Severe tire wobble

I have a 2015 Tacoma 4WD
Intermittently and with no warning the front tires start to shake violently to where I have to stop . The wobble will continue until the truck sits. I can go days without it happening It starts off that I feel like I have a flat tire then the tire wobbling. I do hear a clunk sometimes when I turn while this is happening but no clunking when it’s driving fine. Been to 3 places and I could never replicate it for them. All have checked underneath and see nothing. I have good tires all balanced new brakes and calipers and rotors. HELP

 

Are there any modifications to your truck.
Have any of the suspension components been changed?

 

No modifications no suspension changes

 

Jack your front end up so its supported by the frame or front lifting point. Straddle the side of the tire and by looking at the tire in question, grab the 3 and 9 o'clock position (the fore and aft of the tire) on the tire where your hands are reaching around to the back where you would almost feel the brakes and pull/push the tire with a bit of force. You aren't trying to push with enough force as to pull the vehicle off the jack but you cant baby it. If there's movement in/out, your wheel bearing might be on it's way out. Grab the tire at the 12 and 6 o'clock position and push/pull. If there's movement, then your tie rods or UCA/LCA bushings might be going bad. Take your tire off (you may need to put the vehicle back on the ground to break torque on your lugs), then inspect the condition of your brakes. Your disc brake might need to be honed back flat. If you have feeler gauges and a straight edge, you can check a few places on the brake for any runout. Typical small straight edges are good to 0.005" of an inch. If you don't have the specialty tools for that, pull your disc brake and take it to a brake shop to have it honed. You might as well put on new pads while you have the tire off (I replace pads in tandem, so both front brake pads would be replaced).

You mentioned that you have all good brakes and balanced tires, any way to get a second shop's input on the balance of the tire in question? Sometimes a thrown weight will cause the tire to wobble at speed. Do you hear any strange noises when turning hard left or hard right at low speeds?

-J

 

check your steering tie rods. Worn Inner/outer Tie rods could cause this. do you have any other symptoms like steering wheel play, or like the truck is wandering, almost feels like your driving in a crosswind? Does the steering wheel shake/vibrate at all?

I know this because I just replaced mine, and it solved my wheel wobbling, steering wheel shaking, and wandering feeling.

 

Ok, this is a completely different animal but since we're all guessing, albeit educated guessing...
Years back, we had this happen on a minivan. It turned out to be a bad axle shaft.

 

When it happens and I have to bring the truck to a very low speed I sometimes hear a groaning type noise and when turning sometimes a clunking

 

When you say all 3 shops "checked underneath", was it a quick visual or did they physically jacked the truck up to manually checked the WBs, BJs, brake rotors, etc.? I would also have them do an alignment check along with tire rotation. "Death wobble" are not common on Tacomas, mainly occurring on solid front axles like Jeeps.

 

I drove a work van that would sometimes do as you describe. It turned out to be the shocks.

 

Sounds like Death Wobble, but thats much more common on solid front axle systems. Not nearly as common on IFS trucks.

Either way it's always a loose joint of some variety.
-Upper And Lower ball joints,
-Inner and outer tie rods,
-Wheel bearing,
-upper or lower control arm bushings can all be culprits for movement.

Something is worn out and loose. Sometimes finding it can be tricky.

 

take it to an alignment shop, or a suspension shop, and have them check the CVs and the Steering Rack and Tie Rods, and really the whole suspension for wear and play.

 

all three shops had it up and wheels off had alignment rotors and balance after it started and still doing it.

 

This is what it is doing exactlyhttps://www.bing.com/videos/search?...rm=VDSHOT&shth=OSH.RNv%2BJHFuAQ%2FhdrWZYZRDTA

 

Do you have aftermarket wheels?

 

Does not matter if three shops had it on a rack and could not find anything. Something is worn out and loose.

You could try and rotate the tires to rule that out, but something is still loose to cause the issue. Most likely very very loose since this is such an uncommon issue.

 

No after market wheels

 

I had this same problem on a 98 4x4 ford ranger , i my case i had a tire delaminating -belt shift.

I needed new tires anyway so problem solved.

Just my .02 ct.

TOMB

 

Whatever you do, for the love of god don't get under it if it's only on a jack. Get some jack stands and/or cribbing under it. Always have it held up by two different things if you can, and apply all your parking brakes.

 

As I'm remembering the details of my experience, the tires were beginning to cup. I don't remember if it was on the inside or the outside edge of the tread though.

Are yours?

 

I’ll have them checked. I’m hoping it’s a bad tire and nothing more.