2012 Shimmy/Steering Wheel Shake

This is my first time posting, but I have been reading good advice on here for years. I have a 2012 crew cab that I purchased last year, and it is giving me some issues so hopefully someone can help me sort it out. It has had a shimmy similar to a wheel being out of balance or a bad tire. I can also run over something as small as a stick in the road and the steering wheel will turn to one direction or the other. It also shakes sometimes, but not all the time at high speeds or even low speeds. I took it back to the place I purchased it and they checked everything out and said that they found nothing mechanically wrong, but that it could be the tires. The tires were worn unevenly, but I put up with it for a while before I finally purchased new tires. This did not fix it, and in fact it seemed to do it at lower speeds (20-45 mph) than before I had the new tires. I purchased an extended warranty so instead of taking it back to the Honda dealership where I purchased it; I took it to the Toyota dealer. They called and said that they could not find anything wrong with it, but that I needed new struts. Would bad struts cause this kind of issue? My 96 has over 300,000 miles on it. It definitely needs new struts, but other than a little bounce it does not exhibit any of the problems I am having with my 2012. I figured that it is something in the suspension, steering and/or drivetrain. I plan to get a second opinion, but hopefully someone may be able to help.



Thanks!

 

I had a steering wheel shake with the alignment being great and all the tires balanced. Ended up changing ball joints, rod on the rack, struts, and the driver's side lower control arm, still have the shake but it has been greatly reduced; the LCA actually did the most to help the shake. Changing to new tires also seems to have helped as you will get noise and vibration as the wear pattern fixes itself

.02

 

Thanks. My main issue, in addition to not suspecting the struts, is that I paid for an extended warranty. I can do the work myself, but I purchased the warranty so that I would not have to do the work myself. The warranty will not cover wear and tear, but it would cover other issues like the ones that you mentioned. I am now paranoid that Toyota is in cahoots with the warranty company, or that they just don't want to deal with it. I plan to take it to somewhere else, and I am not going to tell them that I have a warranty until after the diagnostic. I figure that they will find all kinds of things wrong with it. I also plan to take it to a local guy that I know, who is probably who I should have taken it in the first place.

 

paid for the 100k warranty as well and the dealer was more than willing to keep my truck for days if necessary (actually 8 hours when I was told maybe 1) but wanted me to pay the diagnostic fee when they found a vibration but they didn't know from where

 

Tacomas are sensitive with tire balance.

You have to find a shop that will use the Haweka adapter with road force balancing. If you get only the road force balancing without using the Haweka adapter you will still get shimmy.

Also after road force balancing, the whole wheel/tire assembly has to have less than 12lbs of road force. Any more than that you will still get shimmy.

I had one Duratrac that balanced out but still had shimmy because of excessive road force.

 

Thanks. I wouldn't think that unbalanced wheels would cause the movement in the steering wheel that occurs when I hit a bump in the road, go over rail tracks etc. It will even sometimes move when I go over a stick pulling into the driveway. This issue is my primary concern because it seems the culprit could be something more severe than struts or wheel balance.

 

The pulling or "bump steer" is usually caused by the alignment.

http://www.longacreracing.com/technical-articles.aspx?item=8162

 

Interestingly, I purchased my truck in Sept. 2013 and had the "shimmy" almost from the time I drove it home. After balances (Walmart) and tire replacements (only when I needed it) I decided to take it to the local dealership assuming they wouldn't find the problem. They road forced balanced and I haven't experienced the shimmy in the steering since.