Steering wheel shake

I'm having trouble getting rid of the shimmy in my steering wheel. I've had it aligned, and balanced. Still the steering wheel shakes. The last place I took it said the tires are cupped. Toyo Open Country Extreme 35's with about 15k miles, and rotated every 5k. They said they want to rotate the tires on the rims??? Put the same tire back on the same rim with the inside out, then rebalance them. They say they will wear back to normal??

Can this be done? Isn't that changing the tire direction of rotation? I thought that was not recommended.

 

Once a tire is cupped, its going to continue to wear that way.. no matter how you mount them. I tried this with my Toyo ATs. I too have the "shake" but only at 45 and 80. I don't ever go 45 on the money, nor do I go 80.. so it isn't a real problem for me. I have the "cupped" tires on the back. Rolling them for a few more months, then getting new tires. If the cupped tires are on the front, moving them to the rear would allow shake/vibration to move to the rear.. which is a lot better to drive with than that front shake IMO.

From my experience, big tires need to be rotated every 2-3k miles.. some people may have a different opinion.. BUT, with that rotation schedule I have never had cupped/weird wear on tires. On my Tundra, I put the Toyos from my F150 on there, and didn't rotate til 6k miles, and that is why they began to wear weird. Im not that worried about it though, because they already had 18k miles on the tires before I threw them on the CM.

 

Move front wheels to the back, if it goes away then it's the wheel or tire. If not, it's something in the suspension/steering.

 

The back tires are cupped worse than the front. They were moved from front to back just before I bought the truck (2000 miles ago). I didn't notice it then. Now fronts are cupping too. Will flipping the tires cause a problem? I have to try something, short of buying new $$$$tires$$$$$

 

Are you saying that when you bought the truck you weren't noticing shimmy? Then you noticed, had an alignment and balance and it still does it? If that's the case, have them move front to back then test drive. Still? Balance them again (maybe you lost a weight, have a bent wheel or a single tire going bad).

 

I've had multiple sets of M/T tires do this on three different tundras. It's doing it again currently for me as well. Usually only happens at about 60ish mph. I went through the whole rotating, balancing thing etc multiple times and never fixed it. If you find the cause, let me know. I know how frustrating it is.

 

Had the same problem with mine. It came with nitto 2. I tried everything. The rims being non hub centric did not help. I ended up buying a set of michellins and problem solved 6k miles later still perfect. The previous owner ran the Nittos at 50 psi and wore the nittos out quick. Toyota tried telling me that the rims are hub centric, so i took out lug and showed them where the lug centers the rim. Vs the oem toyota rim.
So, between the new tires and carefully installing the rims my steering wheel shacke is gone.

 

Which Michilen tires did you end up going with?

 

Ltx m/s

 

Ltx m/s2

 

I see aftermarket wheels. The majority of aftermarket wheels are lug centric. Toyota trucks are hub centric. If you change out your wheels to aftermarket, you should install hub centric rings and that will fix the shaky steering wheel, which usually happens between 50-65.

I fought this with my 4runner for about a year, and finally broke down and bought the rings and installed them and it removed "most" of the shake.

As for the cupping issue, that is usually caused by bouncing, which means out of balance or a bad shock. Once a tire is cupped, you can only fix it by "truing" the tire.

 

An update: I tolerated the wheel shimmy between 65-80 MPH, thinking it was just the way it was gonna be. Even though my Goodyear tires were at 50% (or below), I ended up replacing them yesterday at the same time I had my Bilstein shocks replaced.

Those two things and a 4-wheel alignment completely got rid of the wheel shake. YMMV...

 

I just bought my car 2 weeks ago, i took it in 2 days ago to get it fixed tbey said 2 tired weren't balanced, is that possible on a brand new truck? Anyway it still shakes at 60-65 mph...

 

It’s possible but if it’s still shaking, maybe you have a bad tire. Maybe have them road force balance the tires if they didn’t. If that doesn’t work make them replace the tires. Whatever the case, that’s unacceptable on a new truck and they should fix it. I just balanced my tires yesterday to get rid of a shake... there’s nothing more annoying than your steering wheel shaking.

 

Very annoying especially on a new truck kinda worried about it

 

I took it back to the dealer fornthe 2nd time today and drove it with the technician and said the shake at 65 is normal due to the freeway surface here in california they are not smooth, dont think thats the case but then he went up to 70 and said he noticed a bigger shake, left it again with them today we'll see if it gets fixed...

 

I have a 2018 200 miles does the same thing is there a fix for this

 

So for me it took a set of new tires. 24k miles later still no shake. Just recently had the tires rotated and a slight vibration started to happen, but went away within 100 miles. Could of been the lugs settling in. Who knows,
A lot of times however it is as simple as the vehicle sat a long time and the tires need to be heated up by a long drive. It usually solves it. for me the old tires were just shot and only after a new set were put on did the problem go away. Hope this helps.

 

I have a 2010 tundra with a pro comp 6in lift and 37/12.50r18s and I have the steering wheel shake, it is caused by the rack and pinion moving where it is bolted onto the frame. The bushing allow movement and with any offset of the tires and or bigger size then stock will cause the tires to wander back and forth. The faster you go the worse it gets. I am taking my tundra to a custom shop to get steering stabilizers fabricated to fit to take away the shake. I hope this helps a little.

 

Was you able to get something figure out?

 

My 2016 with a 3” front lift, 1.5” wheel spacers running 35” tires does this right around 60 also. Had it aligned, tires balanced again and rotated just to rule out anything. I do notice the “shake” goes away after about 20 minutes of driving. I do not drive my truck very often (every other weekend if that) and wondering if it sitting for that long has something to do with it I might take it back one more time to the tire shop to see if maybe they missed something. I love my truck but this is not right.

 

What kinda of tires and are they new? My past MT tires on other trucks was bad for about 10 miles and the shaking stopped. It really bad when it was cold or I let my truck parked for a week or so

 

Some tires are prone to "flat spots" from sitting as little as overnight.

 

The tires are Hercules TerraTrac AT2 35x12.50

 

That is my theory as my truck sits for a couple weeks at a time, then when I drive it I notice the shake once I hit 60, then after 20 or so of driving it disappears. I did have these tires before though on a F150 and never experienced the “flat spot” feel, though that truck was driven daily so...

 

And yes, the tires are new, maybe 6000 miles on them, I’ve rotated them, had them rechecked for balance, had it aligned (and the alignment guy is one of the best) so I don’t know what else to think....steering stabilizer is my next thought.

 

Before you drive move your truck a foot or so before you drive it. I had TSL BOGGERS on my 250 and had to move the truck and let it sit for 10-15 mins before I drove it. It was a pain but damn the 250 was a beast.

 

I don’t think you can get steering stabilizer for our trucks. Maybe after Coach Builder tie rod ends might help.

 

Good idea man, I’ll try that. Speaking of Boggers, a good friend of mine had the last year of the 1st generation of 4runners with an 18” lift running SS TSL Boggers in 40”. Thing was a gutless beast but we got so much attention in that thing

 

Oh loved mine!! They not cheap!! When you go in the mud and don’t make it you can never back up unless I got pulled out. They only good going forward not backward. I thought about putting them on my Tundra. Tires just didn’t last long.