Steering Wheel Shake - A story with Pictures

I've been trying to solve a steering wheel shake and I'm about ready to give up. Here is my chain of events. This is not about ride harshness, but about a steering wheel that shakes visably at highway speeds. The truck actually rides very smooth in the seat and floorboards. Harshness has varied with the load rating of the tires I have tried. 55,000 miles on truck. I do tow a 30 ft camper about once a month in the summer.

LT275/60R20 on TRD sport wheels:
Some months ago, I started noticing a very mild steering wheel vibration at speed on my BFGs. I was due for a rotation so I just wrote it off as AT tires needing a rebalance after 5000 miles. After the rotation and balance, the vibrations became more pronounced. Back to Discount for a road force balance this time. Lots of work turning the tires on the wheels and rebalancing. All said and done, no improvement.



LT276/70R18 Michelin AT2 on TRD OR wheels:
Found some new take-off 10ply Michelins from a GMC HD pickup and some clean TRD OR wheels. Steering wheel shake became violent - I hated going above 45mph. Road force balance at time of install, had an alignment done with a shake-down of the front end, another balance, rotated one side at a time. Some changes in severity with each adjustment, but all of it was bad.



P275/60R20 Yokohama G015 ATs on TRD Sport Wheels:
I gave up on LT tires and bought some P rated Yokohamas. HUGE improvement, almost livable, but not fixed. Still getting a vibration in the wheel at 65mph and it gets better if I speed up or slow down to above 75 or below 55. Vibration comes and goes even at constant speed as I drive down the highway. These tires are much lighter than the LT BFGs and Michelins.



Shout out to Discount Tire for being so patient with me and trying to get this take care of.

I'd love to know what experiences you all have had with steering wheel vibrations. In the first 18 months of ownership, I didn't have any issues. This has all started in the last couple of months.

 

Man that sucks. Looks like you have tried many different sets of tires and other things to try and solve this. You have a lot of patience. Just throwing this out there but I'm wondering if it's the CV axle needle bearing on the drivers side causing this.

https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/i-1...amshell-bushingeliminates-needle-bearing.html

 

I have the same issue now. I’m looking to replace the inner tie rods cause mine are very loose when not attached. I read on the google machine that worn out inner tie rods can cause steering wheel shakes. Not sure if that’s true, but I will soon find out after I replace mine.

 

Thanks for the idea. I'll do some searching. I'm curious if there is an easy way to test the bearing?

 

My front end had a shake down at the time of my alignment. The shop didn't detect anything wrong. Not saying it s impossible that they missed something...

 

An yeah other things could be worn out at this point also but the cause of it all could be that needle bearing. Stupid design by Toyota. I had a vibration and noise on my 4Runner that the ECGS bushing solved.


Try putting it in 4wd and see if things improve. When I put the 4 in 4wd the problems went away. Can you feel the vibration at lower speeds?? Even slightly?

 

Smooth as silk below 35.

35-50, tough to say, they are still 33" tires on imperfect roads. I don't notice anything specific other than just normal road feedback

 

Yeah see if things change while in 4 wheel drive. If there is a change it's probably the needle bearing

 

I highly doubt they disconnected the outer tie rod from the steering knuckle to see how loose the inners are. They just break the nut loose on the outer tie rod and adjust accordingly. My tundras are in the same condition. Replacing them soon. If that doesn’t help I’m doing the needle bearing to try and fix my vibrations. I literally have the same issue at the same speeds and not while turning. This is what my GX inners looked like yesterday

 

Just something to look at. It’s really easy to check and you don’t need an alignment after. Just remove the cotter pin from the castle nut on the outer tie rod and use a separator tool or hit the top of the castle nut while loose with a hammer and it will pop out. Then proceed to see how loose it is. Too loose is a problem. A new one won’t move unless forced by hand. If it’s fine it should hold itself up or at least have some sort of resistance. Not all floppy like mine in the video.

 

They shook the front end down. That should mean that they would have detected any play.

I'll see if I can find some time to detach the tie rod ends and check for looseness on the inners. At 55,000 miles, I doubt they are worn out.... But here we are.

 

I am very interested to see if this solves your issue.

Edit: I'm also going to be angry if I spent a bunch of money for less-cool tires and it was all unnecessary. Looks like rock auto has MOOG inner tie rods for $34. Not a bad deal.

 

Off topic but what center caps are you using on those sport wheels?

 

Original sport center caps, Toyota emblem replaced with 3d sticker. Check it out:

 

I've all but ruled tires out as the primary cause. Tires definitely have an impact on severity, but I don't think they are the cause.

I get the same vibration when I hit significant bumps or if I shake the wheel myself at speed. The wheel oscillates a few times then simmers down.

It feels like there is something under the surface causing all this. I'm basically to the point that my tires have to be P-rated and balanced perfectly to stop the vibration. That does not seem right with so many on this site running meaty 10 plys.

Anyway, I popped my outer tie rods to get a feel for the inner tie rods. There is zero detectable in-out play on either side. However, @Jimes talked about "floppy" being and issue. Mine are loose in terms of ball-socket action. I know new inners require effort to move them at all. Here are the videos, stupid YouTube will only list it as a "Short"
https://youtube.com/shorts/usOYg1GYIGY?feature=share
https://youtu.be/8UK3cQB185E

 

I personally believe comparing the new and old stiffness to the inner tie-rods problematic, as any ball and socket will loosen slightly with wear and still be perfectly normal and within specs. If you checked the play side to side, and up and down as you stated and have none, I would cross this off my list and move on. Just my 2 cents. Good luck, and keep on posting your progress.

 

Do you have a print out of your current alignment? I know a shaky steering wheel is most often tire balance but it took Firestone doing some trial and error to fix my wife's 4Runner wheel shake a couple years back. Dealer aligned it a few times plus tire balances and it was in the "green" but shook bad. Firestone spent 3 hours working on it and no more shakes. In our case, it never was the tires.

 

Just waiting for my parts so I can install them. As soon as I get them I’ll install them in like an hour. It’s super easy with the right tools. Then I will report back. Parts say they will be in on Monday. Wish they arrived this weekend. But oh well.

 

Just a thought, new tie rods will effectively result in a reset on your alignment. If the issue is one or the other, there is no way to know which it was.

I am kicking myself, I cannot find the printout. I usually keep those. The guy at the shop was sure that alignment couldn't cause a vibration. Is there something specific to watch for? Camber, caster toe?

 

I do my own alignments at home now, so no record of anything. But I’m just going to measure where the outer tie rod sits now and measure and try and put it where the original ones were and take a test drive like I did with my GX. I’ve checked my entire suspension and every nut and bolt on my trucks front end and couldn’t find anything except the limp noodle rods. My GX was not vibrating at all, I had to replace them after I hit a huge rock and bent my steering knuckle so saw how loose they were and decided to replace them. What I did notice after was that it was easier to turn the steering wheel after at a complete stop. I have 315/70r17s on my GX and since I upgraded the suspension and did the gears and all that I noticed it would sometimes be impossible to turn the wheel while at a complete stop. So that’s cool that it fixed that. I did read online that bad inner rods can cause vibrations and just cause you can’t feel the rod pop in and out or it’s play by hand doesn’t mean it’s not happening when everything is hooked up. If you could feel it then damn that would be really bad I assume.

 

I did have this thought too - that there is no way to bench test the kinds of forces on those tie rods going down the road.

I've been reading a lot about 60-70mph vibrations. The consensus is that tire balance is the culprit. Even though I feel like I have ruled it out, I may have Discount rebalance my new tires this week.

 

That’s what I’ve been reading as well. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow. I do find it funny that it’s smooth like butter before 55 and after 70 mph and any speed in a turn. Then it feels like a wheel is about to fall off when in the shaking range.

 

Yep, my truck rides like a dream at 45mph. Super smooth and tight.
Edit: my truck is also butter smooth in the vibration range...sometimes. I've set my cruise to low 60s and felt it come and go over miles of driving.

The ride is also very quiet. I havent worried too much about wheel bearings or the 4x4 components because it is just so quiet, no hums or growls at any speed. Just the roar of the 5.7 when I get on it.

 

Also heard the needle bearing could cause vibrations. So I’ll replace that if it doesn’t work

 

I'm not entirely sure which adjustment causes it but you could shoot for specific numbers to make sure you have a good alignment.

Camber +.1

Caster +.5 higher on the passenger side compared to driver's side.

Toe around 10 on each side.

It's doubtful they can get it right on the money but being close is good.



Taken from carsdirect.com which was the first thing to come up when I did the search:

• Vibration. Bad alignment can also cause vibration as wheels pull against each other. If your car is shaking while running down the road, check your alignment.

 

From the google machine. It’s never wrong. Lol.

 

Any update on this?

 

Not sure it’s extremely relevant to your issue or this topic even, but I can throw out recommendations I’ve read about vibration. I have a very slight shimmy in my truck at about 75mph that gets worse with increase in speed. This started after a swap to Pro suspension and wheels with 285/70/18 RGs. I had dealership align twice, the last one to spec on the suspension install instructions because the first “alignment” they gave me was garbage. Secondly, I rotated and verified clean mating surfaces on the brake rotor/rim interface, then proper torque. Third, which I’ve found has most impact is tire pressure. Aired up to 48psi makes it mostly go away. Air down to 35 and it’s intolerable. Hope something in this helps without having to resort to a bushing swap.

 

I received the parts today, but I need to help the wife’s aunt clear out a room full of junk this weekend so I won’t have time to align it after I’m done so unfortunately I’m gonna have to postpone the install till Sunday or Monday. As soon as I do it I’ll report back for sure. I know we’re not the only ones that have this issue.

 

Had a good amount of shake with cooper at3 xlt s lowered my air pressure and it went away almost 100%