2012 Dbl Cab SR5 4x4 - Highway Shake

Hello,
I have a 2012 Tacoma DBL Cab SR5 4x4 that I purchased about a year ago that is still under warranty. I’ve brought it back to the dealer several times with a vibration/shake on the highway, to no avail. I’m done dealing with the dealership I bought it from because the last time I brought it in, I went in the day before my appointment and I took a technician for a ride and he said he could feel it, but then the next day the service manager called and said that he couldn’t and I needed to come in and take HIM for a ride, not the technician. Anyway, I noticed this problem shortly after buying the truck. It seems to drive fine around town, but once I’m on the highway I can feel a vibration/shake throughout the truck; steering wheel, floor boards, and seats. Sometimes it’s subtle, if you’re not used to driving the truck you might not pick it up right away, and sometimes it’s almost violent, like it doesn’t feel at all safe to be driving it. In the past I found that higher speeds reduced the shake, but did not completely eliminate it, but as time goes on I’m finding that to not be holding true. The most frustrating thing is I can be doing 65 on a smooth highway and the truck will be shaking really bad, then all of a sudden at the same speed and about the same RPM it will smooth (not completely) out. Then it may do the same thing at a different speed. I also find that it seems to do it more or worse when getting up to speed when getting on the highway.

I’ve noticed several things that may help with a possible diagnosis. The steering wheel on the highway seems to “float” or wander sometimes (almost like I had a really heavy payload in the bed). Also, when it does it’s shake, if I let the wheel go it jostles back and forth. I also can feel something loose in the front end if I’m driving on a bumpy road (e.g. dirt roads, snow packed roads, etc). lt did it with the old tires and still does it with new tires that I know are balanced ; so I’m kind of ruling them out. I’m usually pretty decent at having an idea of what it could be before I bring it in, but how it is sometimes really bad and then not so bad has me frustrated and baffled. I’m just looking for some possible causes. Thank you and I apologize for the lengthiness.

 

Brian - Sorry to hear of your troubles. I had similar problems on a 2013 and a 2014, and late last year, threw in the towel and sold the truck. Many people on here will tell you that "it's a truck" or that "I don't have the problem, so stop bitching", but clearly many (including you) are having issues with this.

My suggestion is to bring it to the dealer, and ask for the best tech to balance all the wheels... tell them to get it freaking perfect. Preferably on a Hunter GSP9700 road force balancer. Tacomas are extremely sensitive to tire imbalance and it doesn't take much of an imbalance for them to cause problems. Hopefully nailing the balance will correct your problem. It worked for me on one of the trucks ('14), but on the '13, nothing I did could smooth it out. 4 tires shops, 3 sets of tires, and over 10 balance attempts... that thing was a pile of shiet IMO.

Good luck my friend.. it's an extremely frustrating position to be in trying to eliminate resonance problems like this.

 

Yes. The tires are most likely the problem. There's different harmonics/vibrations in like three different speeds... under 40mph, 40-70 mph, and 70 mph +

Getting them road forced should help. However there is a rare case that the road force rating could be too high to correct (anything over a road force rating of over 25)

Road force is usually $5/ea more when mounting/balancing tires

 

Most likely culprit would be a tire out of balance. A broken belt causes a wobble at low speeds that goes away at higher speeds. I'd go for a road-force balance, not just a spin balance. They would need to do this BEFORE an alignment is done. Road force machines tell the tech where to put the tire on the vehicle to offset tire pull, so if they do this, and they are going to align the vehicle, they must do the road force first.

You might also just have a defective tire that cannot balance out. Take a road test WITH the tech or better yet- the service manager. Have them experience it so you don't have to go back ten times. Not only is it annoying to you, but try being on the other side of that counter. I used to go with the customer before it went in, then again when we had fixed the issue to make sure they were satisfied. I'd rather have it fixed "one and done" than to irritate the both of us.

Good luck and let us know how it works out!


**oh- it could also be a bad rim. Roadforce will also tell the tech if they need to remove "tire A" and install on "rim B". I've had that issue before. the rim could have a slight bend in it- either from hitting a pothole or object, or it simply could have been made with a defect.**

 

I've had this problem several times on well balanced wheels, but the wheels were the problem. In my case it was a matter of someone being in too big of a hurry tightening the wheels on. I do my own wheels now. I torque them in a star pattern first to 30 lbs, then 70, then 100. No more vibrations for me, and one of my 3 sets of wheels isn't even hub centric.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I was thinking about the road force balance and will def have the dealership Im going to do it as part of the troubleshooting process and hopefully that will work, but I will also def bring up the TSB's when I go in. Hopefully I don't have to sell, but if it cant be fixed I will cause 95% of my driving is on the highway. Thanks again...

 

So I had an issue where the tires and wheels were road force balanced like 5 times at americas tire. Told them I didn't have the issue with the stock wheels and rims. Took it to another tire shop, they said everything was balanced perfect, but steering wheel still shook like a bugger.
Took it back to toyota, had them stick on stock wheels and rims, problem went away.
Back to americas tire, changed out rims and put back on the same tires, problem solved.

All the time everything was in balance, but for some reason the wheels just wouldn't work but road forced just fine.

Ever since I changed rims I've never had a problem.

 

Brian, I also have a 2012 DCLB SR5 and had virtually the same problem as you. I had it to the dealer twice and they road force balanced the wheels twice. Each time it took out some of the shake. I was still not satisfied and called Toyota corporate and they had some regional troubleshooter come out and said the vibration was "characteristic of the vehicle." I knew it was not, but the only next step was arbitration which I did not have the time or inclination to go through.

I decided to try and fix it myself. I jacked each wheel up and checked for axle/wheel out-of-round (radial and axial) - you can just use a jackstand or something and tape on a wood stick to get a good idea if something is off as you spin each wheel around. No problems there.

Then I thought what if I just take one wheel off at a time and replace it with the spare and drive it. On the second wheel change I hit it - one of these crappy Dunlop Grandtrek things had something wrong with it and was causing the shaking. I took it up to a local tire shop and had them swap the bad tire onto the spare and vice-versa. Problem solved. The Toyota dealers could have done the same thing if they would have taken the time - all they want to do is something that is "easy" - balance tires - no troubleshooting time involved. Toyota should be ashamed for putting these Grandtreks on their trucks.

Good luck on getting yours sorted out. It sure sounds like it is a tire or tires. Mine did the same thing in that at the same speed on the same road on any given day it would shake a lot or a little - no real pattern. The only difference with mine was that the faster you went the worse the vibration was.