Steering wheel vibration

please watch the video. Turn the sound on. I have been one on here to criticize people for worrying about every little vibration and creak.. and saying it’s a damn truck! this is something special.

Truck is not mine, it’s a friends 2017 PRO.

What do you all think is going on here? He took it in to the dealer as it’s still under warranty and they diagnosed it as slightly warped rotors. They replaced the rotors and I think it’s still happening. I have a hard time believing that this is due to old rotors on a 3 year old truck. He said it only happens when going over 50 mph. In the video he is not braking hard, just barely feathering the brakes at around 50-60 mph.

 

Warped rotors will do that. If they were severely warped it could even be felt when not braking. The right conditions or misuse can warp rotors pretty easily, no matter the quality.

 

I had something similar with a 98 Chevy Malibu, not quite as harsh as this though. It was warped rotors and it went away after replacing them. I haven’t seen something this bad before. Let us know when he fix’s it.

 

This.

For how much love these trucks get the brakes are absolute garbage. Being a new Tacoma owner I'm still kinda stunned about this. I barely put a few thousand miles on mine before the rotors warped and now my vibrations are pretty bad. Every other car I've ever had has been able to take massive abuse without warping rotors. I plan to do some minor brake upgrades and just get better about using gearing rather than brakes to slow me down on hills.

 

I’ve experienced warped rotors in several different cars, but this seems insane. I said to make sure sound is on to hear the crazy rattling sound.

He drives the truck gingerly (I tease him) and truck has never been off road or anything like that. He has a separate beater truck. And I’m gonna guess he does 90% city driving under 45 mph. I just can’t see that the rotors got that warped? I’m not a mechanic or anything at all so I am not gonna argue with anyone about it, but couldn’t believe how bad it is in a basically new truck.

 

I’ll also add, he said no vibration at all at lower speeds. None at all, it’s almost like it activates at certain times. He can’t necessarily replicate it at will. My Camry has a slight vibration that probably couldn’t be seen in a video but I can feel it in the steering wheel. I can replicate that anytime by braking hard.

 

That’s unbalanced front tire.

 

I didn't hear the noise at first but listening again I can kinda hear something. It's super hard to tell much from a video but to me it sounds like a minor noise coming from the interior. Something in the dash, steering wheel...etc that is rattling due to the vibration.

Vibration from brakes is usually more pronounced at higher speeds and/or heavy braking whereas it's often gone entirely at lower speeds and/or light braking.

I suppose it could be something else but it'd be something odd and not typical. Vibration in the steering wheel usually comes from something being out of balance. If a tire, wheel or axle is out of balance then you'll typically get a vibration that is based on vehicle speed. When the vibration happens only under braking then it's a pretty sure sign it's related to an issue with the pads/rotors.

 

Ah ok, thanks. It’s just seems so severe to me in the video.

truck is 100% stock, original tires everything

 

vibration when braking sounds like rotirs to me. Have them replace the pads too otherwise itll warp all over again.

 

Warped rotors...I change all my vehicles to organic pads as soon as possible =no more warped rotors although, they don't last as long as metallic or ceramic I can live with the shorter life.
Advantages:

• Softness and fairly quiet operations
• They do not need to produce much heat to generate good friction
• They produce less dust than metallic pads
• Perfect for every day vehicles and “sensible”, steady drivers

 

The problem you are having sir is from the tires. They are either out of balance or they have ply separation which will throw the tires out of balance as well. The other possible cause is there is excessive amount of build up of dirt inside the wheels. [BRAKE ROTORS WILL ONLY CAUSE THE STEERING TO SHAKE LIKE THAT WHEN BRAKING] If this shake happens only under acceleration then you have a drive line problem. Bent or out of round axle,front drive shaft problem etc..Rotate the tires see if problem is still there. Hope this helps you.. Good day sir.

 

Seems, strange to me. The whole video, shake starts and stops at his will. Watched it multiple times.. Sure looks like he's just drifting over to rumble strips on road edge. You can see no speed change and no application of brakes. Watch it closely...

 

He’s feathering (applying very slight pressure on the brake pedal) the brakes. Looks like warped rotors

 

Is this a notorious Friday thread ? Why doesn't the owner join and create his own thread and account ?

 

This is not a Friday thread. The owner is a good mechanic himself, though not as a profession. He has many friends who are mechanics by trade. He has no interest in relying on Tacoma world to solve his problem, I assume. He just sent me this video the other day like “look at this shit” and I thought it was notable so posted it here.

 

This is why I’ll stick to the second gen forum.

 

if it's that bad it might be the CV joint. that wast the cause of vibrations with my old Ford Ranger.

 

We like it here !

 

a slightly bad rotor (warped as they say, but it's almost always just uneven deposits not actually warpage of the iron rotor), along with a stuck caliper will dramatically increase the vibration transmitted to the controls. I havn't had my 3rd gen brakes apart, but I'm guessing they are not a floating caliper so that wouldn't be the case here.

Did the truck sit for longer than usual or anything notable happen before this started? Was it all at once or a gradual increase over time?

Worn parts like tie rod ends, steering rack mounts/bushes, etc can exaggerate the vibration felt, too.