Steering wheel shake. Yes I searched

Two weeks ago I had new Toyo RT tires installed. For two weeks I did not notice any steering wheel shake with 1,000 miles driven. On the 1st I had new Bilstein 6112 shocks installed and the front end aligned. Drove it all that day in town with no shake but that evening we drove 2 hours away for a Hockey game. On the highway above 55ish MPH my wheel shakes left and right minimally but noticeably. I also notice a constant “bouncing” in the front end. Kind of like the shocks are going up down on fine washboard roads. Again it’s minimal but was not there until the lift and alignment.

Any ideas? Ive read quite a few threads. Could be the alignment. Could be the new rotors & brake pads. Could be the tires unbalanced? Thanks

Joe S

 

Check to see if you lost a balancing weight

 

The first thing I would check would be wheel balance. Maybe a weight came loose. If the wheels are balanced then look for any bolts that were touched during the recent work- make sure they are properly torqued. That's where I would start.

 

Got it. I’ll get it into the tire shop first and then have the suspension retorqued since I have about 400 miles on it. Thanks!

 

1st thing is check tire balance and for any excessive road force. Make sure they are doing a dynamic balance, not the easier static.

While they have the tires off, take the opportunity to do a look over of the brakes and suspension.

 

Same with my truck. Passenger front tire was out of balance.

 

Hoping that is it! I change several things at once so it’s hard to say

 

How much psi in the tires?

 

This. I had the same problem when I bought my tires. My tires I bought called for 52psi according to general tire, but tire shop did their typical 32psi. The result was exactly what you describe at 55mph. The new tires were load range d which is why the higher psi. Also I found this happened on p rated tires 275/55r20 if the truck had been sitting

 

It’s below freezing here. I have 45psi in all tires. I have a TSS package truck with 20” rims. The tire placard on my door says 49psi on the factory 285/55 tires. I have Toyo RT 295/55r20 tires. What do you think?

 

Probably lost a wheel weight. The stick on ones will fall off if they wheel isn’t properly cleaned prior to sticking them on. Been there. Done that. I put a dab of rtv silicone on mine to ensure they don’t go nowhere haha.

 

I called Nitto on for the Ridge Grapplers on my previous Tundra and got their recommendation and adjusted from there based on any wear . I'm still on factory stuff but have 6112 @ 1.9" ready to go on and will be getting tires. The reason I asked about psi was because some tire installers will see 80 psi on the sidewall and put that in the tires which, if happened, might would explain the bounce.

 

If a tire installer does this....they are fuc*in incompetent lol.

 

I also called nitto about my tires. They told me 33 in front and 34 in rear unless I am towing then put 45-50 in rear. The tire shop put 40 psi in them and told me to bring it back after I had 500 miles on it. As I was telling them that I spoke with nitto he LOL and say we called them also. They have folks come back after 500-1000 miles and RE check everything and then drop PSI.

 

You absolutely do not go buy the PSI on the tire. That's just the Max the tire can hold safely. Go by the sticker on the vehicle, or whatever tire rim package you have should have specs for your vehicle. 45psi seems a little steep. Are you sure about that. Sounds like it had too much pressure in it and you screwed up the steel belts inside after hitting a pot hole or a hole bunch of pot. You can feel that with you bare hand over the tire. Check tire balance, and grabbing calipers, loose suspension. Alignment has nothing to do with it....dog tracking is a good example of that. Shocks only if extremely worn........but it's not that, it's the cupping of the tire the bad shocks cause.

 

45PSI on the nose. I checked all 4 tires 30 seconds before posting. Also I have hit zero pot holes in the 9 days I’ve owned the tires. Problems started 3 days ago after having Bilstein 6112’s installed and the front end aligned. No issues prior to that.

The plan is to have everything retorqued by the shop that installed the Coilovers now that I have some miles on them and have the tire balance by discount tire. I would bet $5 I threw a weight off

And yes. The factory recommended tire pressure on my truck calls for 49psi. I have the black tss 20” rims

 

have a copy of the alignment sheet? Who did the install?

 

Toyo Tire on original rims? Still would be 30/33. That's what the sticker says. If they are low profile, then I would understand.

 

its most definitely the wheel alignment. I had the same thing happen to me. I took my new truck in for its first and last Toyota oil change and the dumb a@@ knocked a wheel weight off.

 

It's been posted here a time or two, sometimes the installer sometimes the owner will go max psi.

 

Just got mine fixed this past weekend. I had a shimmy in the steering wheel from 65 to about 80mph. Toyota did a roadforce balance and it eliminated the problem.

 

Look at the white and red sticker. My truck came stock with 20x9 wheels. Factory tires were bfg ko2 285/55r20. I upgraded to Toyo RT 295/55r20

Discount tire did a road force balance at the time of install. Everything was fine. I did notice that it doesn’t look like they cleaned the area where they placed the weights. The wheels have 85k and are pretty nasty on the inside. I’ve spoke with both shops. We will get it resolved Friday!

 

No I don’t. Can get it though. I had a local company do the install and alignment.

 

I see the red sticker now, you are right. Are they low profile? So it just sounds like another re-balance. I have delt with garages that just cant balance a tire correctly. Did they use the fingers if required? Did they check the balance after adding the weight just to make sure? Was tire pressure correct when they did it? What methode did they use? Was it it lunch time? was it a Friday?

 

Lol I wouldn’t say they are low profile. They are 33” tall and 12.2 wide. I put 1000 mile on the truck in a week with no issues. Discount tire installed them and did a road force balance. I’m confident they will get this taken care of!

 

Then my only reason I can see for hi pressure is they are heavy load tires. Big tires for 4x4 usually don't have hi pressure. It's like putting 30 psi in your ATV. (5-15 psi. is normal.) Not doubting you, just want to to find out why that's factory spec. Interesting.

 

I had a shimmy in steering wheel and steering wheel shake when braking at speeds over 40. Ended up being pads and rotors.

 

I had new pads and rotors installed this weekend. But I don’t have any issues braking. The shimmy starts about 60mph and get worse through 80mph

 

If it only shimmys when you hit the brakes it will be warped rotors. Tie rods can cause the same effect, but not so pronounced.