texsurfer

put it on jack stands in the driveway and get the speed up and see if it starts vibrating. be sure to point AWAY from teh house in case you fall of the stands and begin the longest burnout of its life. in fact, go to a deserted industrial area to do this. no need to bust through a neighbors house at 50mph

have you had the mechanics ride with you to illustrate the vibration?

have you got up to vibration speeds and killed the engine?

process of elimination is usually the best.

2001Millrunner

going above 65mph on jack stands, on 4wd Hi.....scary..

BTW. I've killed engine going 70mph, still the same crap. I've ruled out suspension as well because it happened even before my Bilstein HDs

LSUMatt1514

Yes, the mechanics have noticed it. When I had the U-joints replaced a couple weeks ago, I talked with the mechanic about the vibration problems that I've been having. After the U-joints were replaced and he went and test drove it, he noticed the vibration and of course he said they needed to be balanced (if only I had a dollar for everytime I've heard that or "It's your tires"). I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with the service manager whom I know very well, and he said that there's a guy here in B'ham with an early model Tundra exhibiting the same vibration problems. He's had everything done to it to cure it including checking the balance of the drive shaft and they have not been able to find anything to cure it. It's been at the dealership numerous times and didn't start until he got over 100k miles on it. Bottom line...they finally threw their hands in the air and so did he and said he'd just live with it until he got a new truck.

Who the hell knows at this point. I'm going to let them break the tires down one more tire, re-mount them, and do another road force balance. If that doesn't solve it, then I'll just live with it until I get something new which sucks because I planned on keeping this truck for several more years and getting my wife a new car first. As much as I drive, it's aggravating as hell putting up with this vibration. I'm also concerned about re-sale. I'm not even considering trading it in. I'll sell it to some local high school kid for his first vehicle. I doubt the dealer would give me anything for all the mods I've done to it. I guess it would depend on what they offered though. Like I said though, as much work as I've put into mod-ing this truck and the fact that it's paid for, we're going to buy a larger house next year, and my wife will need a new car soon with babies coming in the next year to year and a half, I don't want to get rid of it but it may cost me my sanity if I can't get this vibration resolved.

Matt

LSUMatt1514

2001MillRunner,
Is it more than coincedence that both of us are having the same issue and both of us have basically the same truck and same year (excpet mine is two wheel drive and yours is 4WD)? BTW...is "SE" sport edition? They didn't technically offer a Toyota deemed sport edition model until 2002 as I recall.

Matt

LSUMatt1514

I am losing my mind. I guess that's what working swing shifts and coming off three straight 12 hour night shifts will do to you coupled with only about 4 hours sleep this morning. Mine is a sport edition!!!!!!!!

04 Rocko Taco

I keep going back and forth all day between the pics in both of your avatars and debating whether or not you guys might be the same peron, or share a truck. It is a startling siminlarity.

LSUMatt1514

Rocko Taco,
Yes, it's a sick joke we're playing on everyone on the forum

04 Rocko Taco

I've got 265/70/16's by the way Matt...Gimme a shout if you wanna give it a shot. PM me for any contact info.

LSUMatt1514

Rocko Taco,
Thanks. I'll have to see. I'd hate for you to have to drive anywhere to do this. I'll try to locate someone here in town first and then give you a shout if I don't have any luck.

Matt

Elton

not sure if this helps but wheels and tires have a heavy spot and if there in the same spot it can cause vibration issues .... what i would do is try a different set of wheels and tires from a friend

automated11

Im having the same issue on my 1997 SR5 4x4 with 16in rims w/ 265/70R16's so please let me know if you find out the issue. I'm trying to figure out this one myself.

mt_goat

Sorry I didn't get a chance to read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this is will help, but don't let the tire store try to con you into thinking "the tires are fine it's the truck" I think some of these tire stores must buy blems and then try to convice people they have some other problem causing their vibration. If they can't get the tires to run smooth they should replace them. I've gotten 6 out-of-round tires in my life and they were all replaced.

MTL_4runner

Matt, like I've said before, you should make a a priority to swap tires with someone who's truck is running smooth at highway speeds to know if the issue is in fact with the wheels (rims/tires) or some other drivetrain component. Without doing this, you have no way to pinpoint where the problem actually lies and you are just wasting your time and money. You need to go through the process of elimination to know where to best spend your efforts.

bflooks

for what it's worth, i had replaced tires on my 98 with factory size 265/70/16's. after putting new tires on, the truck would vibrate violently and it actually made me feel sick watching the passenger seat shaking. i fought with the shop and ended up changing tire brands. same result.

it took their youngest technician mounting a third set of tires to notice that one rim was just ever so tweaked. he actually took the tire back off and mounted the rim on the balancing machine. it wasn't until then that it was clear that it was actually the rim.

LSUMatt1514

MTL,
Thanks. That's exactly what I'm going to do first. Hopefully I'll be able to do it in town.

Bflooks,
Never thought of that. I definitely get them to do that as well. When they did a road force balance on your new tires, did they find an runout readings that were out of whack, or did the machine say that the wheels were good? I'm interested to see if the Hunter machine can actually accurately detect an out of round wheel when it takes it's runout measurements.

Thanks for the input guys.

Matt

MTL_4runner

Matt, one more thing....

If the tires on the truck you swap with are the same size as the ones in question (ie yours and the truck you swap with are both 265/70R16s), then that will makes things even easier for you if the issue is in fact with the tires. You can pinpoint the exact one by adding your original tires to the vehicle one at a time until the vibration comes back. Be sure to check them all (ie if you find one that vibrates, don't just assume that it is the only culprit).

bflooks

i had never required the specific machine. mine had always balanced fine.

04 Rocko Taco

Matt, if you want, it shouldnt be bad for me, I have friends in B-ham, and its a good exscuse to visit. Just let me know.

Ironmike4x4

I've just FINALLY caught this thread... but BF I'm glad you made that comment. When I was working at a GM dealer we had a similar issue with the vibration from a customer. The master tech had me to take the tires off the wheels and he put the wheels by themself on the truck. The truck was of course on the lift, but he accelerated the wheels and you could see a noticeable wobble on one of the rear wheels. Came to find out. The day after the person put the tire on he had a nice run-in with a log when 'wheeling. LSU, it's quite possible it could be the wheel itself or even a bad tire. There have been on a few rare occasion where a tire has a "heavy spot" I don't know much about it, but I would think that a balance would offset the heavy spot in the tires. It's worth a try to swap wheels/tires with someone if you could. For the trouble, maybe even take it to a Toy dealership and have them yank a set of tires from one on the lot and see how it does.

hillbilly

I have to agree with MTL. Finding someone and swapping wheels may be a PITA, but that's about the only way you're going to be able to eliminate the rims/wheels as the culprit without buying a bunch of new stuff. Outside of a bent/damaged rim, the off chance of a damaged/warped rotor/drum (which I'd think you'd feel while breaking), or a bearing issue, I can't image what else it could be since you've inspected/replaced the other potential components. Any change someone left/put something inside the tire or drum?

For what its worth I just bought four 265/75R16 Cooper S/T's and haven't had any vibration problems.