rotated about a halfway on the rim, and rebalanced...HUB balanced. and poof, my wobble was gone.


just my 2 cents...:sadwave:

 

[Lost27]

Does the wobble ever go away after a while? I have noticed that after letting the truck sit over night especially in the cooler weather I have a wobble/vibration for a while until some heat gets in the tires. Once the tires have warmed up a bit I've noticed the vibration to go away. I suspect that depending on the tire they may get a slight flat spot sitting for a while that goes away after driving for a bit.

 

[Xtremluck]

If its at specific speeds it is almost for sure a tire balance problem. BFG KO2s are notoriously hard to balance. It took 3 road force balance sessions before mine were vibration free.

 

[Jivewalker]

Dealer road force balance fixed mine. On my third set of new tires now at 140k. First replacement set had vibrations and road force balance at dealer fixed it. New set now which are ko2's were road force balanced at the dealer at installation and are smooth as butter. i basically told them they can either road force balance them at installation or I could keep coming back with vibration complaints until they fix them. they chose to road force balance at no charge. Good luck, the vibrations are annoying for sure.

 

[SoFloT4Run]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attac...teering-wheel-vibration-poll-l-sb-0020-12.pdf

Tons of info in this thread:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/117887-steering-wheel-vibration-poll.html

Also, get em to show you the road force balance numbers. They can be in spec, but still have a little vibration. If you get a really good set of tires/wheels the numbers can come down a lot and get rid of problem. When I first bought mine, the balance numbers were in spec. Got em balanced and they were improved but still not great. Close to 20 lbs on one of them. Vibes mostly gone, but not completely. I suspect once I replace tires, if I can get a set that balances closer to 10lbs issue will be gone.

The groan mentioned is a front diff needle bearing. It does not cause a vibration. At least not for me.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/attac...ront-differential-groaning-cyclical-noise.pdf

I can attest to this.....I had my tires road forced 3 times by different shops. The third one finally did it for me. I road forced all 4 tires and had the tires with the lowest road force variations installed in the front.


For example my front driver tire had a road force variation of 19lbs and the passenger was at 13lbs. I swapped the one that had 19lbs variation with a rear tire that had 10lbs road force variation. This finally did the trick and the truck finally drives extremely smooth with no steering wheel wobble.

hope this helps and I do ultimately believe it is a tire balance issue coupled with a sensitive steering rack.

 

[pedroridesagain]

I am heading in today for my 15,000 service. I have had a wobble between 60mph and 65 mph since I have had the truck. They have done all the fancy balancing and removed the tires and remounted them and there is still a wobble. In my opinion this is 100% unacceptable for a new, completely stock vehicle.

Is this not a lemon law issue because the tires will be balanced "with in spec" even though there is still a felt wobble? Basically anything I can tell them to help with this would be greatly appreciated. I'm headed out on a 1,500 mile road trip.

 

[TRDORmike]

A few key things to note here. One, you can balance an egg, at the end of the day its still an egg.

Road force balance your tires. Get the lowest road force # tires on front and the higher variance tires on the rear.

If using stock tires tire shop/dealer MUST use Toyota ADAPTER. Toyota has a specific size.

These trucks are very sensitive, I had continued problems with my KO2s however after a balance etc it would go away. Also, depending on mileage and also regardless of mileage in a sense make sure that your driveshaft u joints etc are all greased correctly. Excessive amount of grease in the drive shaft slip yolk could also cause a vibration if done incorrectly.

NOTE: DO NOT try to "PURGE" your slip yolk as you cannot. You can only purge the u joints. This is something simple to check/do and should be done regardless.