Tacoma rear end vibe.

[MockingBird]

Not as dirty as it sounds.

First a little back story. I am an ex motorcycle guy. Had a 05 Dakar and loved it. Loved the travel aspect most of all and wanted the family to join. Thus, I have just recently become the owner of a 2002 4WD Tacoma DC TRD. Got the truck used with 94k miles on it. I plan on slowly building this over the next 2-3 years into a DD and expo rig.

The truck really is in excellent shape minus a few things. For one the springs are kaput. Rears have a reverse bow to them, I plan on fixing this with an OME setup fairly soon. Two, the wheels although very purdy are from a newer taco so the backspacing isn't correct. Again planning on fixing fairly soon with some black steels. The third and hopefully last problem is that I am getting a slight vibration coming from the rear between 65-70 mph. Doesn't happen all the time and the severity varies, although it has never been so bad that I though anything was seriously broken. Tires that came with it seem fairly new probably less then 10k miles on them so I would imagine they were balanced recently. Could this be a product of the worn suspension? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I will get some pics up soon. Thanks.

-Karl

 

[keezer37]

I'd swap the wheels front to rear. See if the vibe stays in the back (possible bad tire if it moves to the front). If the vibe moves to the front and is much more pronounced, it is a bad tire. If the vibe doesn't move to the front...
Buy your correct wheels and springs. See if the vibe stays put. If so...
Come back to this thread and say, now what?

 

[laxtoy]

hmmm, could be lots of things as I am finding out myself. try to rotate your tires first as recommended, then there are some other things to consider if that doesn't fix it. To begin with, I have about three inches of lift in the back, so the pinion angle is a bit off, which can exacerbate vibration problems. I had a u joint go out closest to the rear diff, so I replaced the front and rear at the same time as I was told would be best. you can check yours for play underneath, you should be able to find a bad one. That didn't fix my issue entirely, so I started to look into other things it could be. I don't think it's the cardan joint of the drive shaft, or the carrier bearing, as I checked them both pretty closely while jacking up the back and having a friend run it in gear. I am pretty sure my vibes are coming from the pinion bearing in the rear end, mine was making some bad noises. I get vibes at around 55-65 while really light on the accelerator and under very low load like going down a decline on the freeway, still, pretty noticeable.

 

[zidaro]

if rotating your tires doesnt help, i would go right into looking at the driveshaft, u-joints, and the carrier bearing (which is notorious for wearing and causes speed dependent vibs). check to confirm your pinion or rear t-case output seals are not leaking.

 

[tanglefoot]

Also make sure the nuts/bolts holding the drive shaft to the flanges on each end are tight. That was the case with my "unexplained" vibe--the nuts on the drive shaft were completely loose! :Wow1:

 

[MockingBird]

Awesome thanks for the replies. Gonna try the tire rotate and check underneath to for any leaks or to see if I encounter any loose parts in the drive line. Will keep everyone posted. For some reason I wasn't thinking it could be the drive line as it doesn't always happen, and when it does it is never at the same speed, figured it would be more constant, odd.

-Karl

 

[MockingBird]

Just an update with some further info...Haven't had a chance to swap the tires or get under the truck yet...one thing I did notice on the way home yesterday though that might help with the diagnosis. It is def coming from the rear of the truck. as it just starts to be noticeable I can look in the side view mirror and watch the bed shake back and forth ever so slightly (like going over a rough road). It can also be witnessed by watching the vertical lines made up of the sliding window on my camper shell vs the ones on the truck cab.. ones on the truck cab are fairly still ones on the camper shell moving side to side rapidly.

-Karl

 

[MockingBird]

On the bill for this weekend is finally swapping the tires front to back...I did a quick check of the drive line, looking for loose spots etc, all seems good and tight. There was play in the carrier bearing but it all appeared to come from the rubber stabilizer. How much give should there be on that part? I am also noticing more and more that this seems to happen on more well traveled roads... for instance I will get the vibe going 65 mph down I35 here in Austin, however, if I am going 65 mph down a smaller FM road that has less travel and wear I wont get it. Anyone ever experience anything similar to this?

I should be ordering a lift some time within the next week or so. Looking at the Toytec CO's with LR UCA's up front with OME Dakars with the extra leaf in the rear (for the extra weight of the camper shell). Also looking at 3deg steel shims. Now for folks that might have gone with this setup in the past how helpful are the shims? I will just be glad to get rid of the old worn out springs with their nasty reverse bow. Thanks again for all the help.

-Karl