Truck shaking at highway speeds

Hey everyone..

I am having issues figuring out the cause of my truck shaking at highway speeds. Happens at around 70mph and is a noticeable shake in the steering wheel.

2000 tacoma TRD
Pro comp wheels
OME 2" lift
One piece driveshaft
Just did inner and outer tie rods on both sides as well as sway bar and steering rack bushings.

Any thoughts?

 

Alignment and wheel balance more than likely.

 

Check the usual:

Wheels balanced
Lug nuts torqued
Torque again anything you touched.
Rotate front tires to back, see if shake moves.

 

I agree either alignment or wheel balance issue. If those check out, check your tie rods for play. When mine were very loose and worn I would get a sketchy feeling in my steering at higher speeds on the freeway mostly, would feel like my truck wanted to steer itself in different directions. New tie rods (inner and outer) solved that issue.

 

I had the shop do an alignment this morning thinking that would solve it. Ill try and rotate the front wheels to the back and see if that works out. Thanks!

 

Have them check the wheel balance too, there are little weights that get put into the wheels to balance them and if they fall out they can create vibrations

I don't know if alignment shops normally check for that sort of thing unless it's brought up by the customer

 

What model of ProComp wheels are you running? If you can find one in your area, you might try an actual "Road Force" balance.

There is only one tire store within 150 miles of me that do that. It will give you a readout if there are any abnormalities in the tire or wheel.

 

tire balance is definitely the 1st thing to check.

If you rotate your tires and the problem doesn't go away, that doesn't necessarily mean your tire balance isn't the issue (all your tires could be out of balance).

Can you feel this shake more through the steering wheel or through your ass?

 

Its definitely more in the steering wheel that's why I assumed it was a tie rod or steering rack issue. I jacked up the front of the truck and felt some play at 3 and 9 o'clock grabbing the wheel and wiggling it, so went ahead and did tie rods. I overlooked any wheel balancing issue so ill have that check out

 

I have the same issue, and will be taking mine to get balanced. Tried to get an alignment done in march, but bolts were seized and have not been back to finish the alignment.

 

Pro Comp wheels eh?

This is probably not your issue since you say it's very much in the steering wheel, but I bought a new set of five Pro Comp rims last month and it turned out that one of them was defective and had to be warrantied. It was shaking the front end of the truck noticeably at 65-70mph, and I could feel it in the steering wheel. I determined it was the passenger front wheel, swapped it out for my spare and the issue disappeared. Took the suspect wheel back to 4WP where I bought it and they confirmed it "had a flat spot" and replaced it for free.

 

The worst part about having 33's and 15" wheels is getting all that rubber balanced.

 

I got them balanced and rotated my tires. Still got a shake in the steering wheel. The rest of the truck feels totally fine. I'm narrowing it down to something in the steering rack/column that might be out of wack.

Any thoughts?

 

hmmmm....

you say it happens at around 70, but can you feel it before that? does it come on suddenly? or can you feel it get worse with higher speeds?

You mentioned you have a 1pc driveshaft. Is that balanced? what's your pinion angle like? To check if this is the problem, just remove your driveshaft and drive it in "front wheel drive". If the shake goes away, it's the driveline...

As for the front, next things on the list would be upper/lower balljoints and control arm bushings. If those are all originals, it's time to replace them anyway, even if they don't turn out to be the problem...

 

Alignment? Worn tie rod ends or lower ball joints? Is it a left to right shudder or is it more like your truck is bouncing as it drives along?

 

Yeah I thought it might be my driveshaft but I have had that on for a couple of months now and the problem started a few weeks ago. I can definitely feel the shake before 70mph, that's just when I feel it the most. Upper and lower ball joints is on my to do list although since I cannot feel it in the floorboard at all I am pretty sure this isn't the culprit. Not ruling anything out though so thanks for all the input!

 

If it’s more of a bounce, you could have an out of round tire.

 

Alignment, Wheel balance, inner outer tie rods and steering rack/sway bar bushings all been done. Steering wheel shake at highway speed still occurs

 

true. if a tire has been sitting for a while it'll get a flat spot, but that usually self corrects after the tire heats up.

Flat spot likely would have gone away, or at least changed when OP rotated the tires...

 

This is also true but if an alignment was out for a while, and the bad alignment faulted the tire, then it could take thousands of miles before correcting.