Where is the vibration coming from?!?!?

Maybe someone here can help me...

Had my serpentine belt replaced and my tires rotated last week. The tires are BFG KO2 with only 5K miles and they are not warped or worn. I'm running 34psi and never had issue before. The truck now has a noticeable vibration that resonates through the steering wheel and dashboard. It starts to show up when I give it gas around 30mph and continues to happen when I accelerate. If I'm going 65mph on the highway and let off the gas it stops. The second I start to give it gas, the whole dash and steering wheel vibrate.

I did some investigating, found nothing. Took it back to my shop and had the wheels balanced but the vibration is still there. I took it to Toyota. They gave it a look and couldn’t find anything out of whack. The tech acknowledged he felt what I was describing and said he could check the drive shaft to see if there was play in the bushing but I didn’t want to leave it.

What’s driving me nuts is that I just had the frame replaced and the truck was running great … until I rotated the tires? Could it have been the belt? Too loose or too tight? Maybe I should just rotate the tires back?

 

get tires balanced again. Pull off all the weights before you go back to the place you get them balanced at. Request they balance the tires properly on both sides of the rim with a road force machine.

 

U-joints. Usually the cause if the vibration is only while accelerating. Even one being bad can cause a significant vibration.

 

My 2011 trd off road has started to vibrate at around 25 mph ish -30 or so and then starts again at around 53 to about 57 and it quits I hope its just u joints and not something worse my vibration is the buzzing type not the out of balance shake .

 

This. The U-joints will do exactly that when under a load and stop when coasting.

If you find a bad U-joint get them all replaced...

 

Well it turns out it was the u joints.

But now I have another problem. The power steering seems to be going. Noticed it later in the evening after I picked the truck up from Toyota. This morning I got in, started it up and almost drove off the side of my driveway. (I'm on a big hill.) Could this be related to the front u joints they replaced?



me!

 

Not related to a U-Joint.

What exactly happened with the steering?

 

I feel resistance at the steering wheel. When I go to turn it feels heavy and doesn't spin freely. It was just barely noticeable, and I would have brushed it off, but this morning I started the truck (it was 28 degrees) went to take off and had to really muscle the steering wheel to make a sharp turn down my driveway. Like I said, it took me by surprise and I almost tumbled down the side slope.

I should have checked the power steering fluid but was in a rush to catch a train (story of my life ).

 

Is the power steering fluid level good? Any strange noise coming from the pump?

Before I would suspect the power steering I would check the universal joint in the lower steering shaft. It is a common failure point in the steering system. It could be the pump or steering rack, but I would work cheaper to more expensive in that order.

 

Thanks man. I'm at work for the next 48 hours but when I get back home Wednesday I'll get under the truck and start poking around.

 

Rust buildup around the steering shaft universal joint (Jimmyh knows his stuff). Toyota mechanic cleaned and lubed it for me but said to keep an eye on it. Will need to be replaced if it starts to bind again. Didn't charge me anything - said he really liked my truck. Cool guy, tipped him $20.