Advice: How to solve vibration at highway speed with pull

Hey All,

I am asking for some advice on how to fix an incessant vibration. I have a 2004 Tundra DC 4X4, I have owned it for about 6k mi and I have had a vibration at 65-75mph, and a pull to the right at all speeds that I can't get rid of. Toyota Dealer wants to charge $200 for an hour of diagnostics followed by redoing work I've already had done. There have been two brand new sets of tires on the truck and new wheels (vision wheels) since I have owned it. The vibration occurs regardless if the truck is under power or not. The speed at which the vibration occurs did possibly seem to change after one of the balancing attempts. My question is what should my next step be.

Here is what I have done:
Road Force balanced the tires 3x at Discount
Alignment done 3x at Big O
Rotated the tires.
Swapped front tires R to L - truck still pull hard right.

The truck has a new drive shaft. There is a small leak in the power steering rack but the steering is pretty smooth. The parking brake doesn't work and needs to be adjusted.


Ideas of what it could be? A Wheel bearing (though there is no sound), brakes needing adjusting, steering linkage (the steering is pretty tight but it does feel a litter easier to turn right than left). A better balancing by someone who knows what they are doing. Ball Joints (they look new), bent axel or frame? Rack bushings? The Vision wheels?

 

Unbalanced drive shaft?

These are easy to check - Worn out lower control arm bushings, bad carrier bearing, or bad sway bar links

just throwing some things out there

 

Throw up your alignment specs. If the LCA adjusters are frozen they won’t be able to get a decent alignment.

I ask for the senior tech to align it, and ask for 0 Camber, and as much Caster as possible with being able to correct for road crown, and toe to factory spec. Always seems to work well.

Also, the kids at tire shops absolutely suck at balancing tires. You have to run them 3 times to get them right. They spin them once, slap on the weight and pull them without even running them a second time. These shops are so stupid they will warranty tires before spinning them multiple times.

My buddy bought his own tire machines after countless balancing issues at Wheel Works and Americas tires. They were unable to balance the tires on his Audi. The first time he balanced them himself they were perfectly smooth. He noticed each time he took in the Audi, they wouldn’t remove the old weights, they would just pile more on.

I can vouch, I balanced my Toyo’s myself with his machine. Spun each tire 3 times till the machine read zero, and I haven’t balanced them since and it’s been over 90k miles.

 

Pull to one Side and vibration felt in the wheel sounds like brakes to me. Stuck caliper piston perhaps.

 

This was my exact thought also, and I was going to reply with, “is the caliper hot on the right side?” Until I saw your reply. It doesn’t explain the vibration - that stinks of balance issue - but it does explain the pulling. Tire rotation is what I’d use to try and rule out balance as the problem; but since OP did that already, possibly worth having another shop try balancing/confirming balance. Shimmy at those speeds suggests balance though, I could see cupping being a cause, but I’d expect vibration at lower speeds.

Only other reco I’d have is looking for a driveshaft shop nearby and have them check your driveline. Shouldn’t be a u-joint and it doesn’t sound entirely like carrier bearing based on the “always on even when not under load”, but I’ve seen some shit over the years…

Also, unrelated but since we broached the topic. When was the last time you properly lubed your driveline with moly fortified NLGI 2 grease? Previous owners rarely seem to do it. If you haven’t, you may want to read the “grease your driveshaft you lazy sods!” Thread. Search the forum for threads with “sods” in the title only and you’ll find it and maybe some other lube threads.

 

One of my favorites -

https://www.tundras.com/threads/grease-your-drive-shaft-you-lazy-sods.55067/

 

Vibration can be from the stuck piston that causes the brake rotor to stay hot or overheat. That warps the rotor. The stuck piston / warped rotor combo may stay in contact with each other as the piston will not retract. That causes the warped rotor to pulsate against the brake pad whether or not the brakes are being applied. Just one possible cause. Another very plausible cause is a tire with a separated belt. They will not balance, they will track poorly and they will cause vibrations in the steering wheel. Ask me how I know. That’s dad with the assist in the knee pads.

 

Ah, I didn’t think about that, but what you’re saying is most logical/plausible to me and explains both nicely, since that “pulls right” is such a distinct symptom deserving highlight.

Never experienced a separated belt but if OP rotated fronts to rear, I’d have expected that to greatly attenuate any tire feedback he was getting even if belt is separated - was it not the case with yours?

 

Thanks all for all of the feedback.

The tires have 5000 miles on them, though perhaps one came faulty, but they have been switched R to L and front to rear without much change, and the pull/vibration was present on two sets of tires.

I will look into my brakes, I can tell that my rotors are very slightly warped.

Sounds like its time to take the truck to have the tires balanced and aligned at a better shop. Will grease the drive shaft.

The lower control arm bushing also seems like they could be a culprit.

 

Mine drove squirrely and had an incurable hop/vibrate. Rotating didn’t fix the squirrely, just changed the way it felt. Vibration could be felt, In the hand or in the seat depending on rotation position. I would think the OP could feel that difference as well. Pulling is usually alignment, or stuck brake. Vibration makes the brake more likely, could be worn suspension components like a bad front strut / shock assembly.

 

After I balanced the tires, re-balanced the tires, bought new tires, replaced my carrier bearing, replaced all the u-joints AND re-balanced the drive shaft I finally took it to the shop...front hub bearing was the culprit. At least I've got lots of nice new components now.

 

I’m at almost 335k and my front right bearing is making some noise at low speeds, but seems to be running smooth.

I really don’t want to re build my hubs

 

Whatever it is, it's going to be related to a rotational mass, and if it's not increasing/decreasing when applying or letting off the pedal that does speak to something at the wheels to me (brakes, tires, bearings) primarily.

@SunMountain505 to that point, have you done a basic push/pull/slap test on each wheel to check for tie rodes/ball joints in the front, and bearings on the front and rear? Are you familiar with how to do the test at home? Only effort involved is lifting each wheel and pushing/pulling in different clock positions. This thread feels very familiar to me, like I'm having deja vu.

 

Same. Except “some noise” is relative. Mine is howling. I’ve got the hubs, just need to dig into it.

 

I too am dealing with a vibration I can't track down. In the past week I had the wheels and tires balanced, road force tested, wheel bearings checked and greased the u-joints....The vibration seems to be on power and most noticeable at 25-35mph so I am going to take it to a driveline shop next and hope it's not the transmission or something and just a bad u-joint....

 

I can't remember if we chatted thru this before or not.

Vibration under acceleration at low speed, I'm thinking it's probably the carrier bearing but could be a u-joint also. Bad u-joint can also cause carrier bearing to fail also, so it's worth checking all of those. While it's not as easy to check the carrier bearing, since it's expected to have some play, it should spin smoothly. U-joints on the other hand, are much easier to check, I'd be doing that before it went in the shop. Vibration in the 60mph+ range is often tire balance in my experience. YMMV.

Shop that specializes in driveline will be able to tell you. But we've had quite a few people on here think (or mech they went to though) their carrier bearing was "bad" because they could lift it up/down/back/forth 1/4" - 1/2" and that just doesn't seem to be the case. I asked the last person who swapped out their carrier bearing check for play, and they confirmed. I was curious because my truck only has ~75k miles total, and it's got roughly that much play in the carrier and all is fine.

 

I would just add to that also, though it doesn't impact our trucks so much, but bad driveshaft angles will cause vibrations also (@low speed).

Also, for high speed vibrations (40-60), I'd check the carrier bearing bolts to ensure they're snug; loose bolts will cause vibrations. It can be helpful to watch RPM to see if the vibration is more linked to RPM vs. speed.

 

The u-joints all feel ok from what I can tell and the carrier does have play which I know doesn't mean it's bad but the truck has 235k on it and I have no idea the last time it was replaced.

 

I expect we're gonna see you come back on this later saying the carrier bearing was the culprit.

And I expect @KNABORES is right, and it'll end up being caliper on OP's issue.

 

Someone asked for the alignment specs and I did not see them posted. Sorry but BigO has a problem with giving bad alignments and when you come back they try to sell you something you did not need.

Post up the alignment specs, just curious at this point. You would think if the caliper piston was stuck then you would smell the heat at some point but not hard to check

 

Tire shop told me about mine the first time. I never smelled anything and since it was the left front, it tracked relatively straight against the road crown. Second time it happened I was just rotating tires and checked them and the same piston on the new caliper was frozen. Only about 40k miles on that caliper.

 

That is weird, on the same side

 

You're probably right. I'm gonna take it to a driveshaft shop tomorrow and see what they have to say.

 

Finally back to update the thread. Took me a while to get around to pulling the tire. It seems that @KNABORES was right regarding the caliper. The brake pads on the passenger side (the direction in which the truck is pulling) were worn completely unevenly. With one pad almost gone and the other almost full thickness. I could, however, rotate the wheel freely and the rotor freely by hand so it wasn't as thought the caliper was jammed up.

I'm planning to replace the rotors and pads, and am trying to figure out if I need to replace the caliper as well. Obviously there's something that's not working properly there, but I was hoping the group could chime in on what the potential causes are too look for. Bent pin? Something with the brake fluid? The caliper isn't rusted and appeared to be in decent shape.

I had read that the parking brake can affect the entire braking system, and currently my parking brake needs to be adjusted as that it doesn't stop the truck.

@shifty` I did test the lower ball joint for movement while I was in there and it was fine. I pulled outward on the tire and that seemed tight but I only did it in one location, Ill have to look into doing a push/pull/slap test.

 

Awesome. I feel like we got derailled with two different issues posed on two different trucks starting at reply #15, with stuck caliper as the likely cause of your issue a few posts above that. As for why it's sticking, I'm guessing old fluid or garbage in the lines could be why, and the piston is getting stuck on that side. A caliper rebuild or replace will fix the issue. I'd recommend being careful about the brands you look at if replacing. If you want to rebuild, video below for WL calipers, exactly the same as what's in the '04-'06. Flush brake fluid completely while in there, following standard ordering (RR, LSPV, LR, RF, LF).

On the parking brake... If your rears haven't been adjusted in a while, if it's operating correctly, you should be able to set and release the parking brake multiple times to get it to adjust the rears down. If not, you need to figure out why that's not working. I highly recommend reading the rear brake sticky: https://www.tundras.com/threads/rear-brake-adjustment-theory-and-practice.99575/

It may help with ironing that out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoQlAW4DPnA​

 

@shifty` thanks for sharing those links.

 

I had two out of the four pistons in my caliper get pretty darn sticky a few months ago. I compressed the piston cup all the way back inside the caliper in hopes of making it less sticky. After a few cycles of doing that it didn’t get any better, so i bought a new caliper...then though, what the heck and bought a new caliper for the other side as well. Though the other side wasn’t sticky, i just wanted to play it safe and level the playing field.

I was totally fine with rebuilding my own calipers at the time, but i didn’t have time to wait for all the individual parts to arrive. The local parts store had both calipers in stock, so i went that direction instead.