Steering Wheel Shake - A story with Pictures

I believe I’m like 32 or 35 psi. Won’t be buying these tires again Going with falken wildpeaks next time. They have been awesome on my wife’s outback

 

Thanks! I'll drop a few psi and see if that helps.

 

Just throwing this out there because it’s a simple “fix” that costs nothing but time if you already own a torque wrench. :

Re-torque all of the the lug nuts. Loosen them all up and then tighten them down in proper sequence to the specifications in the manual. Should be 97ft-lbs. For best results split that torque in half so you get a very even clamping load. For example 50ft-lbs in sequence, and then repeat with the full value.

Toyota uses hub centric wheels instead of lug centric, and they may be more sensitive to uneven torque on the lug nuts. This could cause a bit of runout and cause vibrations at some speeds.

The new set of Falken Wildpeaks I had installed I asked the shop to install the lug nuts by hand with an actual torque wrench which they did (I watched them) and for the first time in years the truck has no vibrations in the steering at all. None.

Prior to that I had Goodyear’s and was constantly having the balance checked, and fighting with uneven wear. Balance was always fine, but the shop was just zipping them on with an air impact.

 

Thanks for the repsonse. I have removed them and reinstalled them half a dozen times myself - smoothly hand tightening with a torque wrench in a star pattern.

I am to the point now where I am going to check my hubs for lateral runout. Just waiting to get over this COVID nonsense that has me wiped out.

 

An update on this. I rotated the new Yokohamas around myself. I found a combination that yielded a very mild steering wheel shake or no shake at all depending on the moment.

Fast forward a week of sitting in the garage - no changes. I hit the highway today for just a couple minutes. The wheel shakes visibly now starting around 52mph and on up to 60. What the?


Edit: It just dawned on me that I removed my wheels and popped my outer tie rods off the knuckles. I never drove it at speed after that.... And then it sat for a week.

Now I am wondering if it is as simple as what @Coal Dragger just threw out there. I've installed my wheels 100s of times on my personal vehicles. I always seat the wheel to the hub, hand tighten in a star, then torque in a star. Never had a problem.

 

If I missed you talk about it sorry - have you tried finding someone with a set of wheels and tires that does NOT shake, and putting them on your vehicle?

Going to be hard to solve this without eliminating wheel/tire balance first.

 

All, I am back from a little hiatus.

I ended up getting one last balance on the new Yokohamas and it drives like a different truck. I still detect some vibration that comes and goes in the 60-70mph range. But, the vibration is livable.

Fast forward to last week, I broke down and bought new poly steering rack bushings from Energy Suspension - huge pain to DIY - but they are done and I have to say it was a worthwhile upgrade. Vibration is minor at worst now at freeway speed. The wheel oscillation after hitting bumps on one side is all but gone. Steering is more responsive and isolated from road imperfections (and hopefully minor tire imbalance)

Im taking a several hundred mile trip this weekend. Ill let you know how it goes. So far, so good after 100 miles or so.

My last and final ditch effort would be to replace the needle bearing with an ECGS bushing.

 

Here is the best writeup and thread I found on the steering rack bushings. I even shared my own experience in there at the end.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/anyone-replacing-their-steering-rack-bushings-w-35s.61354/


Here is my pic of the old ones:

 

A little update on this. I just towed my trailer 300 miles. Most of the drive was 65-70mph, right in the speed range I've been dealing with. I wouldn't say it was smooth as glass, but it was definitely livable. At times it was very smooth, other times it was just ok.

 

I need some new tires and all this shaking stuff has me thinking about getting tires next year.

I am watching this thread and I really hope you find the answer. Seems like these Tundra’s are very sensitive to tires and balancing.

 

I have (kind of) solved it.

- P rated tires Yokohama G015
- Road Force Dynamic Rebalance after 50 miles
- Replaced steering rack bushings with energy suspension aftermarket. Huge pain to install. Not for the faint of heart.

Drove a about 900 miles last week around 60-70mph (pulling a trailer) and it wasnt glass smooth, but the wheel never shook.

For reference, here is my alignment sheet from earlier in this saga.


I'm really out of ideas.

 

Well I finally got to replacing the rods. After replacing the inners. I noticed that they weren’t as bad as my GX inners were. The tundras still has some life in them, but I said screw it and replaced them anyway. What I really saw that was a major issue was my coach builder outer tie rods. They were shot to the point they no longer rotated but just went back and forth and couldn’t move in any other direction as if the ball joint itself was no longer a ball at all and makes a very audible click clock sound when going from one side to the other. After I replaced those with stock ones. I drove it and the steering wheel is so much better. Still shakes now, but it’s faint. I’m gonna say it’s cause my tires are worn super uneven because of the outer tie rods. The outside of my tires are now bald, but lots of tread on the inner part. Gonna get new tires in two weeks so I’ll get an alignment done after the new shoes. If it still vibrates I’m doing the last thing and replacing the needle bearing. It’s the last thing I didn’t check or do.

 

How long did you run your CB outer tie rods?

 

Glad you found it. It was hard for me to believe it was your tires. I’ve got 35k on my load E Duratracs and I have absolutely zero steering wheel vibration.

 

My truck seems hyper sensitive to tire inbalance and it seems to be more pronounced with heavier tires. Not sure what to blame as the root cause?

However, I don't know if the rack bushings took care of that.

 

maybe 30k on them. Definitely not impressed with them and will never buy them again and stick to stock as they are just as beefy and I doubt I’ll have the same type of failure on the stock rods. Honestly didn’t think they could get damaged in the manner they are. It’s bad. Like really bad. A little info on my truck. It only has 72k on it(2015). I’m lifted on kings oem ext shocks, SPC uppers and no sway bars. 5.29 gears with arb lockers(front and rear) and Deaver leafs with 37” km3s on gram light wheels. I basically replaced every part that was stock on my suspension except for the lower control arms. But I did do the poly bushings on my steering rack and lower control arms as well. So my rig may differ from yours in that sense. But I hope after I get the new tires and alignment I should be good. It’s definitely way better with the new outer tie rods.

 

I can drive one handed again and not feel like my truck is going to fall apart. Really easy to check the outers. Just undo the nut holding it in place and move the joint around to see if it’s smooth or damaged. Then just put it back in place and torque the nut back down to 51ft lbs. no need for an alignment after since you are not actually changing anything.

 

Moog outers are only $35 on rock auto. I've had good luck with Moog in the past.

I'm not opposed to doing the ecgs bushings on the front diff. It sounds like it would be a worthwhile upgrade. I've only seen one thread that reported a failure.

 

Thank you so much for the thorough responses! I am starting to question my investment in them. I have noticed a positive difference, but I'll tell you what's a PITA...having to remember every time I take it in for an alignment to tell the techs not to touch the outer jam nut, and only use the inner jam nut to adjust the toe utilizing the inner. Last time I had it aligned I forgot to tell them, and they ended up dicking with the outer jam nut and were perplexed why they had negative 4.5 on the toe!! Had to connect the tech with ED/CB so they could get on the same page, and it ended up costing me an extra $25 for the additional time to get the toe right.

 

Ya I hated having to tell a tech how to do their job. I started doing my own alignments and I’m happier doing them cause I can spend as much time on it as I want to get the numbers where I want them. But here I thought I was buying an aftermarket part that was supposed to be stronger and better than the stock part. It clearly was not. The original ones had over 30k on them as well and were still good. So I would say the OE rods are better and cheaper. I’m sure other people have had good experiences with the CB ones. Not me and I’m not the type of guy to try the same thing twice and expect a different result. I hope anyone going thru the same thing we are read this thread and try some of the things we have and correct their issues cause that shit sucks when it’s happening. Good luck everyone.

 

It's been the better part of a year since I started this thread. A combination of new rack bushing and P rated tires took care of the vibration issue.

My TT comes in at 6800 lbs. Maybe it's the smaller sidewall of the 20s offering less flex, but no towing complaints on the P rated tires.