Good Times

I had a blast visiting the guys from San Diego and Steve (from AZ) but now I'm experiencing some bad vibrations at high speeds.

On the way home, I noticed/felt vibrations at 50mph+. This was pretty severe that it forced me to drive home very very slowly

Okay so the vibrations start at 45 - 70 and then stops from 70-75. It comes back at close to 80 and at that points it's real bad. I did a few times to diagnose the problem. After a few attempts I quickly gave up and just drove slow

Okay I thought it might be a wheel that got off balance or something. So what I did was take a quick look at my wheels and noticed a notch in my counterweight on the wheel. So I figured that was the case and just drove home slowly until I can figure out what to do.

I went to Costco (the closest place that can balance tires...) and had them balance all 4 wheels thinking that this problem might go away. As you can figure it hasn't. Problem still persists so either they don't know how to balance the tires or it's a problem that far more severe.

Anyone want to take a shot at this?

Tomorrow, I plan to take the wheels off and check my entire suspension (maybe a loose part or something?).

Lance

Ric

i had the same thing the first time i was playing in the mud, when we was done, at about 40 it would vibrate pretty bad, i was really wondering what it was, so when i got home, i washed it really good, up underneath all it was, was mud on the inside of the wheel.
i hope yours is this simple....

FirstToy

bent wheel, broken/cracked rim?

Good Times

As for the bent/cracked rim idea, wouldn't they know whey they try to balance the wheel?

Flygtenstein

Alignment?

I usually eat at least one weight per tire on a trip and it does not make such a difference that I would be as disgruntled as you sound to be.

At this point it is shooting in the dark. If there was no heavy mud involved that I haven't a clue.

AFRunner

See if a bunch of mud is caked on your driveshaft and suspension components. About 1/2 under the truck with a hose will do wonders. Good Luck
Aaron

Good Times

Would a bad alignment at high speeds produce vibrations though?

yeah, here in Southern Cali, we really don't have alot of mud It's just one big dust bowl!

EDIT: I did wash my 4runner top to bottom (inside and out) so everything should be clean...

Fink

If you have some way to lift the entire truck up and look underneath then you could check out all the linkage and everything...I use 8 inch ramps that I just drive up...also a creeper/crawler is pretty useful too and a lot of fun!

If you can't visibly see anything then I guess just take it somewhere and have it looked over. Maybe there is a jammed in rock or some dust somewhere where it shouldn't be.

I'm no expert though, some of the more serious wheelers on here will have some answers for ya!

Fink

Mad Chemist

I'm thinking alignment too. You're not pulling to one side or the other, just vibrations?

Good Times

I'm not pulling to either side (drives pretty straight) and it's just vibrations at speeds over 50-70 and then the vibrations go away like as if it just found a sweet spot or something. The virbations return aggresively at 80 which makes it pretty unpleasant to drive at that speeds.

I guess I will check everything out tomorrow as I can just jack it up on stands and take a look. I did go underneath and do a quick look at the front suspension to see if anything was loose (i.e. touch and feel method) but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Would these symptoms be associated to alignment though? Just wondering Since the vibrations only come at 50-70 I thought it was something else... ?! You're guess is good as mine!

Thanks again everyone.

CTB

I would bet that if he is just getting vibrations then he probably threw a weight of or something...check to see if you did. You may just need your tires rebalanced, not an alignment.

Robinhood150

Can you tell where the vibes are coming from? Front, rear, center? Is your steering wheel vibrating? If your steering wheel isn't vibrating then I'm betting on the driveshaft or rear wheels.

SteveO

I'm willing to bet your tires are still out of balance. I can tell when my front or rear tires are out of balance by watching the tire in the rear view mirror or the top of the ARB bumper. Did the guys balance your tires with a flange adapter? Did they use a Hunter 9700 to really balance them correctly? It seems that tires and wheels are, most of the time, the culprit of vibration issue, despite have them balanced. Recently I had a Discount tire jockey balance my American Racing wheels with BFG M/T tires on a regular balancing machine using a flange adapter. After this supposed balancing act, I still have serious vibrations. Sometimes I could find that sweet spot, around 64mph when all the vibrations seemed to cancel other vibrations out, and it was smooth. But keeping the 4Runner at 64mph is not an easy task.

Due to this insane act of balancing and rebalancing and driving slowly to another tire shop only to have them incorrectly re-balance my tires again, I gave up. I now have M/T Hub centric Classic Lock wheels and Nitto Terra Grappler A/T tires. The ride home from ABQ to Santa Fe was sweet and smooth.

I would take your 4Runner to a shop that has a Hunter GSP 9700 road force balancing machine. This is the best way to have your tires balanced. Also if your wheels are aftermarket, have them use the flange adapter as well. Since the M/T are hub centric, they didn't have to use the flange adapter, and the ride has been excellent!

Flygtenstein

As per his first post, the wheels are balanced.

Did you drag the rear driveshaft over anything? I had a real bad ride, 1,200 miles back to Wisconsin, with a less than straight, let alone balanced rear driveshaft. If it is as violent as you say, you should be able to see it out of whack.

sfrolich

I'm betting on a dented/smashed driveshaft. Check the driveshafts for a rock ding or better yet, take one off and see if the problem goes away. If not put the driveshaft back on and take the other off.

Scott

RobT2k

That sucks, hopefully it's something minor.
I lost one wheel weight for sure and it didn't cause any vibes at freeway speeds. So look into the driveshaft theory, you did a tough trail this weekend.

Good Times

Just went out for abit of driving to see what kind of vibrations (location) it was coming from.

The vibration is not as severe as it was prior to balancing the wheels. But the vibration is still present. When the vibration is there, the steering is not affected (therefore I can assume that the vibration must be coming from the rear). It doesn't sound like it's coming from the center either (had a passenger sit with me to see where he felt it was coming from. Sounds like right now it's coming from the passenger rear side area.

I'm not too sure on what the problem might be but I am certain that the steering does not rattle when the vibration is present.

My guesses are either the rear suspension (somewhere) or maybe the tires are still not balanced.

What steps should I take with this updated information?

1: should I retry and balance all the tires again somewhere else?
2: should I get an alignment?
3: should I check rear suspension for any possible problems?
4: should I check the driveshaft too?

I know I should do all of the above but what method should I approach this problem?

EDIT:
O btw, stock tires/stock wheels.... (otherwise stock 4runner)
Shouldn't tire places be able to balance stock wheels/tires?!?!

SteveO

They should, but I wouldn't count them out. One way to check if your drive shaft is out of whack, is to watch your transfer case stick. When you are driving, check to see if the transfer case stick is moving around when the vibrations are in effect. I would cycle the drivline through the no-vibration phase and the vibration phase. During this time watch or feel the transfer case stick (or Auto stick if you don't have a transfer case stick). You might consider a bad U-joint. However the U-joints produce a fine vibration and will cycle with different speed varations as well.

just a thought......

mt_goat

Did you wheel it pretty hard? One possibility I haven't heard mentioned yet is a bent rear axle. A bent axle will cause vibations similar to what you describe. I had a rear axle bend when a guy ran a red light and smacked into the side of me. But I have heard of some people bending Toyota axles by hitting bumps hard while loaded down. You can drive slowly down the road and have someone look out the window at each wheel and see if there is any wobble. Mine had a visible wobble in one wheel. To make sure it isn't the wheel itself rotate the wheels and check it again.

Good Times

SteveO:

My 4runner doesn't have a transfer case stick anymore because it's all that electronic crap (button). Also I'm always in 4hi (fulltime 4wd) so I thought about what you said and I don't feel anything on my auto shifter.

I can definitely say the vibration is not from my steering so I can rule out the front suspension and tires right?

I've yet to check the rear but it does seem to come from somewhere in the back (passenger right?). Not sure as when it vibrates, it's hard to tell as the cabin vibrates.

I did check the front suspension overnight to see if I had any loose bolts/bent stuff and didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

I will look into the driveshaft area tonight long with the rear suspension.

mt_goat:

I will look into the axle as well. I did wheel pretty hard for a stock 4runner though so I'm keeping all my options open.