LemonRage

Well, my mechanic friend has school, so he can't look at the 4Runner before our trip and replace the u-joints, so I'm taking it into a dealership who hasn't looked at it. I'm going to have them do the following:


1. Replace U-Joints
2. Replace Sway bar and end link bushings with new poly bushings

3. Grease Drive Line
4. Check on Rear Control Arm Bushings
5. Check on Tie Rod Ends
6. Check on Warped Rotors


Again, I appreciate all of the help and support. I will post an update after the look at it! Thanks.

yotaman85

their is no need to replace you sway bar or the bushings, it will not cause this. just because your U-joints don't have play they can still be bad, they seize up just as much as they wear out. greasing your drivline is a good idea. your rear control arm bushings will not likely be worn out on a stock truck, but should be looked at, not necessarily replaced. just replace the tie rod ends, their cheap and can be tricky to tell if they are no good. having your rotors warped so bad that your truck shakes is highly unlikely..

i would suggest having your wheel barrings inspected as well as your ball joints and steering system. anything else is not likely with the described shaking.

Portos

I know I am a noob but my 2000 had the same issue. I turned the rotors for $7 a pop at Napa and it fixed the problem. It would only shake at high speeds just like yours.

buckz6319

join the vibration/shaking club.....I have been looking for the cause of mine for almost 2yrs....and no one knows where it is coming from.....so good luck with your search!

LemonRage

Just got a call from the dealership in salt lake...the service rep says that the tires are out of balance! WTH? I pushed back quite a bit saying that they are new tires and were just road-force balanced two weeks ago. He then said, well they probably didn't do it correctly...

I said, OK, but my buddy who has the same SUV that doesn't vibrate like mine put his balanced tires and wheels on my car and my Runner still shook, so how is it the tires??? He said that he checked on everything else, u-joints and whole front end. I'm beyond baffled. I will post a new update after I pick up the car and take it for a spin. Thanks again for the pointers.

gpcollen1

If the only place that balanced the tires is Goodyear, then i would be they are not balanced correctly. The only shop around here that i got to balance mine properly was the dealer. No issues since and i would not trust anyone else to balance and align my 4runner.

mk3supraman

if it isnt the tires, i would take a look at all the suspension part, make sure the vehicle is lifted on the frame and not the front control arms, if you lift on the control arms you cant check the ball joints correctly, post when ever you figure it out

mike73737

Just throwing a guess out there, but what about one of your brakes not disengaging? If you were dragging a brake I would think you'd get some shaking.

4runninSolid

I am having this exact same issue. My truck is an '01 4runner 4x4 with about 195k miles on it. This just started happening about two weeks ago and seems like it's slowly getting worse.

My problem is this: from speeds about 55-75 it shakes pretty bad, seems like the whole car shakes as well as the steering wheel. It also makes a louder than normal tire noise, almost like I'm driving on the groves on the edge of a highway. Originally it would only do this between the speeds of 60-70.

If I let of the gas it immediately stops the shaking but the moment I touch the gas pedal, even the slightest pressure, it starts again.

I thought it was my tires because my fronts were getting pretty low on tread and had an uneven wear pattern. However, I replaced the tires and this is still happening.

I'd like to get this fixed but can't afford to start just throwing money at every possible problem in hopes that it works. I'm also supposed to go a 700 mile (each way) road trip this weekend and I'm starting to get a little nervous about the car.

buckz6319

I have been to about 7 shops and no one knows where my shaking/vibration is coming from....I can only say that you may get lucky when you go to a shop, and stumble upon someone that has a lot of experience with dissecting these Toyotas, in order to get to the problem.
I wish you luck and will be waiting to here what is causing your issue

ahtub

get them road-force balanced and the tech should be able to tell you how many lbs they are running and how bad they are out of balanced. i had the shake too with my new tires on some tundra wheels. never had the shake with my old tires with the stock 16s. took the new rims and tires to my friend who works at lexus and had him road force balanced it. on my 1st tire that was road force balanced, it was at 6lbs, 2nd tire was 13lbs, 3rd tire was 26lbs, and the last one was 39lbs. (road force balance help determine the heaviest part on the tire) the recommendation for a good road force balance is supposely to be running under 5lbs. So my friend is telling me that my wheels are running like an egg (oval shaped and not round). this is where i get the shake from. but after a few thousand miles i should get them road force balanced again to see if there was any improvements. damn these cheap bad tires. and yes i did buy some cheap tires brand new. "Neptune Experience" from a local tire shop which i thought was a good price for the tires. but you know how the saying goes "you get what you pay for" but my friend did say it was okay to run with these on until next time and buy some good tires like michellins cause he's never seen any problems with mchellins when they're road force balanced. that should solve the shake. one other option was to return to the shop where i bought the tires from and try to work out a deal of a refund or exchange and then get them road force balanced again. only thing is what if the new tire was the same thing which = a bigger head ache! so yeah im just gonna stick to these and just live with it. it did stop most of the shake after they were road force balanced tho. i still feel a little bit of the shake through the steering wheel but not as bad as before when they weren't road force balanced. good luck to you guys out there. just wanted to share my experience.

LemonRage

Yeah, I've tried the road-forcing twice. I'm also on my third set of tires and second set of wheels/rims, and the problem happened with all combinations. I hear that the Wrangler Silent Armors suck, so I'll wait until they're dead and then get some Michelin tires.

There is still a cabin shake and shimmy with the steering wheel. The dealership insists that the shake is coming from the tires, but I objected by stating that my buddy's 4Runner doesn't shake and we put his wheels/tires on mine and mine still shook... Again, I've had multiple people look at u-joints, drive line, and bushings and the Toyota dealerships (2) say that everything looks good on it. I'm wondering now if a bent rim could be the culprit or shocks/struts. Thank you again to everyone.

texas_runner

I had and have similar issues. The above issue about shaking mainly while accelerating was fixed by new U-Joints and rebalancing the drive shaft.

The other I have not figured out yet and I am currently working on the issue.......
1.rear brakes/drums/dirt?
2.axle bearings?

I will try to narrow down the problem... I figure some of these things need to be done anyway.

mickwheeler

^^^^ What he said.

Most (if not all) vibration issues are directly or indirectly caused by a moving/rotating component (driveshaft, rotors, bearings, etc.) Check these components first.

Non-rotating components (shocks, bushings, tie rod ends, etc.) may also cause vibration, but are typically sympathetic to the rotating component. For example, a worn bushing or shock might allow (more) vibration because a wheel/tire is out of balance.

One of the few exceptions to this guideline are tie rod ends, because they assist in the alignment of the front end. When they wear out, the front end may be aligned when the vehicle is not in motion... but may not be aligned when the vehicle is in motion.

I've discovered (by personal experience and from others) that the driveline is the most likely suspect for vibration problems. It's well worth the $35 or so it costs to have a driveline shop inspect and balance the driveshaft. The techs at a driveline shop are subject matter experts on vibration and its causes.

It's also worth noting that differential (and diff bearings) in any vehicle with more than 100K miles will have a loss of tolerance/clearance... also known as slop or play. This means that the pinion, axle shafts and planetary gears all make contact on surfaces not originally intended... due to wear of the bearings. Worn diff bearings (whether pinion or axle) are not easy or inexpensive to replace... but they are also not inspected or suspected very often.

The u-joints are also often culprits, but replaced individually they can fail prematurely when paired with a worn/seized u-joint on the same shaft. Always replace all u-joints at the same time on a single shaft... this resets the index (or phase) and allows all of the u-joints to settle into their arc of rotation at the same time/rate.


Just my 2 cents... My driveshaft had to be rebuilt to solve my vibration issue. Turns out the double-cardan joint at the front has a CV ball and they are notorious for failure at around 150K miles.

Good luck.

Ron Helmuth

great post mick

mickwheeler

@Ron - thank you sir.

A simple troubleshooting step when tire/wheel balance is suspected is to swap them out with a known-good, vibration free set from a friend... if you have one.

Just remember, a perfectly balanced tire/wheel mounted on a worn-out hub assembly with a bad bearing will still equal vibration.

Another simple troubleshooting guideline: Vibrations that are worse at certain RPM's or vehicle speeds (also known as critical speeds) are typically due to balance or joint issues. Conversely, vibrations that get increasingly worse with speed (regardless of the speed at which they start) can usually be attributed to bearings or slop in a gear.

scottishb

Got the same problem. Shaking. So I got new tires, nothing. Rebalanced, nothing. So I got under the truck and had the ol lady shake the steering wheel, viola. Steering rack bushings. Some days it shakes more, some days it's smooth. I don't think it's your u-joints, you would probably notice that at a lower speed. Get it shakin on the highway and hit the brakes kinda hard. I did that and my steering wheel started shaking way worse, with the same "rhythm." Hmm... maybe a combination of warped rotors and worn steering rack bushings?

LemonRage

Thank you every one for their input. Looks like I have plenty of things to play around with! I will post updates once they become available. Thanks again.

Tofer

pull the rear drive line, put it in 4hi and see if it still happens.

when i had bent my driveline it shook the same way..

tunnelmotor99

Ok, so how about a low pitched humming noise from the rear that starts @ 60mph and gets louder as you go faster?
I also have this "wum wum wum" sound from the front end when going between about 15-30mph, then it goes away. I have oem bridgestone duelers that I balanced myself, they don't vibrate so I don't think they're making the noise...how about it?