Steering wheel Shake

Update.....Stealer said they've found nothing wrong with my suspension. Said they wanted to do a road force balance.

Ordered my springs to do my TSB.


Ordered a new shift knob to replace mine since the threads have busted.

 

Dealer said instead of doing road force balance first, they were going to bring a tacoma off the lot and swap the wheels/tires out and see if the shaking still occurs....before doing road force balance.

This is getting old....

 

has anyone checked to see if it's a bad tire rod or if your front end is bad?

 

Supposedly my dealer & tire shop where I bought my new tires have both checked my entire front suspension & tie rod ends. Both say nothing wrong with my suspension. Some days steering wheel shakes like hell @ 55-70, other days smooth as glass. All driving done on same stretch of highway. I was going to have road force balancing done but they discovered excessive play in my steering intermediate shaft. It was decided I should have this TSB done first. Service manager @ dealer drove my truck & felt the vibrations/shakes. He suggests road force balancing next & "numbers for each tire should be 15 or less." (Whatever that means....) TSB has been done, the clunk & jarring in the steering column is gone but shakes/vibrations still intermittently there. I will have road force balance done next. So irritating......

 

I'm with ya buddy! I guess RFB is next for me too! My issue sounds about the same as yours.

 

mine does this to! idk what it is haha

 

Had road force balancing done today. F***ing steering wheel shake still there intermittently. Don't know what to do next. Dealer checked my steering rack & suspension again this week & said nothing wrong there. I have new Michelin tires, my rims are not bent or tweaked, had same problem with the factory Duncraps. I've been fighting this since the truck was new. I think this is my last Toyota.

 

The only thing to do next is dump it like I did and take a small loss now because I could not accept this so it had to go and no more Toyotas for me!!!!

 

What did you buy? I've been trolling the Ford lot lately.

 

2005 4dr Taco Prerunner

I have had wheel shake since new, freaking hated it. Took it in, force balanced, balanced to many times to remember, 2-3 x same day sometimes, only slight improvements sometimes just worst. Bought new wheels and tires thinking it wast he old IVstewart wheels, Same bulcrap......had it rebalanced 5x's, same same....had it in last week, ALMOST PERFECT NOW......for the life of me can't figure it out, I watched guys balance the thing to perfect on the balancers, Now perfect......70k miles of pure shit wheel shake and now, Heaven.....

Sorry can't tell you what it was.....hard to believe it was the techs all these times.....

 

Just got back from driving the same stretch of highway again after road force balancing. I can't believe how much more it shakes now. It's almost constant above 45 mph now. Went back to the tire shop who did the RFB, they said the RFB is as perfect as it will get & they can't believe it's worse after. I asked if it could be a tire problem, they said no. They said they will spin balance again on Monday & then washing their hands of the problem. Toyota dealer service manager called Toyota, they are convinced it's a tire problem & want to road force balance one of my front wheels to compare machine results. I don't know what to think now. Guess I will see next week. Also Toyota dealer service manager has been very helpful & willing to work with me on this issue.

 

Yeah same BS I wanted to fore-go. So I did the next best thing .....

 

I bought it because of looks and it's a "Toyota". So much for the "Toyota" thing!

If I bought another truck right now it would be a Ford or a Dodge. Do yourself a favor, forget the Tacoma till Toyota "FIXES" whatever the problem is!!!!

 

Just thought I would share my experience with the vibrating/shaking steering wheel at 60 to 70 mph in case it may help someone else:
Bought a brand new (8/25/11), 4X4 Access cab, Auto, 4cyl. W/ the stock Dunlops. Test drove but did not test drive on interstate. (Big mistake). Truck had 2 miles on it so I doubt anyone had even test drove it before me. Truck was delivered to dealer in 8/8/2011. Texas build.
As soon as I got on the interstate on the way home, at 60 or 62 the steering wheel started shaking. I immediately turned around and went back to the dealer and had them re-balance the wheels thinking a weight probably fell off. After the re-balance, no change. Still shaking. I thought maybe it is because they were new tires but since I was now close to a tire shop I trust and have dealt with in the past, I took it to them to re-balance the wheels. They said the fronts were off ¼ and ½ ounce but that I should not have even felt that? (I now have 47 miles on the this truck and haven’t even been home with it yet).
After the tire shop re-balance, back on the interstate…no better. Arrgggh. New truck, warm and fuzzies, shot all to hell.
Back to the dealer Monday. They Road Force balance and I get on the interstate; same thing but worse! Still shaking at 60 – 65. Another u-turn back to the dealer. Service manager wants to go for a ride with me. Back on the interstate, shaking worse than before. Service manager agreed something real wrong since Road Force balance should have solved it, but it didn’t. He said he could feel the shaking in the passenger seat. Service mgr. pulls another new Tacoma off the lot and they swap all 4 rims and tires… PROBLEM SOLVED.
Service mgr. and I go for another test drive and it is smooth as butter on the interstate. Unfortunately, I guess I will never know if it was the rims or the tires? I can tell you this though, the date code on the Dunlops (original ones that were shaking) was 0911. The replacement date codes are 3510 although I doubt it would make much difference, still if your date code is 0911 and you have this problem??? who knows??? My best guess is the rims. I think if it were just the tires it would shake at other speeds, not just 60 to 70.
Maybe this will help someone else solve this problem with their truck? If your truck is very new, would not hurt to ask if they will swap rims and tires from another new truck on the lot.

 

So which rims does your truck have? Mine has the stock 16" steel wheels. Since my truck is an 08 I don't think they will swap my rims out unless I bought them, even though I've been back many times since i bought it new. Truck goes back to the dealer again tomorrow. Don't know what this will accomplish other than make me more irritated with my truck.

 

Same...it has the stock 16" steel wheels. Do they have used one on the lot they would let you swap wheels/tires and try on the interstate if not a new one? Tell them your just gonna put ten miles on the tires. I don't know if the stock wheels on the 08 are the same as the 11'S? Quick look would tell you. If I had waited till I had a couple thousand miles on the truck, I doubt they would have swaped, but if they think your going to buy new rims /tires from them, they should let you try. You know anyone close by that you could swap with just to test out?

I agree this is a major PIA. Something is not right with the wheels/tires and if I can believe the dealer (cough, cough), it does not show on the computer when they road force even though it should. Keep us informed and let us know what happens.

If your successful and end up with another set, make sure they redo/regen ? the TPS system. Not sure exactly what they do to the TPS but they have to change something in the computer or you will get a constant TPS light.
Hope you get it fixed.

 

I have 28k miles and my truck started doing the shake around 25k.

Meh.

 

Just reading over this and noticed someone got 'the shakes' after a new set of DC's (Mickey Thompsons). I have just had the same thing happen. I know it's not the rims because I had aftermarket rims with BFG Rugged terrains on them (the BFGs were from factory that I put on new rims until they wore out) and NO SHAKE. I just had the MT Baja MTZs installed and went a size taller, from 265/70/16 to 265/75/16, and voila they threw in the shake for free. So it has to be either the MTs or the taller size? I went back and had them try and balance tires again but the shake is still there off and on. Very strange.

 

Yep...that would be me. Mine still shakes intermittently.

 

Wow. Why would someone pay to have their wheels balanced at 5000 miles. It's covered under the manufactures warranty isn't it. I know of I had 5000 miles on my new truck I would have that back at the dealership faster than you can blink. Unless someone has put aftermarket parts on their truck. I know I didn't have a vibration on my truck till I went w/a slightly taller tire. You know what tho I knew something would happen to the ride of the vehicle afterwards. You kinda gotta take the good w/the bad when you start modifying things.