So I have a 1999 4runner with 175000 miles and over the past year has begun to walk, shimmy or shake....whatever you wanna call it at highway speeds (over 60) and doesnt feel safe at all. I have put quite a bit of money trying to fix it, including...Brand new tires, new shocks, new steering rack bushings, alignment done 2 weeks ago, tire balanced. AND it still does it...fml! Could it have something to with the coils?? Please help me out if you have any ideas.Thanks

 

Ball Joints, Tie Rods ends? Now does front shake or the whole rig?

 

Sorry forgot to mention that i had all that stuff checked by our family mechanic and he said it was all solid.....that being said it is the whole car that shakes not just the front

 

Is is an RPM or speed dependent vibration? I've seen driveshafts get tweaked out of balance and cause similar symptoms.

 

More speed dependent....you kinda notice it at 60 but once you hit 80 it gets ridiculous.

 

Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to check out your driveshaft for dings or dents. If it's been balanced before, sometimes they'll throw a weight just like a tire does.

 

And or motor mounts?

 

I was having the same problem with mine. Try taking it to another shop and have the tires rebalanced. Sometimes the tire machines get out of wack. On my 4runner it doesn't take much weight off to feel the shake. You could also have a bent rim.

 

a quick search and you would have been on your way.

forget the family mechanic, at least for the runners tire balancing. probably dosnt have the right equipment for our rigs.

what you need is a shop that has a machine called the GSP9700 Road Force Balancer WITH a Haweka adapter. It can do one major thing no other machine can do....put a load on the tire as if it were on the ground.

Forget it, just read this ENTIRE article, then go get your fixed the right way!
http://www.gadgetonline.com/Vibration.htm

 

Good point, i had a shake , prob went on for 3 years. At X mph it would shake so much the seat belt would lock. At one point i got new tires a dif balancer, and switcwed rims around. It went away 90%.

 

I had this happen to me recently, but I knew my tires were balanced (dynabeads) ... turned out my panhard bar mount ripped off from the frame. Probably not very common, but you should check it.

 

I agree w/ okie81, probably driveshaft and more specifically u-joints. When they go bad they can make a 4runner shake like crazy right around 60 and it gets worse as you go faster - I've personally felt it before. Since you got the tires balanced already, I would move on from that if it were me and look elsewhere....like the driveshaft.

 

Good point too, thats prob last place one would figure, thanks.

 

Are you SAS? If so check into Death Wobble. Search on that and it might help! Also check your stearing knuckles.....

 

I'm gonna put some money on U-joints. I had a U-joint that grenaded itself after about a year of putting off replacing it, and having severe shaking at any speeds above 70 km/h.

 

Well I checked the driveshaft and it looks fine to me...But to me it seems like a soft suspension issue... how could you tell if your springs are bad

 

Usually springs will sag when they're bad. You can test your shocks though, push up and down on the hood/jump on the back bumper and if your truck keeps bouncing after you let go, the shocks are shot.

 

I'm going with this

 

i did replace my shocks with bills but it seems that when i do it they dont stop immediatly but fairly soon after i stop

 

Steering dampener is probably gone out, Either that or its out of alignment.
Also if you tightened up your torsion bars wrong it will cause it to do that.