Vibes in Steering Wheel between 30-40 MPH???

i have had these tires road forced balanced 4 times now and vibes that i was getting over 65 mph have completely ceased and its nice to drive on the highway but now i get vibes between 30-40 mph. I can feel it slightly in my steering wheel and in the truck itself, and i think it has gotten worse with the cold coming on now because as i drive it more, it is less severe. I my truck to a shop last week to have a 150k mile maintenance done to it and they didn't do anything major, just topped off fluids as needed and fixed e-brake but its done it since then.

do you think the shop may have done anything, or is it my tires again, or something else all together?

 

it might be your rotors. Go for a test drive at around 30-40 mph lightly brake and hold the steering wheel lightly. If it vibrates real bad your rotors are warped and need to get machined or replaced.

 

honestly, i think its probably from it being cold.....your tires will flat spot a bit from sitting overnight and after you drive some,they are back to narmal once they heat up.

do you have a lift on your truck?

 

yes i do. I have the billies at the highest setting although they have settled some

 

have had alignment done multiple times and i had the last one done about 2 months ago and it has been fine since that was done, drives straight when i can actually find a straight level road haha. Just started doing this about 2 weeks ago aka since its steadily been below 40 degrees

 

im guessing its your tires flat spotting. mine do it too..here in South Carolina, its been around 14 degrees in the am.

 

yea same in WV its around 10 degrees every night and only 25 during the day. But do you just feel it in the steering wheel and it doesn't necessarily shake, but just vibrates like up and down slightly almost? idk hard to explain the vibe

 

Rotate you tires.... and see if the vibration changes.

When the vibration is occuring - step on the brakes slightly and see if the vibration goes away, or gets worse.

What size & type of tires & wheels are you running? You mentioned you had them balanced 4x - when did you have all this done? When was the last time you had them balanced? Did you inspect each wheel (inside & out) to make sure you didn't loose any wheel weights?

Again, as I mentioned above...rotate the tires and see if the vibration changes. You might be able to narrow it down to the fronts/rear or any one wheel.

What lift do you have in the rear & how long have you had that lift?

 

I think its flat spots. I'm pretty sure I have a spot in one of my fronts, mine shakes ~69-74mph

 

i have 32x11.5 R15 tires, they are generic wild country AT tires ans the wheels are pro comps. had them road forced prob about 6 weeks ago was the last time and they have been ok since then. I need to get my tires rotated anyways at my next oil change which will be in a couple of weeks so ya i figured i would see if the vibe went away in the wheel. I know its not the brakes cuz it vibrates whether i'm using the brakes or not and doesn't get any worse with braking

also i do not have a lift in the back. even with the billies it sits level b/c i had my frame replaced and nothing has really sagged yet

 

the same thing was happening to my truck and i got new uca from tc and it went away.

 

So, it was fine after you had the wheels/tires balanced last? You just started getting vibes?

Check to make sure a wheel weight didn't fall off..... check both the inside & the outside of the wheels. Sometimes they use 'stick-on' weights on the inside of the rim. I've seen them stacked ontop of eachother also....and they can fall off.

Did Toyota replace the frame under that rust warrantee?

 

Did they rebalance the tires when they rotated them during the 150k maintenance?

 

no they did not rebalance the tires when the service was done and they didn't rotate the tires either so i am going to see if rotating them will fix it. and yes the frame was replaced under warranty last fall

I did a little test drive to see if i could get it to stop, when i braked it didn't get better or worse so i know its not brakes, and it still did it in 4 Hi so glad it has nothing to do with drivetrain anything. So its either major flat spots from cold weather and it does get better over time, but i really only drive extended amounts on weekends aka more than 3-4 miles, everything is close in a college town haha. Or its balancing again, Its just weird that i don't get high speed vibes (60 mph and over) like i used to when i knew the balance was off, its only between 30 and 40 MPH...

pretty much learned to never get generic name tires and go brand name b/c these tires have been such a pain with all the balance issues and now another balance issue possibly or easily getting flat spots.

 

bump

 

I think Will's comment was right on. When the truck sits for a while the tires are developing a flat spot at the contact patch. When you drive it, it takes a bit to smooth out that area of the tire.

Colder temps contribute, on a 100* day this wouldn't happen. Do you own a air pressure gauge. Are all 4 tires aired up fairly equally? The lower the air pressure in the tire, the larger the contact patch. What are your pressures?

 

last time i checked was about 10 days ago and i had my fronts set at 34 and my rears at 32. It has been colder since then though consistently. I guess this is my first winter with bigger tires with a higher load rating (Load C on the 32's compared to passenger or standard load on my old 265/70 R16's) so maybe i'm not used to feeling that much of a flat spot? Just seems weird i only feel it between 30 and 40 mph, and that is the only time

 

Rotating the tires isn't gonna FIX it.

It's a method of troubleshooting. If the vibration changes *FEEL* or location, you could possibly narrow the vibration down to a certain tire or wheel.

Did you check to see if any wheel weights were missing?

Vibrations are weird animals. Depending on the severity of the vibration, sometimes you will only FEEL it at certain speeds/rpm's as it build up a rythm. You might feel that rythm (vibration) at 30-40mph and not again until you reach 80mph (example) - due to the rythm (hard to explain).
Here's a pretty good article about it (kinda mind boggling) but I had to post it.
http://www.quadratec.com/jeep_knowledgebase/article-36.htm

 

bump