I've got an '07 Taco Sport, still with the original tires/wheels (rotated at every oil change), and about 3000 miles ago at about 38,000 miles, just after I had the wheels aligned, I started noticing a shimmy. Thought it was some mud in a wheel that would go away but it persisted. So, I took it in to my dealer and they agreed it had a shimmy and said it probably had nothing to do with the alignment, but more likely a tire was out of balance. So they checked that and said it wasn't a tire problem after all, but said my LSD was whining and causing the shimmy and had steel filings in the LSD oil. But it's still under the power train warranty so they replaced my LSD, but the shimmy still was there. They also checked the alignment of the whole drive train, and they noticed a bad axle seal that had allowed leakage into one rear brake, so they replaced that seal and both rear brakes, also at no charge. They tried driving it with a very sensitive microphone thingy that they moved around to try to see just where it was coming from, to no avail. So after all that, they said that it was "normal" compared with a new Tacoma they had on the lot so that's all they could do for me. I got a new LSD and rear brakes out of it, but my shimmy is also still with me. This is a shimmy that I never encountered in the first 38,000 miles I put on the truck so I don't consider it to be normal at all. It's bad enough so I will get rid of the truck if I can't get rid of the shimmy.

My tires are worn but not cupped and the alloy wheels aren't dented and I haven't even driven on any really rough roads. But this shimmy is driving me crazy and I wonder if other haven encountered it with the stock 17" wheels and Sport suspension and what the cause/solution might be? My shimmy is most noticeable at speeds above about 50mph and varies from non existent(20% of the time) to very irritating, even on perfectly smooth pavement.

Does anyone know what my trucks problem is?

Your dealer at least admitted there is a problem and made a serious effort to find it before saying "that's normal".... which is better than some dealers.

Is it a 4x4 or PreRunner?

If it's a 4x4, a bad u-joint could cause a vibration. They can run smoothly for a while, then vibrate... it can come and go. You can't always move them by hand when bad, but should be able to see it wobbling if you put it on a lift with a driver to start it, put it in gear, and slowly accelerate while someone watches the u-joints. Any sign of rust around the cups means it's bad.

ok do you rotate all 5 or just 4?

one thing i can think of is cycle the spare wheel through all 4 corners and see if it goes away. or changes anything

38K on stock tires is approaching the limit from what i have seen on the post

wonder if the tires are round and true ( hard to see with your eyes)

and how is the steering wheel, no play?

Sorry, I should have mentioned that it's a 4X4.

I don't notice any abnormal play in the steering wheel but besides feeling the shimmy, if I take my hands off the wheel, I can see the steering wheel quickly jiggle back and forth. Another "jiggle indicator" in my truck is the short fishing rod that's sitting in the gun rack in the rear window. It's one of those 3' ones that are designed for ice fishing and it's very light and springy and I can see it jiggling up and down.

I live in Maine and they put some pretty nasty stuff on the winter roads that promotes rust, so it seems quite possible that one of the u joints is rusting inside and causing the shimmy problem. I think I'll look into that possibility. thanks!

I`m new to this type of forum. I just got a 2000 Prerunner 2WD with the same shimmy above 50 MPH. other than the obvious things ( worn shocks wheel balance,loose steering components ) what else can I look for?

I took my truck back to the dealer and after more investigation they determined that it was because my tires are 3/4 worn and one of them is out of round and it's a harmonic thing that only happens at about 60-75mph. I thought that was a little odd since last time they looked at it the diagnosis was that it was a drive train shimmy and had nothing to do with the tires. Nevertheless, I went ahead and replaced all 4 of my 3/4 worn Bridgestone Duelers with new ones and the shimmy is still there around 60-75mph, so much for THAT diagnosis! It varies in intensity from time to time. Sometimes I can take my hands off the wheel and it's rock steady and sometimes it is constantly jiggling back and forth about 1/4 inch. The alignment and balance is supposedly OK.

Is there a steering damper or something similar that could be causing this? I'm going to take my truck in again on Tuesday but I really don't have any confidence that they will find and correct whatever is causing my shimmy problem. Any ideas?

I've got an '07 Taco Sport......
--- , just after I had the wheels aligned, I started noticing a shimmy.
.......
Does anyone know what my trucks problem is?


Hmmmm, let me take a wild guess.........

Take it to the place that did the alignment and tell them to fix what they messed up,

Fritz

Hmmmm, let me take a wild guess.........

Take it to the place that did the alignment and tell them to fix what they messed up,

Fritz
The dealer who is doing all the troubleshooting is the same dealer where I had the alignment done.

They've been talking with Toyota tech reps and their latest thing is to reference a bulletin that's out about a lower speed shimmy. Apparently that bulletin authorizes replacing a part that has something to do with the drive train or differential, so this week they are going to try installing it and if it doesn't fix my 60-75mph shimmy, remove it. I don't know what the plan is after that if the shimmy isn't gone.

Replace the steering rack bushings, if you haven't yet.

Have them check for an out of round hub. Had this problem on a 91. Never was noticed until the vehicle was three years old. I had it checked and naturally they could not find the cause. The dealership's Service Manager was a friend of mine and he put it on a lift after hours and gave the vehicle a check. Using the most nontechnical method he held a pencil up next to the hub with the vehicle in gear and as it turned you could notice a very slight gapping. Replaced the hub they ordered and problem solved. May not be your problem, but no harm in checking.

Just heard back from my service manager and when they installed%2

Update just in case anyone else runs into this problem.

My local Toyota dealer continued to diligently attempt to track down the reason for my shimmy but after replacing numerous parts and balancing and rebalancing the tires, a vibration and slight steering wheel shimmy could always be felt between 60 to 75mph and I can't live with that.

They first blamed my shimmy on the LSD and replaced it for free but that didn't make it shimmy any less. While doing the LSD work they noticed a leaking rear axle seal so replaced that and also replaced the rear brake pads because they had been contaminated.

They then said that the vibration was normal.

After 2 weeks of trying to talk myself into accepting the vibration as normal, I took it back in and they did more testing with a device that is supposed to be able to determine where a vibration is coming from. They concluded that my vibration was due to my tires being 3/4 worn and one of them possibly being out of round. So, I replaced the tires with 4 new Bridgestone Duelers, the same tires that came on the truck as original equipment. The vibration remained.

I took my truck back in and they did additional testing which included removing the drive shaft and driving it in 4wd with just the front tires doing the work. The vibration remained so they eliminated the rear drive train as a source and focused on the front drive train. They found a front axle core that was out of tolerance and replaced it. They also replaced the engine mounts. The vibration remained and after all this, the dealer said that the vibration was caused by one of my (new) rear tires being out of tolerance. The alloy wheels are not bent and the same vibration existed prior to these tires being on the truck.

Yesterday I gave up and traded it in on a Chevrolet full size truck with the 5.3 litre engine that gets about the same gas mileage as the Taco did. I don't need a big truck and really enjoyed my Taco for the first 40,000 miles, but over the last 2 or 3 months it's been in the shop more than not and neither my local Toyota dealer or I could think of anything else to check, and I couldn't stand driving a vehicle that constantly vibrated. Also, while I appreciate that my dealer tried very hard to determine the reason for my shimmy, billing over $3,000 to Toyota under my power train warranty, it made me a little nervous that they had found so many defective or out of tolerance parts. Also, I had prior problems with my alloy wheels getting badly corroded (replaced under warranty) and also had the weak, 3 leaf rear springs replaced so I could carry my motorcycle without it bottoming out. Just too many issues for me to have confidence that this was a truck I wanted to continue to own once the power train warranty had expired. Today I'm looking forward to my new vehicle, but also am sort of sad because there's a lot of things I liked about my Taco...until it started vibrating and vibrating and vibrating...

It would seem that you, your dealer, and TMC left no stone unturned searching for the problem. Too bad so much effort & expense didn't solve it. Good luck with your new Chevy, I hope it is everything you expect in a light truck. How about stopping in occasionally with updates?