Help with Diagnosing Wheel Vibration

Hey all, I’m reaching out to the knowledge well we have here for some input on what could be causing a random wheel vibration at speeds 60mph +.

Here is the skinny:

At highway speeds I get a random vibration in the front end that comes and goes. Sometimes it’s after a bump or sweeping corner and other times it just happens. It will last for 5 – 30 sec then fades out. Nothing severe, just bounces the steering wheel a tad. This has been going on for about 3 weeks now. My immediate thought is wheel bearing however I replaced both the fronts about 3300 miles ago. I also suspected my tires as they were about at the end of their lifespan and we slightly cupped. I got 4 new tires last weekend at that did lessen the vibration, but did not eliminate it. The vibration also seems to go away when the 4x4 in engaged.

It’s clearly coming from the front wheel assemblies somewhere… I’m wondering if I need an alignment? I got under the front end and poked around looking at the CV shafts, ball joints, breaks, etc, and everything appears to be OK...

Could anyone point me to other things to look at or check out before bringing it into the shop?

Thanks in advance!

 

Brought my truck into the dealership to have the Spiral Cable recall looked at and in the courtesy multi-point check, they determined that both lower ball joints are starting to get loose. Guess that's where the issue could be coming from.

Going to try to tackle them this weekend - If I can get the damn things out. Gotta love what these New England winters so to the underneath of a vehicle...

 

Good luck with all of that. Let us know how it turns out!

 

FWIW check this thread for similarities.
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/suspension/299245-bad-wheel-bearing.html

 

Just a quick update - I ended up trading my 05 in for a 2011 haha.

Long story short - I decided to trade my 2005 TRD Off Road SR5 double cab in for a 2011 TRD Off Road SR5 double cab. I loved my 05 but the millage was getting up there to the point where every few months I would have to do some work (front wheel bearings, CV axles, torn boot, breaks, was planning on doing rear axle seals and bearings right off, etc...) nothing huge, just the stuff you would usually expect to do on a vehicle with almost 140k.

The thing that I was mostly concerned about was the frame on my 05. I have been watching it turn into a Pillsbury Flaky Layer Buttermilk Biscuit over the last few years, to the point that I’m under the truck doing something and you can see layers lifting off in places...

That ended up being a great call as it turned out that my 05 needed a frame. That’s not something I would have wanted to contend with so I am very happy with my decision. I got into a Toyota Certified 2011 with 35k miles with a power train warranty good to 100k, plus I got to keep all my add ons to move over to the new truck (TRD cat-back exhaust and CAI, roof rack, satoshi grill, running boards, rims and tires, Pioneer DVD head unit), and best of all, the 2011 is a 6 speed

Now I just have to drive around in a stock truck till I get around to changing my parts back over!