I just bought a 2007 FJ, 4x4, automatic. Anyway, starting at about 58 mph the steering wheel begins to shake and continues to at least 75 mph. If you take your hand off the wheel, the car drives straight but the steering wheel vibrates and actually moves left and right quite noticably. The dealer says it's a balancing problem and they attempted to fix it. They said that they had to force balance the tires and wheels as well. I read in another thread about the wheel/tire possibly not being round. Are there other things that might cause this? What is force balancing (in laymans terms)? Is there a way that I could check to see if they are round?
The dealer is going to order new tires for me, and hopefully this will correct the problem, but I was kind of curious if other people are having this issue or what some other problems it might be (not just tires or wheels). Thanks a lot in advance.
I just bought a 2007 FJ, 4x4, automatic. Anyway, starting at about 58 mph the steering wheel begins to shake and continues to at least 75 mph. If you take your hand off the wheel, the car drives straight but the steering wheel vibrates and actually moves left and right quite noticably. The dealer says it's a balancing problem and they attempted to fix it. They said that they had to force balance the tires and wheels as well. I read in another thread about the wheel/tire possibly not being round. Are there other things that might cause this? What is force balancing (in laymans terms)? Is there a way that I could check to see if they are round?
The dealer is going to order new tires for me, and hopefully this will correct the problem, but I was kind of curious if other people are having this issue or what some other problems it might be (not just tires or wheels). Thanks a lot in advance.
I have had my FJ for two full years now and I have a vibration that happens at 70MPH, but very rarely. Plus, I usually do not travel on a highway at that speed, so it is not an issue for me.
Since you have an automatic, though, like myself, have you felt the "FJ lunge" yet? Mine does it occasionally and I have learned to live with it, like many other Forum members have, as well. You can do a search for more information on it on this Forum and but be rest assured, it is not doing any damage to your FJ at all.
Anyway, welcome to the Forum and congrats on your new vehicle! I am sure you will love it as much as I love mine!
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YES, it is a tire balancing problem and YES, it's due to the tire conicity (not being round). I hate to provide such a positive diagnosis, but after being part of the forum for as long as I have and having worked for Pirelli Corporate, it's about 100% sure that it's the problem.
Most dealerships and tire companies static balance the tires. That's not going to work. Take them to a place that dynamically balances the tires (spin balance) and see if they can do a better job - and can provide you a better answer.
HINT: In addition to dynamic balancing, when you buy a tire new, check the date the tire was made. (Not simply the date you bought it) I personally DEMAND a manufacture date not older than three months from the date I take delivery of the tire. The date of manufacture is on the sidewall, usually expressed in week and year of manufacture. For example: 0108 would be the first week in 2008 and 5207 would be the last week in 2007. Different manufacturers sometimes use slightly different date codes but that is the industry standard and is required by the Department of Transportation.
A fresh tire will balance up better than an older tire. My personal 3 months age limit is a bit obsessive. Usually anything within a year of manufacture is perfectly ok. The problem comes when you don't know how the tire has been stacked or where it's been stored since it was made. That makes a difference in addition to the physical irregularities of a manufactured tire that may exist at the date of manufacture.
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There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unaltered, to find the ways that you have changed.
It's called 'road force' balancing and they actually apply a roller to the tire as it is spinning to see how it reacts to an equivalent 'road force', much like when you have the weight of the vehicle on the tire as it goes down the road. The roller acts the same as the road creating a flat spot on the tire as it spins. They balance it that way and it is far better then just 'spin' balancing.
Typically, if a tire/wheel combo is so bad that they have to use too many weights to balance it or can't balance it, they will remove the tire from the rim and re-mount it 180 degrees off to see if that makes a difference. Sometimes the rims are slightly out of round and if you happen to sync the out of round tire with the slightly out of round rim, they can't be balanced unless the are re-mounted out of sync. If you still can't 'road force' balance it, then the tire and/or rim need to be replaced. I hope that makes sense.
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Yeah, I've had my set road force balanced 5 times since I bought em from Discount.....still getting the vibration. The next step is they're gonna get me new tires. BTW, it also did it with the stock steelies and tires the day I bought the truck. Dealer tells me most of them have the problem but no word on if there is a fix. Get used to it I guess, it's a nice massage anyway.
For reasons like this, if you *dont* have any tire balance / concentricity issues, be glad, and be very careful when you buy your next set of tires.
A dial indicator is a good investment because you'll never get the tire dealer to check concentricity without first threatening them with a lawsuit. They're too lazy to do that. Plus they don't want to have to deal with taking an out-of-round tire back...
A dial indicator generally has about 1/2" of travel. So if you buy a dial indicator, along with a magnet-mount and an adjustable arm, you'll be able to check your rims for roundness, and your tires. You'll also be able to know exactly what to do to get the high-spot concentricity of your tire to be exactly 180 degrees away from the high spot concentricity of your wheel, minimizing the possibility of an out-of-round vibration.
It's no more obsessive to do this than it is to do many of the things others on this forum never question. It's a good investment, if it means that your ride will be totally smooth at 50, 60, 70, and 80 mph.
I have had this problem since upgrading my wheels and tires which was pretty much day one when I bought the truck. The guy who "tried" to balance my tires at the dealer told me that every pair of aftermarket wheels and tires they put on this truck at the dealership they had problems balancing. They have done the "road force" on mine with little success. I've even had another tire shop run a similar balance proceedure that they stand by and it holds for about 2 months then back to wobbley wheel at 65 mph. In all my years of having aftermarket wheels and always BFG AT's I've never had an issue like I am having with this truck.
Good luck, I hope you have better luck with yours than I am having with mine.
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Last edited by Lifeoffroad03 : 03-06-2008 at 10:07 PM.
Mine did that when new, even the same speed you stated. I swapped the fronts to the rear and vise versa. The vibration went away. So I figured it was one of the ex-front tires out of balance or defective.
Then I get a recall notice from Toyota. They put 5 new tires on and balanced them. No more problems.
2007 FJ, 5AT, Sun Fusion Yellow, CQ, UP, GY, RB, 2Q, EL, VS.
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