Steering Wheel Shake That Goes Away After I Drive It For A Few Minutes

I've noticed if I let the truck sit for a few hours (~8+hrs), it'll have a steering wheel shake the next time I go to drive it.

The steering wheel shake CONSISTENTLY (and completely) goes away after ~10 minutes or so of driving. Braking does not seem to fix the problem, only time driving does.

It is not the LCA ball joints.

I normally only notice it at about 55+mph, but today I noticed it at 45mph.

There is about +/- 0.25" of shake when measured at the edge of the steering wheel. Usually a tad less. Never more. It's pretty faint most the time.

Vehicle previously had warped rotors from previous owner, very severe wheel shake when braking, but that completely went away w/ new rotors.

Noticed while replacing said rotors, the passenger side front OEM rotor was difficult to remove, and the new rotor was also impossible to fully seat against the hub without bolting the tire on.

TL;DR: Title.

 

There is a vibration through the steering wheel when I first drive the truck. About 55mph, feels like the tires are not balanced. Goes away after a few miles.
I believe it is due to the Falken Wildpeak tires being cold and stiff. When they warm up, the ride smoothes out.

 

I've had the same problem. It didn't matter which set of tires and rims I used.
It didn't happen all the time.
I replaced the inner and outer tie rods and haven't had the problem since.
I'm not saying this is your problem, just sharing my experience.
Good Luck

 

I'm almost certain this shake is because of a flat spot that develops on the tires after sitting for a while and goes away after warming up. Common occurrence especially in cold weather.

 

What brand / model / size tires are you running?

 

Agreed, it only happens to me in the winter.

 

Same. I get the same vibration from my WRX until the tires warm up, rarely drive it so it's usually parked in the garage and the tires likely developed some flat spots.

 

Rotate tires and see if anything changes

 

Hmmmf, thanks for the responses guys.

I’m using 265/75R16 BFGoodrich KO2’s w/ the 3 peak mountain snowflake.

Good to know it’s nothing out of the ordinary most likely.

 

The 235/85-16 KO2's on my Gen 2 do exactly that after a few days of sitting during the winter.

What tire pressure are you running, @NORCAL50? I'd guess underinflation would make this worse by increasing the contact patch.

 

This happens to me every day. The off-road shop said i need to have the wheels completely balanced with weights on the face of the wheel to fix this issue. Still find it hard to believe. 55mph is definitely the worst speed but once I go past 65 it’s smooth as butter and before 45 it’s smooth. Running 285/75-16 ko2’s, only 4 months old, on Method 701’s.

 

Same happens to me, and I also have Wildpeaks.

 

It even happens with regular highway tread tires. Seems to be due to how finnicky the alignment/toe is on these trucks for them to track straight.

 

my wife her Subaru does it with wildpeaks. once they get warmer it goes away. I've even re balanced tires, moved them around on the car, even broke the bead and used the "balance" dots on to align with the valve stem and there is still a vibration.

my 09 Tacoma, BFG, vibration for a bit. then just fine seems to be worse in the cooler mornings. the BFG tires I had on it when I purchased my truck also had that vibration and I just assumed it was due to some wear. I need to align it again for paranoia sake, plus I want to do some new leaf packs and new shocks, so that is why I haven't gotten alignment.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but could this be that tires constructed more cheaply (with more silica content?) are subject to this deformation while sitting for a while (overnight, for example), and tire temp is required to correct the deformation? I wouldn't think KO2's would fall into that category, though...

 

you know, I'm not sure, I'm sure there is some aspect of all that. but I've also owned the cheapest off tires i could buy to keep a car on the road way and had no issues with vibration. but perhaps other cars are more forgiving.

but I've mounted and balanced tires for years. grew up in and around a tire shop as a kid. My dad worked at a shop when I was young, and his best friend use to let me mount and balance with him when I was like 7, probably one of the best tire guys I've ever worked with, but also a great tech who helped be the tech that I used to be.

 

I know its been a while, but wanted to follow up on this. I had my Wildpeaks rotated and balanced in May or June 2023, but picked up a sudden and much more noticeable vibration/wobble in the steering wheel starting at 60mph and getting worse through 73mph a couple of weeks after the balance. Thought maybe I had lost a weight or something, because it happened overnight. Took the truck back to Discount Tire , and they assured me that the tires were, in fact, balanced.

Next, I took the truck to a local driveline specialist, and had them run through everything. He checked all vertical and horizontal angles, checked driveshaft balancing at another shop, checked u-joints, checked rotors, checked carrier bearing, tie rods, etc... Apparently the driveline was dead-on, steering was fine, and suspension was setup fine.

Then he checked the tire roundness... and found that only (1) of my tires were truly round. He checked them with a level bar, and rolled the tire along the rod, marking any differences along the length, and identified that (3) of my tires were pretty "off" from being perfectly round. According to him, their defects would easily be enough to cause my wobble.

The above diagnostic work cost over $600, but I was glad to know the driveline appeared sound.

@Discount Tire - wondering if there is a warranty or something that could help with this? I've got close to 30k miles on them, and they've always had slight issues, but the throbbing sound and steering wheel shake just suddenly got way worse. I'd love to know your thoughts on how this could be resolved, particularly if Falken has a way to assist.

 

You expect a tire company to provide warranty on tires with 30k miles on them? LOL

 

Experienced the same thing for almost all the tires on my Tacoma. It is quite common on any tire that has nylon in the construction.

My Dueler H/L Alenza Plus for example "internal structure includes twin steel belts reinforced with spirally wound nylon"


My iceGUARD G075 " A nylon reinforcement ply helps to enhance handling and provides high-speed capability.


https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/what-is-temporary-tire-flatspotting

 

When i install new rotors I give the mating surface between the rotor and the hub a light coat of anti-seize. It will also help alot if you do the same for those nasty rotor retaining screws if you actually use them.