Highway Vibration

Have a vibration while on the highway. Recently had tires balanced so it should not be that.

Have polyurethane whiteline lower control arm bushings and new upper control arm bushings.

Vibration feels like its coming from something up front. Can tell the front passenger seat is shaking while on the highway.

The vehicle has over 270K on it so shocks could maybe be worn but have not totally failed.

The rotors are warped but has anyone changed or resurfaced rotors and had a vibration like this go away?

Also the while maintaining the same speed sometimes the vibration improves for few seconds but always comes back.

If it were tie rod ends wouldnt it be constant vibration ? WHen turning slightly at highway speeds if vibration goes away would that mean tie rod ends are causing this?

 

How's your driveshaft's center support bearing?

 

Most likely its the drive shaft bearing what has went out. Buy from your local O'Riley's or online. Toyota is on back order for 13,000 units nation wide on the part due to global shipping issues. I thought I had a break issue and went to go get the done. The mechanics at Break Pluss were very helpful and showed me how the bearing was stripped and they said this was normal due to wear and tear(my trucks at 166k miles) but to get it fixed immediately. If you are feeling vibrations every time you slow down or speed up its definitely the barring and should get it fixed ASAP. I suggest buy the part and take into a fab shop to get it installed. Every place will try to sell a whole new drive shaft. Looking at a max of $400 on a shop repair. I reviewed some videos of at home switching the part out, just didn't have the tools to get it done otherwise I would have done it myself.

 

Actually this is the first place I would suspect. Try swapping tires/wheels front to back. Also are your wheels hubcentric, or lugcentric with hub centering rings, or no rings? Was runout on the tire/wheel assembly checked? Finally, did you follow ToyMoCos prescribed way to balance as follows?
suoo2-96.pdf

 

1) replace tires if they are worn since no balancing will correct it.
2) road force balancing
3) inspect and lube drive shaft ujoints
4) jack up front end and inspect wheel bearings.
5) unrelated to vibes but replace and not resurface rotors along with pads

Any lift and what tire size ? AT or MT?

 

The wheels and tires on my Tacoma wont balance perfect unless done by the dealer on a road force balancer.

 

There is no lift on the vehicle. Carrier bearing just replaced, tires are new and balanced. Wheel bearing/hub have just been replaced too. U joints dont have any play none that can tell by wiggling the driveshaft.
Anyone had worn tie rod ends cause a vibration on highway? Would that vibration only be noticeable on highway if tie rod ends were the issue?

 

did you get an alignment after the new tires? If so they would have found a bad tie rod. I would have the tires rebalanced at the dealer. That way it crosses the easiest solution off the list.

My truck had a shake right after I had town fair tire put a new set of tires on my truck. They balanced them a second time and the truck still had a shake. Next oil change I had the dealer road force balance them(they have a special adapter for the large center bore of our wheels) and the shake was gone.

 

Do you feel vibes in steering wheel or more in seats/butt? If the steering wheel is doing a "shimmy" independent of acceleration I'd look at your steering rack and or tire balance. If vibes are in the seats it is probably drive train related. I was able to eliminate all my steering vibes by replacing the steering rack (hell of a job) but I still have the driveshaft vibes or something else.

 

At highway speeds 70 or higher it has steering wheel shimmy/vibe accelerating or decelerating it makes no difference. To me seems like the steering is vibrating due to something else wrong. Rotors in front are new so not that.
I know this is a rack but there are still u joints or some joint in steering column and or between firewall and rack. I wonder if these could be an issue.
I might try changing the tie rods they are worn but Im not sure if shocks would cause this type of vibe or not.
Have noticed that sometimes it gets better almost not noticeable but after 10 secs or so comes back. Not sure if its different road surface or what.
Before changing your rack did you change outer tie rods?
Do any these issues sound similar to your issues before changing the rack?