Steering wheel Shake

Hello, I have vibrations in my 2002 6cyl. and think it is due to the center support bearing being worn out. I am having it replaced on Tuesday March 12th and will update my post. Might want to look into that though as my vibrations start at around 45mph very slightly and then fade but increase again at about 65mph.

 

I had a vibration in my 2012 double cab long bed right after the 15,000 mile service was done by the dealership. called and complained. All 4 of my wheels were out of balance. I told them that I thought they rotated my tire wrong and knocked off a few wheel weights on accident because of some dumb kid working on my truck. They asked me why I thought that and my response was that when I checked the tire PSI, the front driver side tire was at 45 PSI while the rest had 34 PSI. So either your veteran mechanic cant figure out how much air to put in a set of tires to save his life or it was some dumb kid who didn't know any better. Turns out they had some trainee work on my truck by themselves that day cause they were short staffed and over booked. Now my truck drives like the day I got it and they did not charge me for there mistake.

 

Ever heard of Equal, it works!

 

Kinda an update..... I had new tires put on my wheels 285/70/17 Firestone M/T's. They are great tires. Anyway, my steering wheel had some shaking. I asked Firestone tech to take my truck for a drive to see what he thought. He said the shake was normal and the tires were in balance. I took the truck to another place and asked them to balance the wheels. I asked them if I could watch to take wheel balancing out of the equation. He stated no problem. The first thing he did was to run the tire/wheel through the balancing machine. It was off by 7 ounces on one side and a couple ounces on the other side. All of the tires were off. He spent about 10-15 minutes on each tire to make sure they were at 0.0. It took him a few tries w/each tire. He stated some tires/wheels give him trouble and some don't. Sometimes he could just run them through the machine and sometimes he has to scrape off the weights he just added and readjust. He stated Firestone did not do any of them correctly. I went back to Firestone and told them of my experience. The store manager stated he would address the issue. I have to give it a couple more days to give ya'll the total thumbs up, but it is a lot better.

That said, I don't believe most vehicles have this issue. It seems our Toyota's are more sensitive in reference to "wheel shake". I wonder if Tacoma World doesn't have an engineer that could address this issue. With 30+ pages it would seem there is a legitimate reason for this problem.

 

Road force balance.

 

Roadforce balanced a dozen times and TSB performed by Toyota.. My question to all who read this is have you heard of anything else Toyota is trying and anyone trying a class action lawsuit???
I think if no help from Toyota that is my next step as they not repairing a new truck problem nearing a year now...sad

 

My 08 has done this since new. I've had road force balance done several times at Toyota dealer & Michelin dealer where I bought new tires. Intermediate shaft TSB done, still no cure. I'm not considering any lawsuits as only the lawyers win in those. I think the steering wheel shake is Toyota"s equivalent to herpes - there is no cure.

 

I thought it was normal............I also drive a Jeep Wrangler

 

@charles08tacoma I think you're right about the toyota herpes.

My 2012 tacoma had the steering rack replaced to fix the play in the steering, then the lower control arm assembly replaced for vibrations and clunk noises. Now it feels like play in the rack is coming back. It only has 14650 miles on it an I've yet to even take it off road, or have it see a pothole/ speed bump. Been dealing with it since new.

 

So I brought my truck into the dealership again this morning the. Shop did a realignment but of course the same grinding is still back from when the steering rack was replaced just a short time ago. The shop of course could not find a problem same as the last time until it got worse. I asked the shop foreman if I could take him outside to put the tires on the curb and turn the wheel a little so he could hear the audible click in the steering column because for some reason that amplifies the condition that I feel in the steering when I am driving under normal circumstances. He refused to acknowledge just saying that was abnormal and he needs to be able to
feel and hear it like last time. I guess I'll just have to wait till it gets worse again? Does anyone think it could be the bushings in the rack failing again?

 

Hey all, Problem solved on the Tacoma, (for me anyways), traded in for a TRD Sr5 Tundra! I had a meeting with the GM of the dealership and he agreed the problem was there and not going away..so the dealership actually helped me out, in that they gave me way more in value than the Taco was worth and lowered the Tundra so I walked out the door at even priced.. Now hopefully no issues with Tundra.. Good luck to you ALL with the Tacoma!
And if anyones wondering it was a AutoNation dealership in Houston, Good luck!

 

Ok so now Im in the shaking club.2012 Dc stock wheels 245/75/16 4inch spindle lift,3 inch rear ADL 1.25 spacers in front.10,000 miles perfect.Put TRD 17s toyo p255/75/17at. 55-65 shakes.America tire says they road force and have the adaptor.WOW they want 140.00 will update.If it fixs problem.

 

Well, I may have finally found the source of my steering wheel shake. I put TRD off road alloys on my truck last week & when I had them mounted on my existing Michelins, they noticed what they called "tire hop" while balancing one of my tires that was on the left front, all others were fine. I have contacted my local Michelin dealer & was told, "Michelins don't have that problem. I've never heard of that happening to a Michelin tire." I have an appointment with them this morning to have them check it on their balancing machine to prove what was discovered. I just may say f**k it & buy a new Michelin so I don't have to argue with them.

 

I took my 2012 dc trd to a different shop. They were able to correctly identify the new issue with the steering. Now it's the intermediate shaft and if they fix it with the tsb it will only come back again over time. I confirmed it with another brand new tacoma on the lot. I guess they have started using cheaper materials ti cut costs cause whwn I had mu 09 only 4 years ago it did not have this problem. Sooo all in all this is what's been contributing to the issues on my truck. Did I say it was bought new yet?

1. Steering rack replaced ti fix wandering
2. Driver's side lower control arm assembly replaced to fix vibrations and clunking.
3. Intermediate shaft play tsb will not fix issue.
Total miles driven 15000 none off road and no potholes I count those as off road these days since it's pretty jarring if one is hit.my 09 hit quite a few and was taken off road without these issues.

 

I hear ya Bro. I have an 08 and all I had to get done was the 4 leaf pack to prevent bottoming out on the stops. I have lurked here for a good 6 years now and I see different years having problems with items that previous years had no issues with. They tried to get me into a newer one and the lady finally quit calling when I told her that when the doors fall off I will weld them back on. I will keep it a good 300K miles unless it gets too costly to repair. 6 years later and I am 1/3 of the way there.

 

Update took the truck today to America tire.They wont touch the truck because of the front spacers.The 17 trd wheels wont clear the spindles so.Drive back to Baja with a little shaking,over 70 its ok.Where to take this truck from Hemet to Culver city that can fix the shaking? Thanks guys

 

New up date 90% fixed.I had to drive to baja this morn,so before I left took just the wheels to Waldos Told them problem,was told will try(they did not have the road force balencer or mount.He said I have been doing tire 12 years never had 1 tacoma have this problem.So they removed stick ons.put normal ones on both sides he said it was way off.Put um back on now i cant get to baja,truck cant get up to 40mph So went back to America tire,told them Ok you wont bal the front wheels because spacers.So just do the back.I will take it home move rear to front then when I come back do the rear.He had the right balencer mount to do Toyota wheels.He said your toyo tires are great tires it took very little to bal.We dont feel you need to use road force balence.Im back in Baja at 55-60 very small shake(almost cant tell) So Im happy with there work.Even at 95 no shake.Nightmare Toyota.

 

My 06 has been doing this since I put new wheels on it with 450 miles on the truck. I now have over 100,000 on her. I constantly take it in and have the tires balanced. She rides fine for about 1500 miles then starts to slowly shake again. I was really hoping that there was a fix for the problem. I guess putting steering stabilizers on it isn't going to make much of a difference.

 

find out if your wheels are hubcentric or lugcentric. Hubcentric means the wheel is centered by the hub, while lugcentric means the wheel is centered by the lug nuts. When I put duratracs and lugcentric wheels on my truck, I got the shaking from 60-70 mph. When I switched to hubcentric wheels and a less aggressive tire, the shaking disappeared. Stock toyota wheels are hubcentric.

 

I'm thinking they are Lugcentric there is a gap between the hub and the wheel. They are a Discount Tire MB brand wheel. I will check though. Thanks for the input.