Steering wheel vibration

[kcjaz]

I noticed returning from LCDC what seemed to be more than normal steering wheel vibration at highway speeds. My first thought is that I’ve lost a rim weight but the vibration seems to be intermittent. There are parts of the road where it’s just fine so if it’s a rim weight I can’t understand how it would come and go. I noticed some vibration before LCDC but like I said it would come and go and I’ve always just thought it was pavement condition. Now it does seem to be worse though. I’ll take the truck in to check the wheel balance and start there but does anyone else have any other thoughts?

 

[radman]

Have you re-torqued all your lugs?
Any rocks stuck in your tires?

 

[Fisher23]

Most likely wheel balance.

 

[kcjaz]

Have you re-torqued all your lugs?
Any rocks stuck in your tires?

After rolling with @laserturbo91, I'm all about re-torquing lug nuts! I even check at the top on Monarch Pass on the way home. All good.

 

[1Maverick]

Is 98lbs the correct torque? I think Discount torqued them around 103

 

[kcjaz]

Is 98lbs the correct torque? I think Discount torqued them around 103

I torque to 97 ftlb.

 

[doru]

Intermittent it means suspension not wheels. Looks like depending on road surface detail the suspension has a spot where it producing the behavior. My advise is to be very observant of it and try to narrow down the conditions when it appears. You're going to need to experiment.

 

[cboyd]

Could also be a CV starting to misbehave?

 

[Sandroad]

I think you’ll be fine with a good road force balance. Tire imbalance can cause intermittent vibrations as the wheel speed changes, setting up resonances in the suspension or steering gear that vary. For sure do that first before chasing anything else.

 

[bwell]

Intermittent, I'm going with suspension or driveline. Chased this on my 100 series for awhile. Try to isolate when the vehicle actually dose this as best as possible. Honestly I would try a way to mount a go pro in an advantageous spot to view from the hub inward. It could literally be anything, especially if it is Intermittent. Without having a go pro or way to record at the time I was able to finally isolate it to a bad cv joint. Had a bad outer joint in my case. Good luck. Wheel balance isn't typically associated with Intermittent driveline/steering wheel vibration.

 

[kcjaz]

When I say “intermittent” I mean not all the time but it is probably 90% of the time at over 50 mph. There is definitely some resonance thing going on. The vibration is going into the whole truck. When it gets going my phone mount (ram on Gamiviti speaker cover) will shake.

 

[04UZJ100]

“more than normal wheel vibration” ?

There should not be ANY steering wheel vibration/shimmy at any speed.

 

[montegofd3s]

Does it change (can you get it to change) with speed, gear selection, or torque applied? Any noise? If not, I am calling it as a wheel bearing.

 

[Fj60+]

My guess…wheel balance or out of round tire due to it being over 50 mph. I had a similar issue, took forever to figure out and I had 4 different tire places do a road force balance, 2nd time it’s happened with bfg ko2s on two different trucks…just in case your running those.

 

[kcjaz]

Tire shop rebalanced the wheels as there was some adjustment to be made but that doesn't solve the problem. They say wheel bearings are good. The tires have gotten chewed up a bit, still lots of tread but I've lost chunks of rubber from wheeling on rocks. They think that is what is causing the vibration. At certain times, the truck hits a resonance when the relative rotational position of the wheels lines up. To test this, I'm going to put my 4 OEM wheels/highway tires on it and take it for a spin down the highway.

I like the Duraracs as they perform well traction wise. I knew going in that they would likely wear prematurely from wheeling. I'm at about 25K miles on the set, with 5 tire rotation. I was hoping to run them until a sidewall failure. Maybe my justification for for K02s and next tire size up. Running 285/70R17 now. Thinking 285/75/R17.

 

[montegofd3s]

Tire shop rebalanced the wheels as there was some adjustment to be made but that doesn't solve the problem. They say wheel bearings are good. The tires have gotten chewed up a bit, still lots of tread but I've lost chunks of rubber from wheeling on rocks. They think that is what is causing the vibration. At certain times, the truck hits a resonance when the relative rotational position of the wheels lines up. To test this, I'm going to put my 4 OEM wheels/highway tires on it and take it for a spin down the highway.

I like the Duraracs as they perform well traction wise. I knew going in that they would likely wear prematurely from wheeling. I'm at about 25K miles on the set, with 5 tire rotation. I was hoping to run them until a sidewall failure. Maybe my justification for for K02s and next tire size up. Running 285/70R17 now. Thinking 285/75/R17.

I will say that wheel bearings are extremely hard to diagnose on these trucks. I had no play in mine by doing to grab and shake test or using a dial gauge tester on my lift, but it was immediately obvious with chassis ears.

 

[kcjaz]

Took a short test drive after wheel balance and it’s better but not totally gone. While drive to the lake Friday which is 130 miles so that will be a good test.

 

[bwell]

I am doubtful it is because of your tire chunking. I bet the tire shop is just looking for an easy sell. That being said, I would really throw your stock wheel tire set up on and give that a go, that would be the easiest process of elimination regarding anything wheel and tire related.

How long has this been going on has it been a gradually, worsening process? I
Did the tires balance out to 0 oz? Were they road force balanced? It would have been helpful if they were observant of how the wheel spun while on the machine. I made some rash decisions in my 100 series once with less than ideal tire pressures and bent one of the wheels just enough to where you could kind of see it spin not perfectly on a machine, but it would balance technically, but had a high road force and provided some steering wheel feed back.

This can be an extremely frustrating and lengthy process to actually diagnose.

 

[OregonLC]

Is the vibration altered with the application of brakes? If so you may want to look into suspension components. The braking action can load up worn suspension components in a different direction than with power. This can tighten things up that may have been otherwise loose and prone to movement. Try both light foot brake application as well as handbrake application. The latter can be done simultaneously with power to allow the front to pull harder, also tightening things up. If either changes the vibration response then it might be elsewhere in the system rather than wheels/tires.

That said, chunking of tires is a recipe for bad behavior. If you have another 5x150 vehicle, try swapping all four and see if the problem persists.

 

[kcjaz]

I am doubtful it is because of your tire chunking. I bet the tire shop is just looking for an easy sell. That being said, I would really throw your stock wheel tire set up on and give that a go, that would be the easiest process of elimination regarding anything wheel and tire related.

How long has this been going on has it been a gradually, worsening process? I
Did the tires balance out to 0 oz? Were they road force balanced? It would have been helpful if they were observant of how the wheel spun while on the machine. I made some rash decisions in my 100 series once with less than ideal tire pressures and bent one of the wheels just enough to where you could kind of see it spin not perfectly on a machine, but it would balance technically, but had a high road force and provided some steering wheel feed back.

This can be an extremely frustrating and lengthy process to actually diagnose.

Appreciate the thoughts. I’ve been going to this same local shop for 25 years. He’s not trying to just sell me a new set.

The best test will be for me to put my OEM set on and see if it goes away. I’ll do that this weekend.