Im sure someones already said this, but I havn't read all the treads. Anyway ... it sounds like a wheel balancing issue.

 

Where is this recent wave of new intellectuals coming from?

 

My thoughts exactly 4Runr.

Matt

 

Yeah I am from the great metropolis of Eufaula. Hers is a 98 Limited and yes there was no sound I replaced bearings on drivers side and drove smooth so I went ahead and replace the passenger side as well! My brother's Honda Civic did the some thing!

 

TRX125,
What lead you to diagnose the bearings as the problem if they were not making a noise? How much did the replacement cost for both sides? Thanks.

Matt

 

I have a brand new OEM axle bearing if you need it.

 

Thanks Gapguy. I'll let you know.

Matt

 

Matt, i refrained from pointing to this earlier, because i wanted to test it out first. i drive on the highway for 35-40 mins everyday to work. today i drove 4 hrs round trip to the cape going speeds from 55 to 90 mph.

i have goodyear mt/rs, a tire that is rough and tough and apparently hard to balance for some.

all of that said... let me tell you... my passenger seat DOESNT MOVE AN INCH while im on the highway. this guy is full of $h*t.

it must be a flaw in your truck, because i too have an 01 and it is flawless for balancing and vibration issues.

just as an fyi, i have 74+K on her now, had her since 44K, and she has always been smooth (except when i first got her and had no idea that improper balance caused vibrations -- thanks YT!).

i know im not giving you a solution, but i just wanted you to know not to believe everything you hear.

 

Cost about $70 for each bearing. Process of elimination every thing else checked out ok(tires were balanced, steering comp were tight, shocks had been recently replaced, etc etc). I took the tire off and spun the rotor by hand instead of it turning freely it had 1 spot that was a little rough. So I changed it (may have caught it before it started going out so no noise). I know on my brother's Civic the rear bearing failed without any noise (so he says he never heard it, because I asked why he waited until the tire almost fell off before checking it). I am not saying were bearings are bad, just something to check out, because it sounds like you have tried almost everything else these nice people here have suggested. Just my .02

 

TRX125,
Was the vibration you experienced in her 4Runner only at certain speeds or was it all the time? Mine is really only once I get above 65 mph. Thanks.

Matt

 

LSU,

Have you put it on jack stands or a lift to see if your getting the vibe with out weight on wheels....if you are still getting the vibe in the air then take the wheels off and see if you are still getting the vibe.......Lots of folks here have said the same thing but I do not see that you have tried that yet??????

 

Dragon,
I haven't had time dude. I planned on doing it today and we ended up running all over B'ham this afternoon. I plan on trying to borrow Chad's truck next Saturday and do the wheel swap. I am as much interested in driving his truck with my wheels as I am driving my truck with his wheels. I am definitely going to do the swap before I start replacing stuff and hoping that it solves the problem. Like I said earlier, with a wedding about three weeks away it's hard to find time for any extracurricular activities, especially since it's something truck related which she is sick and tired of me fooling with. I'll let ya'll know just as soon as I find something out after the swap. I'm still pissed that it didn't happen yesterday and that I didn't have time for some troubleshooting today. Hopefully, he won't have to work next weekend.

Matt

 

My 2000 taco does the same thing on the free-way and i haven't figured it out, my only idea was shocks.

 

Well it looks like the swap is going to work out on Saturday morning. I'll let ya'll know the results.

Matt

 

LSU,

With the wedd'n only days away you might be thinking you have no time.....Wait til the wedd'n is years past when all of your time is hers...and the ankle bitting bundles of joy that are sure to come....NO that is not to discourage you.....I love my wife and my son and would not trade them for a minute of free time.....but hanging with the boys and working on trucks is not how they want me spending free time....I still get to but not as much...Best of luck to you and your new family......

 

Well before I shoot myself, I went to Discount tires and had them rebalance again. This one guy was able to get it perfectly balance at one time so i thought give it one last chance. SOB vibration is gone. I get a tiny shake still but it's so minimal I really dont care. Well I guess it really was balancing issue.

 

i had a bad vibe at about 65+ w/ my new MT/R's. i had them balanced 3 times at sears (i know i know) before asking for a refund.

i went to a local place w/ a 9700 and haweka adapter. they road forced all 4 and checked the alignment. he said that the tires were very close to being balance when i brought them in. however, he said that my toe was out on the alignment. he adjusted it, and sent me on my way.

vibe on the highway is now nearly gone. there's some residual, but it's from running the tires misaligned for about 5k miles now. i'll rotate them and that will disappear soon.

what i'm getting at is this: if you are slightly out of alignment, then when you got new tires, they were balanced correctly and the vibration went away. as they wore from the misalignment, the vibration reappeared but rebalancing didn't do anything to help. after an alignment and rebalance, it helped some, but it still didn't completely go away.

sound familiar?

get the aligment checked by a reputatble place. if it's in spec, then they don't charge. if it's out of spec, then pay for it and take that receipt to the first place you paid for an alignment at and request a refund for shotty work.

even after you do that, you'll have some vibration until you rotate the tires and ride them a while to get the wear pattern back to normal. you may even want to have the trued to get it fixed once and for all.

swapping the tires will tell you if it's a truck thing or a tire/wheel thing somewhat. however the other tires will have a different wear pattern and may ride smooth as glass even though the truck is out of alignment.

it could still be a bad wheel, bad tire, or bent rear axle. however, as much as i've dealt with this over the years, i've learned that if a rebalance doesn't help, then get it aligned and rotate the tires and give it a couple thousand miles to completely go away before you start pulling your hair out.

 

Yesterday afternoon, I called Chad to make sure he'd have time to do the swap this morning. He tells me that his transmission had started slipping and that he ways on the way to the dealer to drop it off to be looked at. I was at the door of the dealership service department this morning at 6:45 to have them do the tire swap. I figured paying them $30 is worth the time it would take me to swap the tires myself, plus Chad's truck was already there. So, I initially talked to the service manager who was filling in for the normal service manager. Jeff Johnson is the ususal manager and he is great. This guy is nothing short of a total prick and I will be calling Jeff on Monday after he's back from vacation and let him know. I'd already spoken with Sydney (the prick) yesterday and let him know that Chad was coming to drop off his truck and that I'd like to do the swap. I get there this morning and remind him and tell him that I'd like to have the thing inspected again after I do the swap. His response..."We don't have any techs here today. We can't do that today." Like I said, total prick and isn't a mechanic supposed to be a tech????? After this, I talked with their "Customer Satisfaction Liason" (what a crock) and remind him that I'm the one he talked to for 35 minutes last week. I told him about the wheel bearings and the feedback that I had gotten that they may be a possible cause. He walks back, looks things over and says that he doesn't know what to tell me. Anyway I go back there and stand with the mechanic and tell him what's going on and why I'm doing this. Shortly into the conversation he tells me "I'm in training." This idiot isn't even certified yet, but I figured at least he can swap a damn set of tires. I take it for a drive and there is still vibration there with his wheels and tires. It may be my imagination, but it seemed slightly, slightly less severe than mine but still a considerable amount. I told them when I left that I'd be back in 20 minutes so they could put my tires back on. I get back, and they've put another car on the rack next to Chad's!!!! Now there were several, several racks in the shop open but the long and short of it, I waited about an hour just to have my damn tires put back on and they put it back on the same rack it was orginally on. I'm fuming mad at this point and ready to blow up on someone. I finally get a guy in the shop to go over to the truck with me and look it over to see if he saw anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked fine. No evidence of any bearing problems at all. So I pay up, leave mad as hell, and head to Firestone to have an alignment done. So now here's where I'm at.....

1. Did tire swap and vibration was still there.
2. No evidence of damage to the axle or defective wheel bearings
3. After the alignment, it seems to be a little better but I think this is total coincidence since it has been aligned several, several times since all of this began back in January.

I'm at a loss guys. I guess from here forward I suck it up and live with it. Noone can find anything wrong so I don't know what to do. I have not rotated the spare around the truck yet but honestly I don't think it's worth my time. The manager at Firestone recommended an "on the truck" balance. The only drawback to that is that everytime you rotate the tires, it has to be done again since you are basically balancing the tire on the truck and taking that mounting location and all that goes along with it (ie something broke or loose) into account. Not to mention I have no idea who does it in B'ham, he didn't know (said he may be able to find out on Monday), and it's not cheap. To have that done everytime I rotate my tires will be expensive and is ludacris. I don't know what to do now guys but say thanks for the input, suck it up and live with it, and trade the truck at first opportunity. And....based on the support from Toyota National and the support I got up there today, I'm not ashamed to say that I doubt I'll buy another one in the future, even though it has been very reliable. My friends Nissans have been just as reliable, but I will never buy American again after my luck with my Blazer and Grand Cherokee. Thanks again guys.

Matt

 

In the time it took you to type those 2 huge monolithic paragraphs you could have raised it on the jackstands and did a spin in air as was suggested several times before.

If it shakes and stops if you take the wheels off, means it's the bearings. If it still shakes, then go to step 3.

This thread is in page 4, and it’s still on step #1, the wheels.

 

4Runr,
While it was jacked up, we spun all four tires. All of them spun freely, there was no noise from the front wheel bearings, and there was no wobble in any of the tires. We shook the tires by grasping them at the top and bottom first and then on each side and they are solid. I'm not sure if you read the above paragraph thoroughly because the vibration was still there with Chad's wheels/tires on my truck. Noone can see any evidence that it's the wheel bearings, and I'm not going fishing and spend $600-$700 to have them replaced and still have the same problem when it's all said and done.

Matt