Steering Wheel Vibration since new - video link included.

Can anyone help me? 2016 TRD Sport, 4x4, 6 speed manual, extended cab, 2,400 miles. The truck is my second vehicle.

I bought my truck brand new (5 miles). It has vibrated since new. Because of the vibration, I changed the factory tires with Toyo Open Country A/T II tires. I thought that I had a factory tire that was out of round- plus the factory tires weren't adequate for me anyhow. The truck drives straight and doesn't pull- but the steering wheel shakes from side to side. I'm looking for suggestions to correct the issue. The wheels are torqued properly and air pressures are correct. I plan to see the dealer, but I was looking for educated thoughts as to the cause of this vibration. I don't notice any brake pedal vibration. The vibration increases slightly based on speed, but is most noticeable at highway speeds.

See video below.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/154937576@N05/3CAW50

Thank You for your time.

 

Would ball joint issues cause this? This is a wild question/guess on my part.

 

That looks to me like up/down vibration as opposed to side to side OP.
I would take a look at the rack & pinion mounts/fasteners and start from there, definitely not normal and needs an up and personal look.
You're dealer is your best bet for now, take the video and show them, don't take normal for an answer and please let us know the results so we can put it in our data base for future reference to others.

Cheers!

 

Wow that's pretty aggressive. I would've taken it back to the Dealer the very next day. Since tires didn't fix it, it's a mechanical part such as a tie rod end or ball joint or control arm bushing, etc.

If you continue to drive on whatever it is that's defective it's going to get worse.

 

Could be a shifted belt in a tire, normally steering wheel shake comes from a front tire, if you feel the shake in your seat bottom, it comes from the back end.

 

Because you got AT tires, you may have to get a little firm with the dealer. They love to blame any sort of vibration on AT tires.

 

I think Seatbelt Mike promised a Steak Dinner to anyone with a 3rd Gen with Vibes.

 

You guys are missing the part where he said it had the exact same issue with the factory tires, and swapped them thinking they were the issue.

 

I have had issues like that with past trucks and it turned out to be warped rotors, but you would really feel it when you put the brakes on. I don't think it is that but in south Carolina, some of the roads here, do that to my truck.

 

Does the vibration change at all if you move the front tires to the back and back to front?

 

He is already on the 2nd set of tires cause he thought the originals were the cause, I doubt rotating would help but I guess it could not hurt.

 

I'm going with ball joint but it could possiblely be loose lug nuts Check them out

 

Does your vibration go away sometimes and the come back?

As in: could you set the cruise at 65 and have a vibration, but then a few miles up the road it's smooth and gone, again, at the same speed?

If that's the case, as much as I hate to utter these words, it appears to just be a weird characteristic these trucks have. Mine does this too and it's a suspension quirk because sometimes my butt is vibrating, sometimes the wheel is.

I checked the balance, changed tires, rotated tires, got an alignment done, checked lug torques, and so on until I realized that my vibes were coming from specific sections of road.

 

anyone here familiar with the death wobble that some jeeps have?
look it up on youtube. it felt like all the rims were wobbling and about to fall off.
happened to me once and that was enough for me to get rid of it.

 

Probably should had a dealer check it out before he swapped tires if the vibration was that bad, I agree they're going to blame it on a new all-terrain tires

 

I was thinking wheel problem.

 

My understanding of the "death wobble" is that it's because of the solid front axle and the old school pitman arm type steering. The track bar bushings get sloppy, which fails to keep the axle centered, tie rod slop adds to this, and the whole assembly starts juddering back and forth making your steering wheel shake and the whole car go wild.
It's a quirk of solid axle cars. Legitimately every front solid axle car made can have it crop up as components wear.
Also, something has to START this wobble. If you could drive 65 on a magically glass smooth road it wouldn't crop up, but go over a specific bump (usually bridge expansion joints) and boom, the resonance starts.

Tacomas have rack and pinion steering and CV axles up front, though. Your tie rod ends would have pretty obviously failed if those were the culprit, methinks. The only spot I can think of where a weird resonance could crop up would MAYBE be that the rack bushings are too soft of a durometer, allowing the rack itself to jiggle on the frame.

Again though I'm talking about a problem that would be intermittent at the same speed, and caused because of a road condition initiating a resonance.

OP still hasn't confirmed if his vibration is constant or intermittent.

 

OP strap a small high def cam under your frame safely focused on the front suspension and make sure you get as much of the steering and suspension components in frame. Without any of test driving and going just by individual description of the issues, it's difficult to pinpoint anything. Video MAY reveal something on a test drive, especially if you know how to replicate the symptoms. If it's blatantly visible, drive to the dealer with video in hand.

 

Guys,

Thanks for the responses! When I replaced the factory tires, I put the wheels back on the same axles that they were factory mounted on. So I'm thinking that an out of round wheel still could be a possibility? A friend also suggested that rotors could cause the issue also.

This friday, I have an appointment at the dealer. I'm going to have the new tires re-balanced in case the tire shop didn't use a lug centric adapter when balancing the new tires.

The vibration is fairly consistent and I can't attribute it to any type of road surface. I have noticed that it'll lessen at certain times, but the vibration is always present to an extent. It is definitely most noticeable at speeds greater than 45 mph. The degree of the vibration does change in intensity though.

As suggested, I have checked all of the visible suspension components and everything appears to be in order. If Friday's appointment doesn't resolve the issue, I'll try a frame mounted camera to capture suspension videos.

Does anyone believe that the rear end/leaf spring/pinion angle issues could be the culprit?

 

I have the same problem but intermittent and IT seem to be less than tout video...
Since the truck is new. Winter ans summer tires on original wheels did the same thing. When the truck is cold for the first ride of the day, its most noticeable.

5 appointement at Toyota dealer since 8 months and nothing repair.

Do you have something new since your last appointement????