Help, Violent Shaking

I have an 03 Tacoma Xtracab Prerunner 3.4L v6.

The entire vehicle shakes violently when braking at any speed, and when cruising above 45mph.
The shaking has gradually worsened over several weeks.

I have tried the following fixes, and nothing has reduced the shaking.
* Replaced front brake pads, rotors, hubs, and wheel bearings.
* Replaced rear brake drums, shoes, and spring hardware.

There is no play in any of the wheel bearings, and I did not see any visible damage on the drivetrain or in any ball joints.

There is noticeable vertical play in the center driveshaft bearing. Not sure if this is normal.
Thinking of replacing this bearing and/or the ball joints to see if that fixes it.

Any suggestions on what might be causing this?

 

Do you have another set of pads and rotors you can try? Which brand did you use? When's the last time the alignment was checked?

 

I've tried 2 separate sets of pads and rotors with no luck. 1st set was R1 Concepts, 2nd is Power Stop. Both drilled and slotted. Has been about a year since last alignment.

 

Check tires for a belt seperation.

 

Might also check the Front Struts, especially the top mounts, I had one go and sounds like the symptoms I had on my 2010 TRD.

 

I would remove the driveshaft and take it to a shop to assess if it needs any new components/is properly balanced etc. I had a pretty gnarly vibration in my 2004 Tacoma that was caused by the center flange being busted. I believe the center flange is splined portion that the center carrier bearing slides onto.

Wish you had 4WD because you could simply remove the driveshaft and then drive using the front wheels to see if the driveshaft is causing the symptoms or not without having to spend more money.

Would also try a new set of wheels if you have some available but getting some expert eyes on your driveshaft seems like a good next step rather than replacing the center bearing and hoping that is it.

 

Did the shaking come back immediately after replacing the brakes or did it take a few weeks?

 

Welcome to TW...

 

I"m having the same issue. Ive replaced all that you have done. I even bought new rims and tires, shocks all 4 of them. New rack and pinion, sway bar bushings you name it. Im leaning towards the drive shaft not being balanced. It's a 2003 TRD 4 wheel drive. The center bearing for drive shaft has been replaced 3 times in 2 years. Nothing left of it from the shaking.

 

Sorry to say it, I would start with checking the lower ball joints again, get the front tire off the ground far enough to get a prying device under the tire and lift, any looseness, replace the lower ball joints. Then with the tire still off the ground grab the tire at 3 and 9 oclock and and wiggle it to the left and right and check for looseness.

I cant tell you how many times I read on this forum that new parts are junk.

 

I bet that you have multiple issues in play.

Shaking under braking implies that a disc/pad / drum/shoe issue is to blame- pretty much no way around that. You mention power stop and concepts, but not OEM as replacement parts. I'd ditch those. Get some quality rotors and Akebono pads in the front. In the rear, the top tier Napa products are reputable. Some people say it's impossible to over adjust the rear brakes, but I disagree, and have strong experience that's possible to over adjust the rear brakes via the parking brake. So in addition to using quality components, make sure the rear parking brake, bell cranks, etc.. are well lubricated and working properly, and that the rear tires spin freely when the parking brake is not applied.

Vibrations above x speed, are almost certainly due to a rotational imbalance. Now.. that imbalance could be any number of things in the drive line. u joints, carrier bearing, wheel bearings, drums, wheels, tires, etc... around a 1/4" of play in any direction, in the carrier bearing is normal- so don't be too quick to call that one. Make sure that your tires are fresh- not 10+ years old (they have a date on them) and road force balanced. I know you said wheel bearings don't have any play, but I for sure had bad wheel bearings without play (they didn't cause a vibration, but they were TOAST).

I bolded drums, cause I've had a lot of issues with them. Even new off the shelf drums have been out of balance and been an issue. It comes down to how they're stored, shipped, stored, etc... in addition to manufacturing quality.

There isn't an easy answer to your problem. You are going to have to update parts with quality components until you fix it...

 

Tie rods, ball joints, sway bar end links and lastly check out your drive shafts carrier bearings, u joints etc.

Make sure everything looks not sketchy or loose. If the drive shafts aren't correctly balanced it can cause vibrations. Also wouldn't hurt to have the tires road forced balanced. I know its a lot but vibrations when braking can be a pain to figure out.

So you kind of have to make sure everything is functioning correctly as they all work together.

 

when I was dealing with this issue tire pressure was critical. Even though the tires were force balanced if the pressure wasn't exactly the same on both front tires it would exaggerate the vibrations I felt in the steering wheel. 45 and 67-68 mph were where it was very noticeable.

 

Did you clean the face of the hub before installing the new rotors?

 

I recorded the truck driving by and hitting the brakes.
The driver side rear tire is visibly and rapidly bouncing up and down ~1".

I think that narrows it down to the following possible issues.

1. Rear tire belt separation
   
2. Low or high rear tire pressure
   
3. Over adjusted rear brake shoes
4. Bad rear shocks or shock bushings
5. Bad rear leaf springs, bushings, or shackles
   
6. Bad rear wheel bearings
7. Unbalanced rear brake drums
8. Unbalanced rear wheels
9. Unbalanced rear tires. IE needs to be road force balanced

The following seem less likely, but maybe an issue?

1. Unbalanced driveshaft
   
2. Bad driveshaft universal joints
3. Bad driveshaft center carrier bearing