Steering wheel Shake

how i fix? replace both rotors?

 

Rotor is not a Caliper.

A Rotor is the Disc part of the brake.
The Caliper is the part that clamps the brake pads to the rotor.

Rotor:



Caliper ( the red part on this image, usually not painted):

 

I have replaced the following with no avail. Wheel bearings, uniballs and bushings on UCA’s, brake rotors and pads, needle bearing
(to ecgs bushing), lowered the front end a half inch, and tire balancing and rotation... I will admit that it is a little smoother and A LOT quieter (needle bearing or wheel bearing) but I still have a shake around the 50-60 mph range. Went to have it aligned and the tech came and got me to show me that I have a lower ball joint bad on the passenger side so I chose not to align and waste my money. Should have the new OEM LCA’s in the morning so I’m going to tackle that and report back. I’m not 100% sure that the LCA balljoint is the problem either because it did not have a whole bunch of slack. But has slack none the less.

Edit: All of this was done this week.

 

Does it do this right after a bump? I'm having a strange steering wheel wobble often after a bump in the road. But sometimes it does it randomly.

 

No and it doesn’t do it all the time either.

 

This was the problem for me. Had a shake develop a while back around 50mph, but it was intermittent. Brakes pulsed when the shake was present, but not when it wasn't. Last week, suddenly the shaking was severe and not limited to 50mph -- but it was still intermittent.

Found one caliper piston sticking. Replaced and all shake gone, smooth as silk at all speeds.

 

Just had a local repair shop swap tires from the stock 2010 steel wheels to some used TRD OR wheels and now my steering wheel shakes like crazy above about 60mph. Wondering if the offset is slightly different on the alloys, making it so the alignment is off or something? The shop also used the clamp on weights, maybe the balance is off?

 

Do yourself a favor and dump those crappy duracraps, worst on road tire ever made. They shook the shit out of me and my truck for 5 year until I couldn’t take it anymore: multiple balances alignment everything you can think of was blamed except the tires. Once I dumped them the truck is way smoother than with those crap tires. Plus driving in the rain was soo sketchy but sorta fun cuz I got good at my drifting skills but almost wrecked every winter.

 

Those tires have been gone for a couple years now. So have the 5100's. No issues now

 

Just did outer tierods and its better but still wobbles. Lca next I think.

 

This is gonna sound dumb, but helped mine out quite a bit. Have you backed off the lug nuts and torqued them to spec in a star pattern as you should. I noticed mine was bad when i would get tires changed and they just hit them randomly with their impact. Do you have aftermarket wheels?

 

I have TRD pro wheels with factory lug nuts. Torqued to 83ft. So not sure how thats going to help me with a steering wheel vibration of the tires. Feeling like they are going left and right.

 

Do you have a lift or running stock?

 

All stock, no lift. Only aftermarket parts are the new moog outer tierods.

 

I had to get a correct alignment and torque my wheels to correct mine. I had a couple different alignments and still had the shake. Finally found a shop that knew what they were doing and since that and the re-torque i have been good. Assuming you got an alignment already?

 

Figured I'd report my solution for the next thread skimmer. Road Force Balance at the dealership and cb drop. Purs like a kitten on the highway. Have a 3" allpro kit 33's general grab.

 

Had some steering wheel shake and seat shake like many have stated. I had been doing my own tire rotations for the last year and had one balancing done at a Discount Tire. Finally went to the dealership who had a Hunter Road Force balancer for a balance/rotation and the ride is much smoother now.

 

RF is great. I have to put eyes on it after Discount Tire tried to tell me they had one and turned out they didnt.

 

I have been told that a lot of tire manufacturers actually don't make concentric tires as in the past, this has been something that I have an issue with. If you look at certain tires, you may notice that they look like they have been folded in half. This is from the manufacturers process. There are videos that shows how this happens, and being told that it's not an issue is not something to take lightly. I had several issues with the Wranglers hydroplaning and high vibrations, causing the vehicle to drift on dry pavement. I swapped them out for the Destination le and the problem was solved.
Not all tires are a general fit. If you want the best tires for your vehicle, you need to understand the Toyota specs for your specific vehicle.
My wife had an 1980 Camero a special order,that was wicked fast, except the factory put the wrong size tires on it, kept spinning on the beads,finally got the right size WOW! Hold on to your shirt! But the car wouldn't go anywhere in the snow. I was told she had wrong type of tires, got some Continental winter tires and no longer an issue. Tire types and sizes do make a difference.

 

Jumping in late on the thread, but thought my situation might benefit others. Own a 2011 Tacoma PreRunner (148K), 265/70/16 tires on factory aluminum wheels. The truck has been flawless, never had an issue with it. Recently developed a shake in the steering wheel between 60-75 mph. No shaking below 60 and mild shaking above 75. Checked the tire pressure; 27.5 in front and 28.5 in rear. Put air in until they were 29 front & 32 rear. The test drive showed that the shake was now between 65 - 75 mph. So I started reading the shaky Tacoma steering wheel threads for more information. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on them, they were very helpful.

Took a test drive down the street with my window rolled down and heard a noise coming from my left front tire that sounded like something rubbing on every rotation. Crawled underneath to see a large patch of tar on the tread and inside sidewall of the front left tire, maybe a coffee cup or two amount. It was a 4" wide by 12" long patch with fine granules of rock mixed in. Scrubbed it with hot soapy water, wire brush, and scraped it with a putty knife. Repeated the process multiple times until most of it was removed. Rinsed off the area and tire and took it for another test drive. No shakes. This situation just shows how a single, out of balance front tire can shake the steering wheel of a Tacoma. Now I'm just waiting for the 21.5 mm socket to arrive from Amazon so I can remove my swollen lug nuts and rotate my tires. I'll finish cleaning the rest of the tar off when I remove the wheel.