3rd Gen mystery vibration/shake solved

2 yrs, 40k miles and $5k later I’ve finally solved my mystery constant vibration and more recent shake. No thanks to Toyota but mainly you guys. So I wanted to share my journey in hopes that it helps somebody else out there. Skip down to bottom for parts list.

Bought a 2018 Toyota Tacoma trd sport 4door manual transmission with 10k miles on it. It was lifted 3 inches with jba upper control arms, sitting on blocks in the rear. 17 inch random no name rims and some 33’ nitto all terrain tires. Stage 1 icon shocks all around and a front diff drop. Noticed random vibration at 40mph+ Thought was just road chatter as it was mostly in the background. Steering wheel wasn’t vibrating or anything. Realize it’s not road chatter, take it back to dealer and was told “that’s just how trucks drive”. test drove several others, bone stock ones and lifted. From 2017 through the 2020’s. All pretty much did same thing to one degree or another except the 2017. Should have got that one..lol.. I’ve owned allot of trucks in my time. Mostly Toyota, but a few others. Lifted 4x4’s, stock 2wd’s and not a single one did what this one was doing. My gosh darn 1998 2wd with 270k miles drives nicer then this 2018. Should have just passed on the truck right then. But my dumb stubborn ass kept it. thus begins my journey through what surly must be one of the circles of hell. I sure hope the Toyota execs end up there..lol

Most of the following are excellent upgrades, and should probably be done regardless. Not sure exactly which part solved my problem. I feel like it was a combination of most of the parts I changed. But maybe you will be luckier then me, and it will only be one of the following parts. Fingers crossed for ya.

CV axle Needle bearing:
East Coast Gear Supply makes the clam shell bushing.
Excellent upgrade, definitely do it. Didn’t solve my problem.

Rear leaf springs:
The 3rd gen stock leaf pack is trash. It just is. And sitting on blocks don’t help nothing. Went with Icon rxt leaf pack. Excellent performance, but the absolute noisiest leaf pack I’ve ever owned. I’d choose something else if I were to do it again. But for now I’ll just continue to lube them up and keep the squeaking to a minimum. Excellent upgrade. Didn’t solve my problem.

Then money got tight, pandemic hit etc.. and I had to stop chasing down this issue and I just lived with it for 40k miles..lol.. it wasn’t super, super bad. Just annoying as hell

Finally a few weeks ago it got so bad the steering wheel and whole truck was vibrating at speeds over 40+ Time to dump cash and get it sorted, or burn the truck and say it was stolen. I was tempted to do the latter gotta say..lol.. now to the present and final parts

Rear driveshaft:
The two pice drive shaft is trash. Went with a Tom woods one pice rear driveshaft. Amazing upgrade. Do it! No complaints. Helped But didn’t solve my problem.

Inner and Outer tie rods:
Don’t think I needed to do these as the parts looked good when they came off with only 50k miles on them. But did them anyhow.

Intermediate steering column:
Don’t think I needed to do it as it looked good when it came out. But did it anyhow. Again 50k miles. did it same time as tie rods, so only one trip to alignment shop. A note on this job. Be sure to have a scan tool handy. After you swap it out, you need to reset the steering angle and clear all trouble codes using the scan tool. Otherwise the traction control locks up and the dumb crash assist sensor goes haywire. Learned that on my drive to the alignment shop..lol..

Upper control arms:
After 50k miles my jba upper control arms were overdue for a rebuild. Ordered the parts from jba and rebuilt them. Same time as tie rods and intermediate shaft. They have upgraded their bushings and ball joints from what I had on there when I bought the truck. And it was time anyhow. I’m on the fence with these control arms honestly. The new bushings are nice with the grease grooves, but The 3rd washer in is a pain in the ass to get the bolt to slide through. But use ya pry bar and some patience and it’ll go. Also helps to have a helper to jiggle the arm while you tap the bolt through. There are probably better arms out there, but it was cheaper for me to rebuild vs buying a whole new set up. I’ll decide later on once they are due for another rebuild weather I keep them or not. Helped my problem, but not completely fixed.

Rims, tires and lug nuts:
The final thing I changed, and probably should have been one of the first. Found a set of trd pro rims with pretty much brand new Falken all terrain tires on marketplace for a great deal. I live in Hawaii and nobody has a road force tire balance machine. At least not on my island. So it’s hit and miss with our tire guys. One thing I did notice is that my lug nuts were shot. Definitely keep an eye on those, as they are a relatively cheap fix and something to check periodically. They do wear out. My rims and tires seem fine, but the lugs were definitely shot. I liked the look of the trd pro’s anyhow so Scooped up the new rims and tires got new lugs and slapped um on. If it didn’t help no biggie, as I could just resell whichever set I liked the look of less for around the same price. And lo and behold, now the truck drives just like any other lifted truck I’ve ever owned.

Fixed at last, fixed at last! Can I get an amen..lol..

Something I’ve been considering is doing an Orange Virus tune. Just not wanting to drop the $600 just yet, but that’ll probably come. Need to do some more research on that. One thing I do know is that it really, really helps you guys with automatic transmissions. Definitely do that first thing if you have the auto.

I believe the vibration was a combo of axle wrap from the junk OEM leaf pack metal. Drive line angle, possible binding u joints, and possible bad carrier bearing. 2pice drive lines are dumb as hell. The shake was from bad upper control arm ball joints and worn out lug nuts. The lug nuts I took off the rims were cheap metal and the threads were stripping out, not holding torque well anymore. The rims are fine. The shake wasn’t bad up until recently.

so ya, 2yrs 40kmiles and about $5k later I finally like the expensive pice of metal I drive..lol.. should have kept my 85 solid front axle 22re extra cab. It’s really the only truck I’m sad I sold : (

hang in there gang, and don’t do what I did and suffer for 2yrs driving a vehicle you sorta hate. Drop the cash and go through the things I’ve listed, and you should be good. Hopefully this helps somebody out there. Much love from Hawaii

Parts list and things to check:

Cv axle needle bearing

Rear leaf springs

One pice drive shaft

check upper control arms

Check outer and inner tie rods

Check rims, tires and lug nuts

Check intermediate steering column

 

oof, sounds like one of you wheels lost a balance weight, or was poorly balance to start with, that cause your issue.

 

"But my dumb stubborn ass kept it. thus begins my journey through what surly must be one of the circles of hell."

This so much reminds me of... me.


It would be interesting to see if the problem was a tire(s) or wheel(s).
Glad you got the problem sorted out.

 

My first thought was the no name wheels or tires. Glad you got it sorted out.

 

i don’t believe it was honestly. Had them balanced and rotated several times at the beginning when I bought the truck. And steering wheel shake didn’t start till 40k miles later. There was always just a random shudder in the background at higher speeds. I believe it was a combination of drive line angle and axle wrap. Then at the end there worn out control arms and lug nuts that wouldn’t stay tight anymore. I do know it’s a massive complaint with allot of people in the community. Toyota knows about it, but literally refuses to do anything. Saying, and I quote “that’s just how trucks drive”..lol.. pricks. And again I even test drove brand new bone stock ones that did the exact same thing. At least brand new in 2020. I don’t think the 2021’s were out yet when I got the 2018

 

So, what was the issue?
A bit long to read.

 

First thread I’ve seen about bad lugs…
“Some random no name rims”. Hmmmmm

At least you figured it out.

 

I won't lie, you lost me when I read "Bought a 2018 Toyota Tacoma trd sport 4door manual transmission with 10k miles on it. It was lifted 3 inches with ..."

 

What exactly was worn out on the wheels lugs?

 

Cheapo metal. The threads on the inside were starting to wear down. OEM lugs I wouldn’t worry too much about. Still worth checking. But if you got after market rims that won’t take OEM lugs, be sure to spend the extra dough on quality metal

 

Ya you had them balanced when you bought the truck, then after 40k miles and some tire rotations or other work, maybe even just getting to close to the curb, the wheel weights get loose and dethatch. Then you get the sudden mystery vibes. Then when you get new wheels and tires, that I assume you had balanced pre install, the mystery vibe is gone.

 

It was a Christmas miracle.

 

I wish it were that simple. I’ll say it yet again. I test rode bone stock, no mods, brand spanking new Tacoma’s fresh off the boat that did the exact same thing. Some worse then others. This is a literal problem that Toyota knows about, but won’t admit to. I am stolked that you clearly haven’t had this issue. There are a ton of posts about this problem, with everyone trying to figure out how to fix it since Toyota literally refuses to, even on non modified trucks. Obviously once you lift it etc, you are on your own. I’ve spent allot of time reading through all of them, and I made the write up to try and help out people that are as frustrated and pissed off as I am at a company that put out a POS product, and charged us top money for. Yet again, their literal response, from their very mouths is “that’s just how trucks drive” if it were as simple as a lost wheel weight, nobody would be complaining. Myself included. And I never would have had to even write this post..lol.. and ya, tire rotation every 5k miles with wheel balance done at same time. Went through one set of tires in that 40k stretch. They were nitto all terrain ridge grapplers. I couldn’t remember what they were when I posted. Nice tires though. So ya a total of at least 8 rotations with wheel balance done ever time. It wasn’t just a lost weight. Gosh how I wish that were the case..lol.. I honestly believe it’s a combination of multiple issues from factory and maybe a rushed production. Maybe they got it sorted out on the 21/22 models? I honestly don’t know, but I do hope so.

 

Glad you finally got it worked out OP. I do not have this issue with my 2018. Maybe I got lucky with my truck but its been trouble free since I bought it. The tune is a very good idea and would have been my very first mod if I'd had known about it sooner. I have the KD Max tune and it's absolutely fantastic. I also hear great things about the Overland Taylor Tune. Find a Tuner in your area and GET IT DONE. You will not regret it even for a moment and I believe its only $350-$400.

 

hell ya! Great to know about the tune. I didn’t know about it till a bit ago either. I think there is a guy on island that does it. I’ve heard rumors that that is the case. I read it really helps the guys with automatic transmission issues too. No shortage of those posts with the 3rd gens. Gonna have to do a bit more digging and track that guy down. Or if not just drop the $600 stolked you didn’t get one of the vibrators..lol.. there seem to be allot out there judging by how many posts I’ve read through about this issue up to this point. Wonder if it was just a certain factory or something. Also Hawaii is sorta a final destination zone for certain things. What we gonna do, ship the stuff back to the mainland?..lol.. we get allot of random products that seem to be sub standard. But ya, I finally like driving my truck, and I think the tune gonna make her even sweeter. Thanks for the reply, and hope all is well

 

Maybe just maybe the wheels you took out was lugcentric and not hubcentric, Toyotas are hubcentric

 

I actually just sold them to another Toyota owner. He came over, we put them on his rig. Test drove it, and everything was fine. I did get new lugs before I listed it though. The old ones were cheap metal and weren’t holding torque too well by the end there. I believe The issue is a compound problem. It’s not just one thing, but a mix of several faulty OEM parts that have to be gone through one by one till it drives like a normal truck should. The wheels/lugs just happened to be the last thing I got to, but should have been one of the first. Since they were aftermarket rims. But they balanced out fine every time, and torque was good up until recently. So I didn’t really even consider them. All the things I did do along the journey did help until I finally found the last piece. Which were the lug nuts. The mystery vibration is a pretty common problem with a fair amount of these trucks. There are a ton of posts from people all over trying to figure it out. And not just modded trucks, but strait up brand new stock ones. No joke, I test drove a 2020 (brand new at the time) that shook worse then my lifted 18. But ya, the vibration isn’t terrible, it’s just annoying as hell, and I delt with it until the shaking started happening. The shaking was the lug nuts, and probably the upper control arm ball joints. The vibration was a combo of axle wrap from sub par metal in the OEM leaf pack, driveline angle and maybe even u joint binding and possible bad carrier bearing (2 pice drivelines are so dumb) At least that is what I’m surmising. Put all that together at the same time and it’s not a fun drive..lol.. at least not anything over 40mph.

 

"lifted 3 inches with jba upper control arms, sitting on blocks in the rear. 17 inch random no name rims and some 33’ nitto all terrain tires. Stage 1 icon shocks all around and a front diff drop.

And Toyota wont help...

 

Glad it is fixed but that is quite the parts cannon.

 

I’ve been going thru the same thing with my 2021 TRDOR long bed. Nothing has helped it…but I can’t do the driveshaft cuz nobody makes one longer than will exceed 72”.