Shudder at 25-30 mph?? Any ideas?

I have a 2011 V6 access cab with 135k and I have a fairly violent shudder during light/normal acceleration. I have read that changing the fluids can help this issue but with a higher number of miles I don’t think this would be the best option. Any ideas on other things I could attempt to examine and correct before changing the fluids?

 

Spark plugs?

 

S plugs, air filter, t body clean, engine and trans mounts, u joints, u bolts, leaf springs......

The list goes on. Get some time and get the tools out, check all the running gear first then go to the stuff that connects the running gear to the rig, pry up and down left and right on stuff, look for play.

Sucks but you need to rule out loose parts or worn parts like u joints before you can lock this down, your shudder could be the trans mount starting to get loose, could be t case bearings/bushings going bad.... cheapest is to check nuts/bolts, the fluid changes and s plugs........

 

I’ll guess center bearing

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/vibration-diagnostics-for-all-tacomas-write-up.520607/

 

Thanks for all the advice and gearcruncher nice write up!

 

I bet my money on transmission fluid. Had the same issue going the same speeds, tried everything but changing the transmission fluid was the immediate fix for me.

 

How risky is this for higher mileage(135k)? I am not sure if the previous owner ever had it changed.

 

I have 129k right now, changed it at 125k. Zero issues. I flushed it again at 126k to get rid of any debris that washed out from the original flush.


Edit: one way to tell if it’s trans fluid is if you pay attention to RPM’s when it shudders. If it occurs at the same RPM range everytime and it’s when the truck shifts, you know it’s trans related.

 

I had a similar vibe that turned out to be a bad u-joint.