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2004 tacoma 4x4 front end shaking

Discussion in '1st Gen. Tacomas (1995-2004)' started by Gilley89, Jun 26, 2017.

  1. Jun 26, 2017 at 7:45 PM
    #1
    Gilley89

    Gilley89 [OP] New Member

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    I have a 2004 Tacoma 4x4 with 178,000 miles, that is stock. I've been experiencing a shake in the truck for several years. It's worse between 50-65 mph. I've replaced the brakes and rotors twice, had the alignment checked several times by different tire shops, the new tires rotated and balanced many times, and no play in the rack and pinion,but nothing seems to help. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks,
     
  2. Jun 26, 2017 at 8:14 PM
    #2
    Toyota4x46921

    Toyota4x46921 Well-Known Member

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    Drive shaft...carrier bearing or tires out of round
     
  3. Jun 26, 2017 at 9:54 PM
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    Glamisman

    Glamisman Well-Known Member

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    reach in close to where the front axles meet the front diff and give them a good shake and see if there is any movement there.
     
  4. Jun 27, 2017 at 4:51 PM
    #4
    Smash8ight

    Smash8ight Well-Known Member

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    East coast gear,look up the bushing mod...
     
  5. Jun 27, 2017 at 10:29 PM
    #5
    fast5speed

    fast5speed Well-Known Member

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    Driveshaft carrier bearing, worn tie rods, or the infamous "Tacoma wheels won't balance properly" issue.

    Maybe a combination of the 3. I know my front end used to shake A LOT, in that exact MPH range. It would come on really strong around 58mph, and get worse until it got slightly better around 70mph.

    I have a 2000 with the older style rack and pinion, so I upgraded the roller bearing to the 01-04 style. That helped a bit. What really made a huge difference was the driveshaft carrier bearing. My front end still has some minor-moderate play/shaking, but I think new tires and PROPERLY balanced wheels will almost eliminate that.


    I'll outline the deal with the "Tacoma wheels won't properly balance" issue.

    Tacoma wheels are lug centric, which means the lug nuts center the wheels, NOT the hubs. The issue is that, for some odd reason, like almost zero vehicles use stock, OEM lug centric wheels. The odd part is the Tacoma does. It's so bad, that I called 10 tire shops and NONE, (read: NOT.A.SINGLE.ONE.) knew what I was talking about when I asked if they did "lug centric balancing" or if they had the adaptor for the machine to balance it via lug. I EVEN CALLED THE DEALERSHIP to ask about lug centric balancing and they were like "Wut...?" I finally managed to get an older tech on the phone who understood what I was asking for, and he said they can't do it.

    The solution is to find and old-school tire shop that happens to have a lug-centric balancer/adaptor OR a motor that spins the wheel (like reverse dyno) and balances it while on the car. As far as I know, these are the only options to do it correctly. The wheel will never balance properly if done via hub. It is a well documented issue.
     

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