Vibration when in gear but not moving

I've had this new vibration that has started that gets worse the longer the truck is sitting still. The vibration seems to fade out when I get moving, I'm pretty sure its still there to some affect while I'm moving, but hard to discern between the road and what I'm feeling in the cab at that point. The air-conditioning running does not effect the vibration, it occurs with or without it on.

I can feel it radiating through my steering wheel, seat, brake pedal, center console - pretty much everywhere. This issue has started within the last two or so weeks and has gotten worse since then.

What are the usual suspects?

My initial thought was motor mounts, but wouldn't it still be doing it in park also? Or could the load on the system that putting it in drive cause the vibration to come into play? Not sure. Looking for some wisdom.

Just did spark plugs within the last few days as they were due(and I was kinda hoping that was the issue), issue existed before and after replacing them. Truck also is not lifted, I did install new front and rear OEM Offroad shocks on it within the last few months.

Thanks.

 

I have a few questions:
- Is there a noise that goes along with this vibration?
- Does the vibration only occur in Drive?
- Have you tried taking a look under the hood or beneath the truck to see if there is anything moving more than it should?

If it only happens in Drive, perhaps you could have someone place it in Drive with the brake on, and you pop the hood to see any changes (and maybe cycle D and N). My guess is it would be somewhere upfront connected to the engine, but I'm not familiar enough to advise. You can check out this post to see if it helps you (while I know it's not the same situation you have).
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/engine-vibration.570021/#post-19327057
Might be able to at least isolate the trans vs the engine.
Check for loose mounts, pulleys, etc.

Best of luck chasing it down.

 

So before this message, it only appeared in drive/reverse when stopped, but I managed to get it to occur whenever I want. If I put the truck in park/neutral and hold it steady at around 2000 RPM, the truck starts to rumble/vibrate and this “tapping” noise seems to start. Anything above or below that feels/operates normally. This tells me that it isn’t trans related?

I didn’t see anything out of the oridinary when I looked under the hood, but it was idling. Think my next step is having someone hold it at 2000 rpm and see if I can isolate where it’s coming from. Kind of concerning though to say the least.

if anyone has experienced this please chime in.

 

If you can have someone hold at 2000 RPM and see if you can see anything out of the ordinary. Although, it may be slight and not noticeable, but good to try.
Since you are able to recreate it in Park, then it's worth rolling under the truck to check that out as well. Might be harmonics of the drivetrain triggering the vibration/issue and noise you're experiencing.

I know this doesn't help much, but I recently picked up and used a Chassis Ear to chase down a clunk on my Tacoma. It helped me locate an otherwise difficult ongoing noise I had. The Chassis Ear is not cheap, but I know I'll have more clunks and noises in the future to find.

If there is a tapping noise, I bet you can get pretty close to where that's coming from if you're searching and someone else can recreate it.

 

That was my intention, unfortunately, this thing is becoming really damn intermittent and the method I was using of park and hold at 2000 RPM doesn't even recreate it to the same severity all of the time. There is a very faint rumble/tapping, but so faint that I wouldn't think it to be a cause of concern. The issue is still present, however, but its intensity varies, and what controls that I still have no idea. Compressor off or on still has no effect on the vibration.

I'm beginning to wonder if there is some sort of fuel/spark issue that isn't bad enough to throw a code. I think that would explain the intermittent nature of it? Truck feels down on power but that could totally just be in my head. I just did plugs, I noticed one of the ignition coils(cylinder 3) was more... brown in comparison, same for that plug I pulled. I wasn't really sure what to make of it, the truck only has 110k and I don't really know how to gauge if the coil is bad other than testing it. I'm going to look into how to test the ignition coil and see if there are any that test bad if I'm able to.

The chassis ear is something I would love to dive into, and I may explore that option should I need to, but I don't think I'm quite there yet.