Steering wheel Shake

Hey people of Tacoma world. Me and my wife are new to the Tacomas, so far we are loving this truck.

BUT we are having a slight issue with the steering wheel when driving it. The truck has a Maxtrac 4” lift installed, all torqued to specs. Fox shocks in the rear and the stock bilsteins in the front. 33x12.50r20 with a 20x10 -24mm offset wheel and tire combo. (THE TRUCK LOOKS BADASS BTW)
But when driving it above 45, every so often, the steering wheel slightly shakes left to right. Not terrible but noticeable. We had all the tires road forced balanced, one was out of round, got that swapped out. Now all the tires are perfectly balanced. But we still feel that shimmy when driving it. Ball joints, tie rods and wheel hubs have no play. So we are scratching our heads trying to figure this one out. Please any help y’all can give will be GREATLY appreciated!!!! We have a few friends that have 2nd and 3rd gen tacos with bigger lifts and wheels and tires and don’t have this issue.

 

If the vibration goes away when you turn the wheel it's a bearing. Your hub can still feel tight. Mine did, yet I had to replace it. Vibes were at 55-65mph.
, New tires and wheels.

Second is an improper alignment may cause abnormal wear on your bearings.

Third, the roads you drive on have ripples in them, and certain tire sizes and pressures will amplify the vibration.

Lastly, I have no clue. I did notice when I had my old 4x4 that fat tires and heavy wheels create a lot of unsprung weight, so I was bouncing over bumps instead of gliding. I went down in wheels size, and dropped to 31"x9.5" tires and it calmed down a bit.

These days I'm running stock wheel and tire sizes. I did have a vibe in the rear on my pre runner and it turned out to be a U-Joint.

Good luck

 

Rack and pinion maybe worn out. The tires will definitely have an effect.

 

I just replaced rack and pinion, rack mount poly bushings, tie rods, new tires balanced twice, 3 alignments, Koyo wheel bearings, new King Shocks, TC UCAs. Guess what? Still shakes. It’s IFS, just the super annoying nature of the beast.

 

Like others said it’s kind of a crap shoot. Just don’t over look the simple things like possible incorrect style of lugnuts

 

Um No, IFS is smooth with excellent handling especially with a proper alignment.

Being lifted with a higher scrub angle will cause handling issues, so the stock alignment may not be very good for your application. You could try less positive camber, with Toe Out zeroed out in the front. That would give it a neutral turning response, and even tire wear. If you gave it a bit of toe out then it would turn in more responsively. I know that from the factory Tacomas have a good bit of positive camber which I don't think they need.

Wide wheels that are heavy, with fat tires ride like shit without changing dampning and spring rates, especially if they are a pound or two off in the air pressure. Digital is the way to go for tire pressures.

 

The same Fuel Mavericks you have were on my truck when I bought it. I have the same shimmy at the same speeds. Mine are 20" wheels on 32.5 Tires 285/55/R20. May just be the wheels?

 

Hi fellas I'm new to this forum but I had been looking at your discussions for years as a guest because I was too lazy to create my own account. In fairness though, I had been a Tacoma owner since 2007, all of my family vehicles are Toyotas and more importantly, fed up with the stealership gauging whenever I bring it to them for a routine oil change and ending up spending more for a service that I didn't even need, since 2015, unless there is a recall, I had been maintaining our vehicles. The first Tacoma that I drove was a 2001 Crew Cab Tacoma 2-door Manual transmission with a 4 wheel drive option which my brother owned and it was fun to drive in the streets of LA.

Now to jump to deathpunch0311's issues with his bad ass looking Tacoma, my first question is: do you check your truck first before allowing these money guzzlers to tell you what's wrong with your truck? For me, the other owner's suggestions are without a doubt a "must do" for you. If it shakes above 45, does it disappear if you decelerate or get worse when you accelerate? Any humming sound like a helicopter heard in the front when driving? You should look into your front wheel bearings, if there are. Jack up the truck and secure with jack stands and do the 6:00-12:00 and 9:00-3:00 tire shake and check for play. Doing this will narrow your problem list as you will check for play on your suspension systems. Bottom line: check for play, something is loose or broken that's why your steering wheel shakes. Don't forget the brakes and air pressure on your tires.

Lastly, since I just dealt with all these stuff on my truck the past month or so, if you're sure that your steering wheel is shaking in spite of your regular maintenance, check to intermediate steering shaft No 2. That's your possible bad boy. On the last forum that I read here a gentleman was telling the members to complain to Toyota and NHTSA so this issue could result in a recall since the steering shaft could possibly seize and lead to an accident if not properly addressed and you know that Toyota is infamous for its patch work instead of solving the problem. You know these stealerships, for them the bottom line is profit. They will not lay a hand on an issue unless there is another Toyota crash and resulted with deaths and pay up for the corresponding law suits. Hope this helps. Let us know what you came up with.

 

Had the same issue. Thought it was the wheel bearings so I went ahead and replaced both hub assemblies and it fixed the vibration. Fairly simple process, had both changed out in an afternoon.

 

I see a lot of people saying wheel bearings. So I’m going to Change those out and go from there. It didn’t have this shake before the lift. So I am wondering if have the bigger wheels and tires are causing the problem to really show now with the new setup? Will change them out and post back when done.

 

Use genuine Koyo wheel bearings! If you buy autozone/adv auto parts Chinese bearings you’ll be back to square one in 6 months.

 

I agree with Flo Taco. Koyo wheel bearings are arguably one of the best that OEM could hope for. I used a Timken(which is another Koyo subisidiary, meaning they sell their bearings with a TM Timken but when you open the hardware it's acutally made by Koyo) wheel bearing on the left front and it was perfectly stable. We're not hinting that you change it outright, rather, just check first before changing. The goal here is to ID your actual problem and give suggestions without breaking the bank. Tires that are upgraded can lead to shaking too, but knowing the Tacoma, they are forward compatible, if not overdone. I've seen a lot of Tacomas here that were raised and retrofit with monster truck type of wheels but they appear stable.

 

OP, always try the easy stuff first. Rotate the front tires to the rear and note whether the shakes move, disappear, or become worse, etc. Do not assume that the wheel/tire combo is balanced just because they have been road-forced one or more times or just because they told you so...just to get you out of their hair. From all that you have stated I would focus only on obtaining a proper tire matching balance and nothing else at this point. Don't be surprised if you have to go elsewhere to find someone trained and competent enough to use their machines.

The idea is you want to mimic as closely as possible the way the wheel/tire sits on balance machine as it does on your truck. Make sure that the wheels are hubcentric or have good hub centering rings and make sure sure the wheel/tire combo is balanced using a suitable adapter such as the Haweka. Toyota has had the following tech bulletin in effect for many years:

 

I have this with my lifted 07. What’s causing my vibe is my passenger side cv axle bearings are wearing out. My wheel bearings are all new and everything is balanced and aligned. Easy test is to throw the truck in 4wd. My vibe comes and goes depending on whether I’m turning or not around 50-65mph. It isn’t that big of a problem for me so I’ll just run the axles till the bearings are shot and then replace them with rebuilt ones.

When the truck was stock height at full lock turning one way or the other you could hear the one of the bearings lock up as it rotated.

 

There are 5 things that are just facts of life with a 2nd gen Tacoma (especially once you start modding) that give it character...

- Tacoma Lean
- Your outside temp gauge will fail
- Your steering wheel will shake
- Front brakes will 'shimmy'
- Brakes occasionally feel spongy

Not as big a deal, but still just facts of life, especially once lifted....

#6
until you get rid of the carrier bearing and get a one piece driveshaft you will have driveline vibrations.

#7
Until you change leaf packs, you will have axle wrap.


Lol, to outsiders this might sound scary. But in actuality, if these are the only quirks you have to deal with to drive a truck that will last as long as you do... Not too bad!

 

Also, if your running recommend psi tire pressure, drop it to about 32 psi.

 

So true. I put new KO2's on my 4Runner recently and have had the fronts back to NTB twice for balancing. Steering wheel is shaking between 50 and 65. Moved the fronts to the back yesterday afternoon and it's smooth as silk.

 

Does it only do it for the first 5 miles or so after sitting for a while or overnight?

 

Did you put wheel spacers on the rear to even out 'poke"?

 

Update: I read about the “zip tie mod”. Said what the hell, ill try it. That got rid of all the shake we were experiencing. So looks like we will be changing out the intermediate shaft next weekend. to all of those who helped, THANKS