Hello, I'm new to this forum, but I have participated in other toyota forums. I have a 94 Pickup 22RE with a 2" body lift and 33x12.50 BFG A/T's. My problem/question is this:
Ever since I put the lift and bigger tires on my truck, I have had a problem with the steering wheel shimmying/shaking from side to side, basically from about 11:00 - 1:00 positions. I have had the tires balanced numerous times and I also have pretty new wheels. I know this isn't a result of 4-wheeling because it started when I got the bigger tires. I had my alignment checked and I was told that it was good, no adjustment needed. The shaking occurs in the front end, and hapens basically between 25-45 MPH. I checked the wheel bearings to see if they were loose but they were not. I replaced the steering dampner with a Rancho RS5000 Stabilizer. So, is this likely an idler arm problem? I have checked the ball joints but I don't really see any play in them. I hope this problem can be solved because the steering shake literally drives me insane. I always drive my other vehicle because I can't stand the shimmy/shake.

 

wow, sounds like a near-classic decription of tire balance, especially since it started when the tires went on.

How about tires out of round?
Bad rim?
Many times those won't show up with balancing, especially spin balancing.

Then, I'd check ball joints and tie rod ends, steering arm and idler ends, etc.

How about your shocks? Are they shot?

Wheel bearings, then maybe have a look at the axles.

We recently had to take a car to 3 different shops before they got the tires balanced properly. (One was a real bonehead - big store with a big well-known name too!)

 

find somewhere that has a hunter tire balance machine in your area...

http://128.242.141.111/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

 

I'm not sure, I have taken the thing in atleast 5 times since I got the tires last summer... more often than the usual amount. But, its possible I guess. I assumed that the bigger tires just exaggerated whatever may have been loose already. I am no mechanic though.

 

Have you been taking it to the same shop?.....

To illustrate, the GFs car story goes like this:
Bought new tires, had em mounted and balanced. (National chain Discount store...) Felt a shimmy from about 20 thru 50 or so. RF tire, clearly, and pretty bad. Took it back, they said a rim was bent and they couldn't balance it and put it on the back. (It was scratched, we knew that, happened 3 months before...) I called bull˟˟˟˟˟, if it didn't wobble before it shouldn't wobble now. They tried again, said they couldn't balance it. I set up a crude runout gauge with a pencil and some duct tape, I could detect no runout. So she took it to a different shop (Pacific Northwest chain known for exhorbitant prices but awesome service) and they took both tires off the OTHER side and spun em, put em back on and told her one the THEM was bent! (She's no idiot, she watched em do it!) So she left (at least they didn't charge her anything.) feeling like she'd received the dumb blonde treatment again (she's blonde allright, but I wouldn't underestimate her!) I called the truck repair place my company uses and told them the story. She took it to them, they balanced it with no trouble and off we go. They spun it on the car, dismounted and spun the rim in the spin machine, remounted the tire, and balanced it on the car.

Find someone who really knows what they're doing and has the right equipment. (Assuming tire balance is the problem...)

 

sounds like this thread:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/vibration-steering-wheel-38463/

my last update follows(1999 SR5 4wd):
jacked up the front end, spinning the wheels the driver side rotor was rubs brake pad in one spot. took off rotors, had them machined and checked run out, they are fine.
mounted wheels on fresh rotors with new brake pads, same thing, rotor rubs on same spot. passenger side spins without any rubbing.

bushings look fine, did ball joint pry bar check seems fine. the dealer inspected my runner and said it looked fine as well, alignment fine also. problem persist with new wheels and new tires, same speed steering wheel shake as with old wheels. balanced many times, i think they are in balance.

what next:
i'm a bit afraid to attack the wheel bearing, was going to attempt pulling off the hub and get bearing pressed out if this is possible. haynes is vague, it looks like i can use a puller to get the hub off and then take it to a press....anyone?

 

so, I am guessing that there may be a policy somewhere on here where you don't name what company you bought your tires at or who balances them? I got them from what I believe is a national company, I'd assume so. I checked out the link to that site about Hunter balancers and the place I use has one. I don't mind mentioning company names if that might help decide if my place sucks! But, I have always questioned whether they know what they're doing or not, because the place my roommate goes seems to know, but htey also want $60 to balance all 4 tires. But, I guess this may be a case of "you get what you pay for". It's beginning to seem like the general verdict is tire balancing. I forgot to add earlier that my wobble generally begins when I come out of a turn or a corner back onto straight road... it will generally start doing its "dance". Thought I'd add that thought. Does that change any opinions?

Thought I'd also say, I have already noticed in my 4 hours of being a member that y'all respond in unbelievable amounts of time compared to other sites that I am members of. Some, thanks!

 

I had the same problem getting my MT/R's balanced here in raleigh. The only place I could find that would balance them wright was discount tires. Good luck!

 

alright, so that my have just killed my theory... the place I use is Discount Tire Company over off of Six Forks Rd. My roommate uses Just Tires and the guys there seem to know exactly what to look for and what not.

 

click my link and find a place... im telling you, the second i did that all the vibrations i was getting at about 65 to 75 mph were gone.

 

I have a vibration at highway speeds myself. I'm going to go to Just Tires off of Harvest Oaks Drive (off of Six Forks) and have them balance them again with the GSP. I'll let you know if it works or not.....

 

I've also had similar problems. I even ran into a guardrail on the highway due to that problem (and yes, with highway speeds ).
My problem went away as soon as I took off the Pro Comp steering stabilizer, mounted a stabilizer from a LC and tightened the wheel bearings a bit.

If you want to pinpoint you'r problem, why don't ask a buddy with the same size wheels to swap all 4 wheels for a day or two?
If he encounters you'r problem and you don't............

 

I did use the link you sent and I found that the place I've been taking my truck to get the tires balanced uses that machine... thats why I was saying I didn't know if they were just incompetant or not. Definitely let me know how that Just Tires is...
I am going to take my truck to my place again and described exactly whats going on and see if they can balance them correctly this time... if not, then its back to square one, diagnostics again. I still haven't jacked my front end up to see if I have play in the idler arm, there's no play when its not jacked up though, I know that much.

 

Have you rotated the tires just to see if anything changes?
Keep us posted on the fix.

 

Well, just got the truck back and noticed no shake or shimmy at all. I will have to take it out where I can get faster than 55mph to truly tell. I have to go to Wilmington this weekend, so I-40 should be the test I need.

It was $65 to do the balance and rotation. Look at it this way. You pay a lot up front, but you have free R/B from now on. So if you divide the upfront cost by how many times you have your tires rotated/balance, it will work out to be not too bad.

I would give that Just Tires a try (the one off of Six Forks/Strickland)

 

Nice, glad to hear that you may have your shaking solved. I think i am going to have to break down and take it to somewhere like that. I think I am going to try my place one last time, then I'll have to splurge for there.

I definitely noticed today that my shaking/shimmy starts when I come out of a corner or turn going about 25-40 or if I hit a bump, pothole, etc... So, let me know if that would still relate to a balancing problem? I can also stick my head out the window when driving and see my drivers side tire wobbling, but that could be caused by numerous steering components.

 

to the top

 

I had the shimmy problem too. I kept at it and got 3 sets of tires, 8 to 10 balance/rebalance jobs and it still shook. The Tires Plus dealer didn't want me to see come around but he did support my quest and changed the tires two times , Sears did rebalance them but the problem never went away. On to the dealership: they did it twice and the problem was still there.

Finally I found, on a board like this, Toyota Nation, a link http://www.gadgetonline.com/vibratio...ion%20Balance: :pat:
Which describes the problem and the solution. Have a look.
Also the Toyota dealers all received a TSB on this problem but my dealer and the next one down the line have not taken the steps outlined in the TSB #Su002-96 so when they balanced and rebalanced my wheels it did nothing.



I've had this done, as the link describes at Tire Kingdom. This was the problem all along and now its as smooth as before I put on the new tires.

Give it a try and if your satisfied, spread the word. The problem seems wide spread.

 

sadly, i gave up on discount tires and thier personel with this machine. i read this thread again, and took it to a toyota dealer having the same machine.

GUESS WHAT? they fixed it!!!!!!
many lesson learned here, one of them being Gadget is da man.

 

I had A whoople in my steering wheel in 99' 4Runner and after many trips to the tire store for balacing and alignments and it turned out that when I had my rear drums turned the problem was gone. Funny how rear brakes drums can cause that to. when in doubt go to a TOYOTA dealer.