Help with Vibration

Alright guys Ive tried to do my research and cant seem too much info on this issue. I have a stock 2010 PreRunner with 265/70R16 tires. At highway speeds i have a noticeable vibration coming through the steering wheel and pretty much non stop through my seats. Vibration varies from light to heavy but it is mostly at highway speeds. I thought it was the tires and after several balances and still no solution, the tire place allowed me to swap out to some Michelin LTX Ms/2 tires. The steering wheel vibration got a little better but still feel vibration in the seats a lot. Any recommendations on what could be the problem?

 

Bump

 

Grease or replace driveshaft u-joints and/or center bearing. Get under the truck and push up on the driveshaft at or near the center bearing, there should be little to no movement at the bearing.

 

Toyota wheels/tires are very hard to balance - there is literally only one guy at one tire shop in my town that can balance my tires to my satisfaction. Still not perfect by any means. On a concrete, or otherwise rough surface, the vibration is not noticeable whatsoever, but when I get on a smooth asphalt surface between 70-80, the truck shakes, primarily the passenger seat back.

My opinion is tire balance issue - especially since the LTX's made it somewhat better - if it was a driveline issue, tire swap wouldn't make a difference IMO.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

i had a problem when i was going 60-70 mph i would get shaking all over the truck mostly in the steering wheel. i changed my wheels to 2015 factory wheels(265/65/ r17) that i found on craigslist and it fixed the problem. still have it when i brake but it is tolerable. i had some crappy chrome wheels that stuck out a little (265/70 r16). i had like 5lb of weight on one tire. it looked like it had been balanced a lot before i bought it.

 

you can probably find your answer in the tech forum.

I had the same issue and found out that the toyota rims are "lug centric" meaning that they are balanced off the lug nut holes and not the center of the rim.
To get the proper balance, find someone that uses a Hunter pro series balancer that has a "Haweeka" (sp) adapter for the lug nut holes. The Hunter balancer applies road force and side force to balance the tire.
If a garage tells you they can balance the tires without this method, leave immediately!

 

go to a shop that uses the Hunter Road Force to balance tires

 

This ^^^

This is a link to Hunter's "Find a Shop" page.

http://www.gsp9700.com/search/findgsp9700.cfm

Once you find a shop near you that has the Road Force Balancer, call them, and ask if they have Haweka adapters as well. It sounds like balancing is the issue. If true, your truck should ride baby smooth after.

 

I have the exact problem!

I had new tires put in 3000 miles ago which helped but it's still quite noticeable.

 

that link is good but not completely accurate. My Tires Plus has the Force Touch but the link only says gsp9700

 

2010 prerunner....

probably hasnt ever seen grease on the u joints.... u joints are probably bad

 

Thanks for the responses. It's been like this since I bought the truck basically brand new with 5k on the truck. Just slightly got worse over time and since I drive on highway daily now, it's more bothersome. I just recently got new tires and wheels and the vibration is still the same.

 

Does anyone have anymore suggestions on this? I got it balanced by a road force and it is still having the same problem. My wheels have a 106.2 bore size so the wheels are tires should not be the problem. Also, the u joints on 2wd tacoma are sealed but I do not have too many miles on the truck so this shouldn't be a problem.

 

My 2013 has vibrated for 51,000 km...... Took it back to purchase dealer two weeks after I bought it new, they pissed and moaned and did a balance which didn't fix anything. I went to my local trusted tire shop and ditched the lumpy dunlops at 5000 km for a set of Michelin LTX M/S 2 s. Still had a vibration..... Changed the stock sport rims for some FJ Cruiser rims, still rode like a TRD Blender. Two more attempts at balancing at two other shops with no resolution so I have just been ignoring the shimmy and shake.

Put up with this till last week when I mentioned the problem to the service advisor at Kanata Toyota and he looked at me like I was a complete asshat for not mentioning this to him over the past 18 months I had been getting the truck serviced there. He said leave it with me for two hours.

I came back to get the truck and went for a ride with the mechanic and service adviser and it was as smooth as glass. I asked them wtf did you do..............

ROAD FORCE was their answer.

 

I'm running the same size Michelin LTX M/S2 tires as the OP. Ironically, I just cruised 75mph on my drive home tonight and was actually enjoying how amazingly smooth it was.

I've read on these forums about balancing problems with Toyota wheels. When I had my Toyota dealer put my Michelin's on I specifically asked if they had the proper balancer. They assured me what they had was perfect. The OEM Dunlop tires had counter weights ALL OVER the wheels straight from Toyota. They took nearly all of them off when they mounted the Michelin M/S2's. The Dunlops had a very, very slight steering wheel vibe at 70-75mph. The Michelin tires are so much better. My ride is smoother than my 2005 Camry SE was (granted stiffer suspension on bumps).

Seems proper balancing is the key. The right type of balancing machine seems to be critical with Toyota OEM wheels.

 

Did they use the Haweka adapters when they balanced, or just use the cone to mount the wheels to the balancer? This is a key step especially when dealing with lug centric wheels (which I believe yours are).

Also, I don't know if .2 mm would make a much of a difference in fitment to the hub, but stock Toyota wheels are 106 mm. It's possible you may need a bore spacer to snug up those wheels.

What about lugs? did you get aftermarket lugs with those wheels? Do those have the proper fit for the style of lug holes?

 

I'm having the same issue right around 40mph...feels like my truck is shaking front to back under low rpm...brand new Toyo ATII 265/75/16. I've had them for around 5k miles and just started to notice this. Should I have them rebalanced and also have the beadlocks off of the rim when done? Got the tires from Town Fair Tire and my guess is they prob wont have that Road Force balancer...maybe I'm wrong.

 

Well I thought I would give an update. Went and had another road force balance and verified they were using the Haweka adapter. They said it was bad out of balance and they got it perfect... Well I started down the road and it was about 3 times worse than before the balance. You could literally see the bed hopping. I left at closing time so I couldn't go back same day. I'll be there when they open in the morning.... Not to mention they never gave me back my lug nut key. Wtf!!

 

i had a pretty good vibration after i got the duratracs mounted (40 miles on the truck) then took it back for a road force balance. made it a lot better but still get some vibration around 70mph. i've just kinda chocked it up to the tires a bit, but i can definitely see the passenger seat shaking. should i go back for a third balance?

 

Rotated my tires and mine is gone.