Hi,

After being a proud owner of my 2001 4Runner (SR5, 4x4) for almost a month, today I finally had a chance to take a trip from Tucson to Phoenix, which is about 150 miles drive each way and I have noticed is that at speeds above 85 mph my 4Runner starts to shake. That, however, only happens in 2WD mode and if I'll switch to 4WD the truck drives fine and shaking almost disappears.

Is this normal and something to be expected, or should I check the tire balancing 17" Dunlop TG35 tires, which are set @ 34 PSI? Could it be something more serious than tires and will it be worth while taking my 4Runner to the dealer, since the truck is still under warranty?

-- Andrey

 

Take it in! My '90 with 152k doesn't shake until around 95, yours definitely shouldn't be shaking! Could be tires, could be a few different things, if it's under warranty let the $tealer$hip figure it out.

 

Also, never ever engage 4WD above 55 mph. And try to limit the use of 4WD on dry pavement.

 

I used 4WD only for testing to see if the car still would shake. Normally I wouldn't never use 4WD on the highway anyway.

 

Where do you feel the vibration? Is it in the steering wheel or do you feel it in the "seat"?

If it is in the steering wheel, have your tires rebalanced on a properly calibrated machine. Tell the tire shop that you want them balanced to "zero". The first spin is not always accurate. The tech might not have put the weight in exactly the right place. They should re-spin the tire after placing the weight to make sure it is in the right place.

Don't tell them that it shakes above 85 mph. Just tell them that it shakes. 85 is well above the speed limit. If it doesn't shake at 65 then the tire shop is happy. Since you are not supposed to drive that fast, the tire shop has no interest in fixing the "problem".

 

It is rather difficult to say whenever it is only steering wheel or the entire car, but I can definitely say for sure that shaking comes from the front of the car. The shaking can be felt in the passenger seat also.

I somewhat agree about rebalancing tires since I just rotated all my tires and didn't really balance them. They are still original tires that came from the factory with original balancing which was done at the Toyota.

-- Andrey

 

update

Looks like tires were out of balance, and that was causing my truck to shake! Tech at the Toyota dealership rebalanced all 4 tires and now I discovered that my 4Runner has a governor at @ 110mph! And even at that speed my car doesn't shake anymore. I'm very impressed with such an easy solution!

 

Congratulations, you're retarded

I hope that was figured out on the track...

 

110 on those tires??? I hope you were on an extremely straight road, like a runway or salt flats.

 

That's 110 mph on GOOD tires, on the balanced ones! And as far as road, here in AZ we have plenty of straight roads which go for miles and miles.

And also, to those who are concerned, I was doing 110mph for maybe half a mile or so. Last thing I want to do is to get a ticket for speeding on the highway, those are very expensive in AZ (and probably for a reason, hehe)

-- Andrey

 

driving at those speeds in 4WD is going to cause you bigger problems than a little shaking in the long run, the guy above nailed it, keep it below 50 or so in 4wd. I wouldn't even take it up that high if you can help it.

 

In that case, take her up to around 105 and toss it into 4H. That should fix any gubbner problem you have. It might be a little noisy at first but things will quiet down really quick. This is all a joke of coures.

 

keisur,
Thankfully engineers at Toytoa thought about people like me

Besides not letting me switch to 4WD at speeds higher than 50mph, my 4Runner starts beeping at me if I drive in 4WD above 60mph. So to make a long story short, I drove in 4WD for maybe 1/4 mile @65mph at the most and I don't believe I could have done any damage to the tranny in such short distance.

-- Andrey

 

sorry, haha, it sounded like you meant you took her up to 85+ in 4wd. the first 4wd I had I was going about twenty and pulled it out of 4wd and then pulled it back in, or at least I tried to pull it back in. I heard a loud pop and my 4wd became a 2wd instantly and for good. . haha, luckily that was a piece of crap I picked up in college to learn and experiment on. better believe that won't ever happen again. haha.

 

Oh no it BEEPS at you? To me beeping is just a taunt, a challenge if you will, to go faster or push harder

 

Here is a pretty interesting fact about '01 4Runner 4WD system:

Full article can be found here: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showth...hp?threadid=12

 

You're only not supposed to shift into 4wd above a certain speed (varies by generation and tranny type). Once you're in 4wd, you can go as fast as you want. The ttora guys routinely go 80+ in 4wd.

That beeping thing is something new though, kinda funny.

Steve

 

Yeah, my owners manual says you can go 103 mph in 4HI. Just the same as 2HI. You just have to be under 50 when you shift into 4HI.

 

hey...question about balancing. why is it that when i take my car in and tell them at discount to baance my tires, and that its lugcentric, they tell me im wrong and do it with some plate. What do you guys do? I am right, right?

 

oh, another question. Can you get to 110 in 4th gear (overdrive)? I have to have mine in 3rd to get that high. If its in OD, it will get to 97 and stop, and if i get above that on a downhill, it slows me down. I have heard that it has both soft and a hard limiter, but i guess it doesn't limit 3rd gear.