2018 TACOMA Shimmy with LTs - Nothing Dealer Can Do!

Hey all,

New to the forum! I have a bit of frustration with my brand new 2018 Tacoma TRD Sport Upgrade. I am seeking some advice and opinions on what to do here.

When I purchased the truck it came with the standard P Tires. I had the tire upgrade done to BFG KO2s in stock size.

After the initial install i had a bad shimmy at highway speeds. It was bad enough that my son was humming in the back seat to make his voice shimmy (haha).

Visit #1
I took it back and they ran them on the balancer again. When I picked it up, they said it must have been a bad balance job as all 4 wheels needed a minimum of 2oz each (or more).

I made a trip on the highway yesterday and again at highway speeds there was a bad shimmy. Not as bad as before but now more through the steering wheel.

Visit #2
They got an appointment for me today and said they would road force balance them this time.

They called me back and said they are unable to get the shimmy out and that all the tires road force balanced perfectly. They even took 4 wheels and tires off another new Tacoma (with P tires) and said the shimmy disappeared in my truck.

They said they have two other customers who have LT upgraded tires (not necessarily KO2s) on their Tacomas and they can't eliminate the shimmy! Said they've contacted Toyota Canada about the issue and are waiting for a reply.

My question is, is this bull from them? Anyone else experience this? Is this a known issue with KO2s or LT tires. I would assume that any quality tire shouldn't shake.

Could it be an issue with the wheels themselves?

They've basically said that this is it, all they can do. I don't feel warm and fuzzy with my new $60k truck shaking on the highway.....

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Matt

 

So I'm guessing the road force was bad or you got a bad belt in a tire. One or more of the tires are bad and they should be warrantied out. Problem is swapping them around to find the bad tire if they can't see it on their road force machine(Which they should be able to.). I've had LT tires for years and I've had good and bad ones. Your going to have SOME rougher ride due to the fact your running LT's now and they're hard so your going to feel everything in the road. Any truck should ride just fine with modifications if they're done right. I use to sell and install tires before I started working on Jets. So that's my opinion.

 

I am honestly starting to think that it has nothing to do with balancing sometimes but something along the lines of harmonics. Kinda like how Jeeps get death wobble but less extreme. Seems like some of these third gens don't play nice with heavier tires. My truck does the same thing, shimmy at hwy speeds but not always. It depends on how fast I get up to speed on the hwy. Sometimes its as smooth as can be & other times bad shimmy in steering wheel. I have had two different sets of tires in the 265/75/16 size & both did it after numerous road force balances. All numbers good on tires. Put stockers back on & no issues. I am wondering if the steering rack pre load is just to weak & causing this issue. Another thread about this issue.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/intermittent-steering-wheel-wobble-on-highway.561227/

 

Thanks for the reply.

I expected some road noise and increased feedback but not a shimmy. I mean it's not extremely bad but still. I would compare holding the wheel to holding the handlebars of my 300 Two stroke KTM in that your hands feel a bit numb after an hour or so. Hope that's a good analogy haha.

I just picked up the truck and stopped over to OK Tire here in town. They are the pros here and have the best equipment around.

He said they have seen in the past, with the newer Tacoma specifically that the truck seems to not handle 10 ply LT tires well. They've brought them in and were balanced well but cannot eliminate the shake totally.
He said they've also had cases were wheels came from the dealers said to be in perfect balance, and they were not.

I have an appointment booked for tomorrow anyway as it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion from the Pros. If it fixes it, I'll give the bill to Toyota.

Dealer called me back 10 mins ago and asked if I could bring it in again on Wednesday and they will try another Tacoma with my wheels/tires on it.

I hope they figure something out!

 

@Sputlegin do you have any lift? Its possible the shimy is coming from the driveshaft or the front needle bearing. It's possible the dealer did a factory lift (which are just blocks) and its throwing your geometry out.

You may also want to consider Balancing Beads instead of static weights

 

That's basically what the tech said at OK tire. Makes sense. I'm hearing it a lot now today from fellow Tacoma owners here at work with LT tires.....

 

Jeeps are a different animal all together. Usually theirs stems from improper lifts and poor stabilization. Got a Tacoma with 285/75R17 with load E, smooth as glass if the road is smooth. Running open country AT II

If it’s a static balance that is a problem too. These are not MTs.

 

Hey!

No lift. It's all stock with the same size tries as the ones removed (265/65/17)

The truck is brand new with only 1200km (~750 miles) on it.

I don't drive on the highway often as I work in town. The truck is less than 3 weeks old and the 1200kms was just a trip home last week. That's when I noticed the shimmy. So not much driving so far.

Hopefully they'll have some more info from my OK tire appointment tomorrow and when the dealer tries my tires on another Tacoma on Wednesday.

I would hate to loose these tires if they're not usable as the factory P tires are simply useless to me....

 

They've been using stick on weights as the outer rim on the wheel will not allow clamp ons. They're not directly in the center though. I'm assuming that still falls under a static balance?

 

Do me a favor, next time you have the shimy, engage 4Hi (make sure your going in a straight line) Does the shimy go away? If yes, you have a worn Needle bearing (very common) replace with ECGS bushing. This probably isn't the problem your having but its an easy test and one more thing to check off the list of possibilites. I'd also recommend next time to have them align the front wheels with a bit of positive caster (like 1 degree if on stock sized wheels), that also can eliminate quite a bit of wobble.

 

Yeah look into getting balancing beads. They're basically wieghted beads that are loose inside your wheel and due to g-force when the tire is spinning will automatically roll to the section of the wheel that needs weight. They're awesome! Never have to worry about balancing again and since it's dynamic when you have mud or snow clinging to your tires the beads will adjust to that added weight keeping your wheels balanced all the time

 

Thank you. I'm heading home from work now and I'll swing out to the highway and try it in 4hi.

Will post the results.

Cheers

 

I don't know if this helps or not, but on my 18 SR5 2wd V6 I run 10 ply 265/75/r16 Toyo open country AT2 tires and I have never had any vibration, shimmy, or even really any noise. These tires are as quiet as the smaller road tires my truck came with. I will say as a casual onlooker, I see much more KO2 owners complaining of balancing/vibration issues than I do with any other of the common tire choices on Tacomas.

 

Love my Toyos on the dirt, not so much on wet pavement

 

I would try another place even if you have pay for it like Discount Tire. Tire wobble is hard on suspension parts. I took my old T100 one time to get it aligned and it was worse when I left. I went to another place and they got it perfect and it stayed aligned without tire wear.

Just try another place for peace of mind and less buzzy fingers.

 

I recently had a new front differential & drivers side CV axle replaced due to it being worn. Thought that would fix my shimmy but to no avail.

 

The most common part is the drivers side Needle bearing in the differential fails. It's more common with lifted applications because it puts more stress on it but even OEM I've seen failures pretty much within the first 30,000 miles. For a $60 part its worth replacing.

 

No some kind of split helps a lot. Static is just the middle.

 

You said the dealer removed your wheel/tires, put on stock P tires, and your shimmy was gone. Did the dealer put your shakey KO2s/wheels on another truck to test for shimmy?

Try rotating the wheels/tires fromt to back and see if the shimmy is different. This might help determine if it is the front or rear tire. The shimmy might not be as bad if the bad tire is in the back, since the solid rear axle should shake less. The independent front suspension should shimmy more if there is a bad wheel/tire combo up front.

I am sure it has been very frustrating for you. If it was me, I would be nuts over the situation.

You might want to take the truck to another tire shop (like somebody mentioned )to get an independent attempt at balancing. It would cost you about $60 out of pocket, but it might help getting the tires replaced by the dealer.

I personally love my Falken Wildepeaks 265/75-r16 in SL (43 lb each) on the lightweight SCS F5 wheels that only weigh 19 lb each. Good luck.

Real last chance to try and identify the bad wheel/tire is to have somebody follow you on the highway and look for any obvious wheel shimmy or wheel-hop. I actually did that many years ago to diagnose a bad wheel on a girlfriend's POS car.

 

a static balance is the only way you can balance a wheel with a deep dish design. think scs f5's, etc.

the weight is centerline to the wheel.

a dynamic places the weights as close to the inside and outside edge as possible.

a static balance is basically a 2d balance, while a dynamic is a 3d balance.

a road force balance looks for discrepancies in the tire itself in relation to the wheel to help it get perfectly round when mounted.

It is the rack that toyota uses in the tacoma and 4runners. it's weak and cannot handle much weight over the stock tires/wheels unless it's spot on balanced. those that don't have the issue simply got lucky and have a dead on balance.