Driving Vibration: 2017 Tacoma TRD Sport 4x4

I have a rumble strip vibration that can be felt when slowing around the 20mph range.

 

It's your tires bro. Go get them balanced by someone who knows eh at they are doing

 

I feel the front driveshaft spinning when the front diff is cold. Has a whomp whomp whomp type feel

 

It's your drivers side front differential CV bearing - bad design carried over from 2nd gen to 3rd. If it goes away when in 4wd that's it for sure.

 

I have a slight vibration when I am stopped in traffic or at red lights.... If I shift to neautral it stops..... Any ideas?

 

I have a stock 17 TRD double cab 4x4. I noticed it when I left the dealership. Service looked at I once and said its a trait of the truck. That's not satisfactory imo. Any info would be great.

 

Why would your front driveshaft be spinning unless you're in 4wd?

 

Parasitic drag from the fluid.

 

Make sure the shop that balances your tires uses the Haweka adapter if you're on OE rims.

 

Your front driveshaft is always spinning when vehicle is moving unless you have locking hubs which you most likely don't. The 4wd switch engages the transfer case, which couples the front drivetrain to the rest of the drivetrain. Toyota should work on an electric locking hub system to increase fuel economy. My old 70 landcruiser had auto locking hubs but they were dangerous pieces of shit.

 

Mine appears to be vibration from the low RPMs and engine lugging. If i drive in "S" mode and keep the RPMs above 1500, I don't get this vibration.

 

I don't think youre correct here. what exactly would the transfer case be engaging in 4 hi if the front driveshaft was already spinning?

 

I also had vibes with the TRD Wheel KO2 combo. Had these ordered and placed on my truck before pickup. The dealership is a far hike for me. Soon as I hit the highway from 60-75 my truck was vibrating. I knew from the symptoms and experience my tires where out of balance. I could see my bed shaking in my side view mirrors. That weekend (picked it up Saturday evening) my bike via the bike hitch carrier was shaking like a leaf in the wind. Thus went back to the dealership. This is when they told me prior to delivery they had to swap out 2 TRD wheels for 2 more since they couldn't get them to balance with the KO2's. I asked the guy to take my truck for a spin and let me know what he thinks. He didn't drive for more than 10 minutes and he apologized and said they obviously didn't drive it on the road before delivery. About 2 hours later he comes back and states we had to put 2 new KO2's on the rear to get them to balance. Prior to them taking it back in the service bay I said my fronts are solid. Zero shimmy/vibes at highway speed. It was just in the rear that my truck was shaking. Oh ya.. my passenger seat was also shaking pretty bad at highway speeds (saw someone else mention that in this post). I get my truck back and they were nice enough to give me a full tank of gas. The truck was way better than on delivery but still vibrated at 60+. Maybe I didn't notice it as much since the truck was so bad to begin with I was just happy my bed wasn't shaking anymore.

Fast forward 3 weeks and the vibes are annoying the shit out of me. My fronts shimmy at speed now too... Wheel was shaking at about 65+. Wish they would have just did my rears. My son states as we were riding to the store "is this because of your tire package?".

I've had KO2's 285's on my 4Runner TEP with icon stage 4 lift and tire rack did an amazing job mounting and balancing. I drove that multiple times to DC from Pittsburgh and it was rock solid on the turnpike. I know...different vehicles, but I also know how an out of balance tire(s) feel.

Now today after reading posts (this one, plus others) I got fed up with the vibes. I'm probably OCD on vehicles, but so what... my truck shouldn't vibrate and shake my sides like a vibrator (not that I know how that feels...just guessing...)

Saw a post where the guy mentions "road force balancing machine". I called a few shops and asked specifically if they had one of these machines. Surprisingly, not everyone does have one at least around here. Took it into a local tire place and said my sad story. The only thing they wanted to make sure was if my wheels were Toyota factory and not aftermarket. I think that's due to hub centric compared to lug centric. My searching I found factory wheels are typically hub centric and so is there machine.

45 minutes later I have my truck back. No highways close so I just drive home.

Things I noticed... The place where these new weights are differs from the previous weight locations. I could see the adhesive from the previous spots. Second thing I noticed the weights this shop used looks like a continuous strip of a weight. Whereas, the dealer used the stick on weights, but they were in block chunks. Maybe this place can get a more precise weight since they are not in block increments?? Dunno... but they are different.

Next thing I noticed after hitting the highway is my truck wasn't shaking. I actually laughed since this had been annoying me since delivery. Cost me 40 bucks and about an hours worth of time (not including the hours I've spent reading about it...).

I'm not saying this is your issue, but it was my issue. I had no idea a wheel balancer can make such a difference. I'm thinking Tirerack has this type of machine since I've never experienced that from the wheel sets I've purchased there. Apparently, my dealer does not have this type of machine. Not sure why (I'm sure it's related to $$ in some way).

Sorry for the long winded response. This was annoying the shit out of me and I really like my truck. I'm happy I found a solution for it.

 

Good to hear your tires are good now. I had a similar issue and took my vehicle back to Discount Tire to check balancing on tires. Three of them were good but the forth one was actually diffective and moved a lot. They got me a new one and so the ride now is much smoother and like it should be I believe.

 

Did it vibrate with the stock tires?

I know this is useless information for the guys who are liking the big aggressive look but I love Michelins....Always a smooth comfortable ride.

 

My guess is the front driveshaft spins (freewheels) with the front tires but doesn't engage with power until you lock it in in the transfer case, but I'm not an expert and I haven't actually looked into it.

Otherwise you would always have that tire skidding while turning.

 

I didn't notice it when I got it from dealership. I don't think it did but then reading on other possible things I started worrying. The Tacoma is a bit different than other pick-ups I've owned since I was used to driving V8s but I do like the handling and it's also good on gas.

 

The front wheels are disengaged from the driveshaft in 2wd. Front axles are spinning as they aren't locking hubs, but are free wheeling as the passenger axle is disconnected until put in 4wd.

I just took this video to illustrate.

 

Hard to tell from that video.

If the front driveshaft wasn't spinning at the same speed as the rear driveshaft you could not shift from 2WD into 4WD high while moving.

 

On our Tundra and 4 runner it may sound crazy but when the temp drops the tire pressure does as well which everyone know. One thing I discovered is our tires remain perfectly balanced all summer then when the pressure drops along with temp when the tires are cold the steering wheel in both vehicles shakes until what I assume the tires warm up causing an increase in pressure, effect being the shimmy stops. I inflate the tires by adding just even up to 3 pounds of pressure cold causes the shimmy to disappear and the tires seem to ride a little rough till warm. I've read about balancing issues across the entire truck market which I can only assume that the fully boxed frame exaggerates balancing issues that could've always been a problem just not felt like they are now due to the stiffness of the frame. Example a rigid motorcycle with any tire issue will be more felt because the vibration is taking away somewhat by the suspension on a softail. These are just guesses but I read about this more and more as customers are looking for more tow capacity and handling and you can't seem to have it all for the low price people are also looking for.