Vibration at ~65 mph - Diagnosing help!

Hey all,

I have been experiencing a pretty significant vibration/shimmy at about 65 mph. I have had everything balanced and aligned, checked tie rod ends, replaced rack+pinion (unrelated issue).

If you have any ideas about what it could be, please help! I am thinking possibly carrier bearing, any other ideas? Thanks folks

 

Tire tread might be separating from the carcass, or a bubble in the tire tread. Do a careful visual inspection of the tires.
If you don't see anything and still can't figure it out, try a road-force balance service. Hope this helps you.

 

New tires 11,000 miles ago, I haven't noticed any bubbles or anything out of the ordinary. I have also had tires balanced within the last 7000 miles

 

A normal balancing (spinning in the air) will not catch a bubble or other developing issue in the tread.

 

How does your driveshaft look? Have you hit it on any rocks? Is the Carrier Bearing sloppy? Try greasing all of the zerks in the ujoints in the shaft too, I think there's 6? How do they look?

 

New aftermarket wheels?

 

Maybe Rotors could be warped

 

Yes, one of my thoughts was possibly warped/bent wheel? Best way to check that?

 

I have a feeling the carrier bearing could be sloppy. Is it possible to visually inspect that?

 

https://youtu.be/0KhRbDNo80E quick video to help..

 

I have checked brakes and rotors- no warpage

 

The new wheels may be lug centric instead of hub centric. Which wheels did you get

 

Yep, get under & grab your driveshaft and push it around at the bearing. If the rubber in the CB is sloppy and allowing your shaft to wobble around too much- that may be an element that adds to the vibration.

 

Awesome, I'll check it out and report back. Thanks brotha

 

Give your local Tire Rack a call and speak with one of their guys. The offer a tire shaving service... is that what the issue is, don't know, but if you have exhausted all normal courses of action this might be it. Sometimes you just get a bad set of tires.

 

I fought balancing issues for a couple of months before I could get it resolved. It was a combination of problems that started with some lug 16" ProComp Series 51 steel wheels.

1) Three out of four wheels were not perfectly round. They could be balanced on a conventional machine. Road force balancing found the issues. I could roll the rims across the garage floor and see the wobble. I eventually exchanged the wheels and then sold them on Facebook. I bought a new set of Method 305 NV to replace the ProComp Series 51.

2) The new Michelin tires that has been running on the out of round wheels were replaced by Discount Tire. Discount Tire did a great job of getting the new tires in balance. Note the tires were new when the problems started with the wheels.

3) I have a small amount of play in the rubber part of the drive shaft center bearing. I bought a new bearing to replace it that I have not installed. I had a noticeable amount of shake with the gear shift lever around 65 MPH. Soon after getting the wheel and tire balancing issues resolved, the shake almost disappeared. I installed a set of add-a-leaf springs because the originals were sagging compared to new originals. I also installed a rear leaf shim based on what I had seen from other members. That combination of products seemed to smooth out any drive line vibration. I plan to eventually replace the center/carrier bearing. But since the vibration is now gone, it is not a high priority. I can't say that an AAL with shim is the recommended fix. High quality rear springs are always the best. It's just something that accidentally helped.

So in my case, it was a combination of wheel, tire, and drive line issues.

 

i still 'probably' have a lurking vibe issue, but it seems to be a summer vibe as trial and error pointed to the operation of the A/C playing a huge roll.
vibes happened during gear shifts at 2.1k RPM, a resonating rattle coming from somewhere underneath
but they are not happening now that the outside temps have cooled

TW was very lacking in diagnostics, it seems that nobody has ever encountered a near-similar issue!

i presented the issue to Toyota mechanics on a few occasions but none of them had ever heard of the problem before and wanted the cash money to diagnose the problem, especially once I mentioned the A/C having a role

i am uncomfortable porking out $$$, especially well over $100 quoted, when there is a chance that nothing is going to be found to be wrong