Hey so I've been having trouble with the front end of my Runner pulling to one side and she likes to shake as I hit the 90kms/h mark on the highway. After I hit 100/110kms/h she's fine but I really need to fix this before the summer road trips start.

Things I've done so far...
- New shocks
- New bushings
and it still shakes!

Should I start looking for some new brake parts that could be making things rub possibly or is it in a sway bar that could just need replacing? Or something I'm completely off with my ideas of whats going on? Thanks

 

You'll need to do a systematic inspection of the front end system. Start with easy stuff like missing wheel weights, clean spots on the rims. Play in the wheel bearings. Worn bushings. Tierod and other steering components have no play.

The anti sway bar, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sway_bar, pretty much just tryes to keep both tires in contact with the ground.

Find a nice level parking spot and inspect the ride height at the lower control arm bolt. Should be even, but usually isn't due to right side sag caused by the fuel tank location. You can adjust this at the torsionbar, it's covered in the manual. But a proper front end alignment will include this.

I of course am assuming you had the alignment checked after replacing those suspension components. Also tire shops should give a lifetime rotation and balance warranty.

You'd likely know if it was a brake rub issue, it'll pull to one side and/or make an intermitten noise.

 

you say it pulls to one side, does it do this when applying the brakes? if so it may be that one of your calipers aren't functioning properly.

 

New ball joints, tie rods, an controll arm bushings acompanied by a front end alignment fixed my 4runner with simillar problems i also had slack in the steering thrown in the mix with my problems. Hope this helps

 

Exactly which bushings? Shock bushing, sway bar bushing, strut bushing, control arm bushing, steering dampener bushing and maybe some others I am forgetting.

 

First, and easiest thing, that I would check are the tires. I work at the Toyota dealership, and we get vehicles all the time with wobbles. A large percentage just have bad/worn out tires.

 

Pretty sure it was the strut bearings... haha

Anyways thanks everyone for the feed back, needed it big time. I'm stoked to get this figured out! I won't be able to find out for 2 months cause I'm out of the province without my truck.. so it'll be a good day when me and the runner are united.

 

Er by strut I'm going to assume you really mean shocks. Don't think the 4wd even has a strut bar, but anyways it's in the parts diagram below bottom left below the shock.

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b.../7frontsus.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacPherson_strut Is a way different system than we have, we have upper and lower control arms. A Macpherson strut system is a shock acting as a strut with a single lower control(A) arm.

 

You learn something new every day haha...

 

I found on my 91 T4R that when I jacked up the left front, I saw some play. By wiggling the wheel back and forth and watching the steering components, it turns out both the Pitman arm and the Idler Arm have play in them allowing the wheels to shimmy while I drive. Might be something to look into.

 

did you try rotating your tires to see if it affected the symptoms? if you do rotate and it does worsen/alleviate the issue then odds are u just need new tires+an alignment. this has happened to me two times when getting new vehicles whos owners are baffled and angered by the shudder. once I got them home a rotation really helped but not completely solved, but 2 new tires up front latter the problem disappears

 

 

Hey everyone. Update on the shaking. It's still there... She still pulls to the right when I let the steering wheel go but I went to the shop today and they said that I need to get a new inner tire rod and Idler arm. I saw it myself how much it could move where it's not really supposed to. I think I'm finally getting closer to the solution. Down side is I was quote $500 for the job... yeah I'm going to just get the parts and do it myself for more then half the price. I know I'll have to get a realignment as well after but fingers crossed this might be the answer! Hopefully have an answer within the week.