[planalp]

Hi All,

I'm hoping I can get any opinions about a vibration problem I'm having with my 2003 Tacoma.

Last December, I got new tires (Firestone) put on my Tacoma. The tires now have about 10,000 miles and the Tacoma about 60,000. After installation and up until about 3 months ago, the ride was nice and smooth.

I noticed the vehicle just didn't "feel right" through both the steering wheel at low speeds, and there was a pronounced vibration from about 60-70 miles an hour that would smooth out above and below that, but would never go away.

Assuming I'd thrown a tire weight or something, I took it back to the tire dealer. They checked the balance on all tires (all slightly off) and rotated the tires. There was no change in the vibration. They found no defects with any of the tires or wheels.

A couple of weeks later, I took it to a local, small tire dealer and had them again check the balance on all the tires, thinking maybe the larger place had just done something wrong. Again, a couple of the tires were slightly out of balance, not enough to even affect anything, and they inspected all four tires and wheels and found nothing wrong with any of them. We took it for a drive after they got done, and the tire guy rode in the passenger seat and said the vibration seemed to be coming from the right front and he could see the hood bouncing up and down as I drove, although when I'm driving, sometimes it feels like the entire vehicle is vibrating; I can feel it through the wheel, feel it through the seat and see the front glass of my camper shell through the back window bouncing around.

The vibration seems worse when the vehicle us under less of a load, and usually vibrates badly between 60-70 miles an hour, but sometimes the ride is nice and smooth at those speeds, I think again maybe because the vehicle is under a load going up a hill, running a flat stretch, or maybe going downhill. It's at its worst right when I leave home from work and drive a long, pretty steep downhill grade out of town.

Aside from the tire work, the only maintenance I've had done on the front end is the tie rod end recall and alignment at my local dealer.

I'm starting to believe this is some kind of mechanical problem with either the suspension or drivetrain of the vehicle itself, not the tires. Does anybody have any experience with this or any ideas? I'm taking it into the dealer in a week and have written down any and all information I can think of regarding the vibration to hopefully make their diagnosis easier.

Thanks for any ideas!

Eric