Personal Experience w/ Notorious Freeway Shake (2 Viewers)

[100d ua]

What's up, everyone? Hope y'all had a great new years.

Over the past week I spent some of my down time getting some work on the rig done and was hopeful some of it would impact the notorious freeway shake/vibration a lot of us get.

Symptoms:
At about 55-65 MPH the front end shakes throughout the frame, back seats chafe, making the driving experience piss poor. I have a metal bumper and can usually see it start shaking all over the place once I hit 60ish with complimentary back seat chafing.

I dropped my rig off at a specialist alignment shop that has a lot of experience working on custom cars and off road vehicles. I let them know the issue I was having with the car and why I was bringing it in. They did my alignment, and told me they were able to run the vehicle up on their rack and check each wheel for "hop". They were able to determine my front left tire needed some attention and recommended I get it road force balanced. While my car does have 270K+ on it, they did inspect my drive shaft and checked the U-Joints. They did not notice any excess wear that warranted them needing replacement.

On the drive home, I could tell the alignment seemed to help a little, but you could feel the vibration was still there and just wanted to make itself known. My next stop was my tire shop (Discount Tire), who performed the road force balance on the front left tire and I can finally genuinely say over the past few days that i've been driving it the car feels 90% better and as smooth as you could expect for a 24 year old rig.

Some notes on my rig:
2" Ironman lift with front end raised approx. 22" from center hub to fender
All bushings, ball joints replaced (inner outer tie rods, LBJ, steering rack and diff bushings + wheel bearings)
Frame weight is still on
285/75R16 KO2's (Nearly brand new)
Diff drop and aftermarket UCA's
Factory OEM CV's (passenger side recently replaced with new OEM one + flange - driver side still on original but rebuilt)
Sliders

I don't know if this will help anyone else with their issue but it might be worth getting checked out. This has been something driving me crazy for at least 2 years now and strongly made me consider selling the rig and walking away for something newer (200 series).

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Glad you're getting your shake worked out, just want to clarify before this becomes another piece of internet lore for newbies looking to purchase a 100, highway vibration is not common or notorious at all with this truck. Sounds like yours was a singular issue with a tire.

 

[100d ua]

Glad you're getting your shake worked out, just want to clarify before this becomes another piece of internet lore for newbies looking to purchase a 100, highway vibration is not common or notorious at all with this truck. Sounds like yours was a singular issue with a tire.

Sorry, but what? This topic has come up more times than people asking what the silly looking weight mounted to their frame is. Between here on MUD and the FB groups this is a notorious issue for lifted 100's.

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[krice118]

Driveline vibes are different than freeway shakes….

Again these rigs are not known for freeway shakes…..

 

[100d ua]

Driveline vibes are different than freeway shakes….

Again these rigs are not known for freeway shakes…..

They are known for issues at 55-65 mph. You can call it whatever you want. Just about every other 100 series owner i've talked to has had issues with this.

 

[krice118]

Weird 100k on mine with different wheel/ tire set ups and suspension and no free way shakes.

But I do maintain my rigs well, new LBJ and uppers as well as extended sway bars installed when lifting.

 

[nissanh]

If vibrations are felt throught the vehicle body, most likely it is a U joint. My 4runner had similar symptoms at 60 MPH and the issue was drive line.

 

[100d ua]

Weird 100k on mine with different wheel/ tire set ups and suspension and no free way shakes.

But I do maintain my rigs well, new LBJ and uppers as well as extended sway bars installed when lifting.

It's super frustrating. I do all my own maintenance and put that above modifications but no one fix has ever made a noticeable difference besides alignment and even then it is still there in the background. I wonder if worn flanges and CV splines could be the main culprit exacerbating the symptoms at freeway speeds. I've still seen people have issues with this even after dropping $$$ on new OEM CV's + flanges though...

If vibrations are felt throught the vehicle body, most likely it is a U joint. My 4runner had similar symptoms at 60 MPH and the issue was drive line.

I've inspected my U Joints and didn't see any play. That's why I asked the shop to check them too for reassurance.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

Microcosm of Mud. You'd think every 80 has PHH and HG issues, every 100 is losing it's starter and immobilizer, etc. A few threads does not equal every other owner. Again, glad you're getting yours sorted.

 

[100d ua]

Microcosm of Mud. You'd think every 80 has PHH and HG issues, every 100 is losing it's starter and immobilizer, etc. A few threads does not equal every other owner. Again, glad you're getting yours sorted.

You're right. Throw statistics out the window, this takes a hard second place to "what's the biggest tire I can run without rubbing?"

 

[Trunk Monkey]

It's not throwing stats out the window at all, it's avoiding a common stats error of double dipping in your data. You've experienced an issue, you're looking for supporting data for that issue, searching specifically for that data, and concluding that because all of the data you found supports your issue, it's "common".

If you still believe it's the tire, rotate the tire to another corner, see if the vibration follows or stops. U-joints are easy to rule out by removing a DS, locking the center, and going for a drive (although those show up usually upon deceleration, not just regular driving). Depending on the aftermarket UCA the ball joints could be shot already. Lots of different variables possible.

Just be glad you hadn't removed the frame weight.

 

[jLB]

I’ve owned 4 100 series, and still have 3 in the driveway. In the ~26 years that I’ve been driving these vehicles, I’ve experienced a severe driveline vibration 1 time, in 1 vehicle. It was very irritating on the highway, and a pain to diagnose/identify, but (in my case) it was self inflicted. I had a shop install shiny new adjustable rear control arms, because I had a very tight timeline before I was scheduled to make a road trip to Colorado. The shop set the control arm length incorrectly, which affected the rear driveline angles, which caused it to “eat” the rear most U joint.

Does it happen?

Yes.

Is it notorious & everywhere?

Not so much, but it can happen, and it can be self induced with lifts and non-OE driveline/suspension bits.

 

[jLB]

I've inspected my U Joints and didn't see any play. That's why I asked the shop to check them too for reassurance.

Mine didn’t exhibit any unusual “play”, but it wasn’t “smooth” once the driveshaft was removed. “Crunchy” or “binding” at angles it shouldn’t.

 

[baltistyle]

They are known for issues at 55-65 mph. You can call it whatever you want. Just about every other 100 series owner i've talked to has had issues with this.

I think whats trying to be explained here is that a stock 100 series does not experience any vibration with round wheels and even treaded tires. Yes, it does have a weight installed from the factory, so there are no vibrations.

Lifted vehicles or vehicles that have been amended to have weight added in places that the truck was not originally designed for, can, and will caused vibrations just like e rated tires will cause steering wheel shakes for some people.

So no, this vehicle is not known for vibrations. I’ve owned a steel suspension Land Cruiser, as well as an AHC equipped Lexus and zero vibrations, ever.

You literally said your truck was fixed after an alignment and balance so it’s hard to think there’s some toyota design flaw going here. It does take time for the tires to wear back to a proper alignment.

 

[YotaWagon]

You're right. Throw statistics out the window, this takes a hard second place to "what's the biggest tire I can run without rubbing?"

What statistics? You're describing/linking anecdotes. You had a tire out of balance dude...

 

[vjpkrmnc]

Has anyone seen driveline vibe induced by different tread depth tires? I recently rotated in my never-driven spare, so it has about twice the tread depth as the other three KO2s. Seems like about the same time I started getting vibes at 65+, like what other threads say is indicative of u-joints failing. 140k on the truck with 20k on the other three. I put that newer spare on the front intending for it to wear faster. Also, I've had the current tires all rebalanced. Some were off but it didn't change the vibe. Ill advised? Unrelated?

 

[Jack90210]

Has anyone seen driveline vibe induced by different tread depth tires? I recently rotated in my never-driven spare, so it has about twice the tread depth as the other three KO2s. Seems like about the same time I started getting vibes at 65+, like what other threads say is indicative of u-joints failing. 140k on the truck with 20k on the other three. I put that newer spare on the front intending for it to wear faster. Also, I've had the current tires all rebalanced. Some were off but it didn't change the vibe. Ill advised? Unrelated?

How old is the never-driven spare? Same age as the other KO2s?

 

[vjpkrmnc]

How old is the never-driven spare? Same age as the other KO2s?

Yeah same age. I just decided kinda late to start a 5-tire rotation. The only question is if a slightly larger diameter could cause a vibration. I did also throw my old 1.25" spacers on at the same time but they didn't cause a vibe last time I had them on for a couple years.

 

[Mike NXP]

They are known for issues at 55-65 mph. You can call it whatever you want. Just about every other 100 series owner i've talked to has had issues with this.

Coming from someone who spent two years diagnosing an out of balance tire...so idk.....

Could have posted the symptoms here and the first train of thought on that would have been tire tred, pressure, or balance issue before going further down the troubleshooting tree.

Any 20+ year old AWD heavy truck could have some driveline vibrations too but as pointed out by some, none of this should be considered a common problem for the 100 series ( like a jeep death wobble )

 

[vjpkrmnc]

edit: pointless musings deleted