Steering wheel shake

Hey guys, hoping someone can help me. I have a V6 4.0 Tacoma. Since over owned it at higher speeds. The steering wheel shakes a little. Not violently or terribly bad but it’s noticeable. It’s a little worse if I go over a rougher road. I’ve gotten new tires since and had them checked for balancing twice. Tie rods and ball joints have no play. And I changed the whee bearings around 5,000 miles ago. As far as steering there’s no play when making a turn. Any suggestions?

 

going to sound weird, mine was kinda doing the same slight shake of the wheel, found if I put air pressure up to 40psi shake went away, I think it just might be crappy tire/side wall flex. also noticed in my truck fuel mileage noticeably improved with higher pressure (less rolling resistance but also smaller tread foot print, which wears out center of tire tread) but as an experiment try it, seeing as you have eliminated all the normal culprits

 

Could be your steering rack

 

I’ve heard the bushings on the rack go bad on these trucks. Also the rubber on the intermediate steering shafts

 

Could be warped brake discs. You could try checking them, jack up front onto jack stands, remove front wheels, put a couple lug nuts on, then check them with a dial gauge. Or if you don’t have one, like me, I held a sharpie on a block of wood just barely not touching the disc, then spin the disc.

 

I wouldn’t think so I’m this situation. I just changed the rotors. They may have 8,000 miles. It does really shake on smooth roads or when braking. Mainly bumpy or rough highway at 50mph. Doesn’t really do it at low speeds

 

I had the same issue and it was the tie rod ends for me.

There was zero play, even went as far as using a channel lock to check the play in the tie rod, and there was hardly any, to the point where I though it was just slop in the channel lock pivot.

I've had the tires recently balanced and rebalance, plus the LCA's were replaced with Moog less than 6 months ago, but the tie rods were OEM with 300k miles on them, so I just went ahead and purchased new moog tie rod ends and installed them in under 20 min.

Steering wheel shake went away.

Even though you don't see anything from a visual inspection, just look at the age/miles. Plus outer tie rod ends and much cheaper than a new steering rack and an easier install than inner tie rod ends. Made sense just to give it a try to replace for me.

 

That sounds like a worn suspension component. Get the front on jack stands, make sure it’s secure and won’t slide off. I like to give the chassis a shake. You probably need a helper for next thing. Grab the sides of the tire, pull and push while watching behind the wheel and suspension. Same thing top and bottom. This is why I say to make sure it isn’t going to slide off your jack stands and kill you or your helper.

 

Have you done the Zip tie mod?

Does your front end clunk at all when driving through the yard?

I thought my front end was solid never noticed any play everything felt tight just drove like a truck should thought the clunk was steering intermediary shaft play.



Finally found a shop that really knows what they're doing and discovered I needed lower ball joints and inner tie rods. Much like another poster in this thread, I had checked everything myself and I've got a little bit of experience, and didn't notice anything that I couldn't dismiss as play in my tool or method, but when you've got one person moving the thing and you can watch it without moving yourself at all you certainly see it a lot clearer. I did my steering rack bushings and outer tie rods for good measure with the other necessary maintenance and now this thing is scary responsive to steering input. Like it took some getting used too. Steers sharper than a sports car!

 

No clunks squeaks or anything. I’ve lifted the truck and check everything for play. I’ll check tie rods for play again. I always thought If tie rods were bad you would experience uneven tire wear which I haven’t.

 

I just don’t want to start swapping parts not knowing for sure what’s wrong. Especially after spending $800 on tires three days ago.

 

When I had an issue similar to yours it was my rotors warped. Brake pedal felt fine and I just dealt with the shake. Vibrations got worse and started to get pulsation on the brake pedal. I replaced the rotors and it fixed the steering wheel shake.

 

Did you do the ECGS front diff bushing to replace the needle bearing?

Do you have a video os the shakes?

A 'shake' to you might be a 'vibration' to someone else hard to say over the internet.

 

I had a similar vibration in the steering wheel a couple years back around 45-50 mph. I thought it was driveshaft related but it was my steering rack that needed replacing. No vibes after a new rack was installed.

 

I had a steering vibration while on the highway in my 2nd gen but it turned out to be my carrier bearing.

 

I actually just changed it out as well

 

No I haven’t done the bushing. Haven’t had an issue with clunking or popping from CV Joint

 

It doesn't always clunk or pop sometimes it just vibrates that's why I was wondering.

Edit:

You can verify this by putting it four wheel drive and hitting those speeds that you get your vibration and see if it goes away.

 

Possibly. My rotors aren’t even a year old

possibly. I wouldn’t think so my rotors aren’t even a year old yet

 

It only takes one hard stop to warp a rotor. Especially if they're cheap aftermarket with aggressive aftermarket pads.