The steering wheel started shimmying/vibrating between 60-65mph at about 2000 miles on a brand new vehicle. Took it to original dealership (Beaman Toyota, Nashville, TN) at 5,000 maintenance service. They balanced all tires and aligned front end. Next day, still same problem. At 10,000 miles, took it to a dealership in my city (Ron Hibbard, GALLATIN, TN). They again aligned the front end and balanced all four tires. Stated tires improperly balanced. Drove vehicle for several days and noticed the shimmy was still there between 60-65mph. Went on Summer vacation. When returned, took vehicle back to Gallatin, TN dealership at about 13,000 miles. They worked with Toyota and got new tires approved. They suggested replacing DUNLOP tires with GOODYEAR WRANGLER tires. The put the new tires on and then "force road balanced" the tires. Told me the problem was fixed. Next morning, took my wife to work and still had the shimmy! Back to the dealership. Service manager doesn't know what to say. States they never had a problem like this before. It was as if I was making an untruthful statement about the shimmy. It was pretty bad. He took it for a drive and said it was characteristic of other 4Runners on the lot he drove. I asked to drive another vehicle from the lot. Prior to that, the Used Car Lot had a brand new 2016 4Runner traded in with only 780 miles on it! The sales manager agreed to let me drive it. I noted a "slight" shimmy at 60-65mph... It had DUNLOP tires - same as my original tires. The shimmy on that vehicle was nowhere as bad as my vehicle which now has 17,500 miles. The next day, the Service Manager and I took a brand new 4Runner SR5 (with Bridgestone tires) for a test drive. There was absolutely no shimmy in the steering!!! We then took mine out. It had some shimmy, not as bad as most days on the way into town with my wife. I spoke with the son of the dealership owner several weeks later while at the dealership. Mentioned the problem with my vehicle and said I would like to get it fixed. He said he was driving a Demo 4Runner and noticed a shimmy the first few miles he drove it. He wanted me to trade in my 4Runner and said he had no problem with the shimmy. Of course, that would be a big loss $$$-wise for me. On 10/17/2016, I contacted Toyota Customer Customer Experience Center and reported the problem. She kept asking me what I wanted. I kept saying I liked the vehicle, but would like Toyota to FIX THE SHIMMY! Gave her the complete rundown above. She contacted the dealer and they agreed to check it out again. I took it in yesterday morning. Got a call from the Service Foreman stating they checked everything out and couldn't find a thing. I advised they keep it overnight and take it for a test drive this morning and get it up to 63mph and they'll feel the shimmy. I also requested they take a set of wheels (with the Bridgestone tires) off their new 4Runner and put them on my vehicle and let me drive it overnight. I would drive it back in the next morning and tell them if that fixed the problem. He has to get permission from higher up. I mentioned Toyota had an open complaint case on this and they should help foot the bill for that so I can resolve in my mind whether this fixes the problem. I've read a lot on the different websites like "toyota-4runn.org", "cargurus.com" and "edmunds.com" and it appears there has been a "LONG-STANDING" history of problems with shimmy and vibration in the 4Runner. So, Toyota should not be dismissing this as a "characteristic" of the 4Runner or that "they have never seen this problem before." This is my second Toyota and we loved the previous Toyota Highlander. However, if Toyota can't or refuses to resolve this, I do have other options (as Airlines remind us when we fly). So, I may just invoke other options to resolve a problem they refuse to fix...TOYOTA - if you are reading this, feel free to contact me and let me know what you can do to resolve this. I'm sure you can figure out who I am just by going to Ron Hibbard in Gallatin, TN... Thank you.,
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
The steering wheel started shimmying/vibrating between 60-65mph at about 2000 miles on a brand new vehicle. Took it to original dealership (Beaman Toyota, Nashville, TN) at 5,000 maintenance service. They balanced all tires and aligned front end. Next day, still same problem. At 10,000 miles, took it to a dealership in my city (Ron Hibbard, GALLATIN, TN). They again aligned the front end and balanced all four tires. Stated tires improperly balanced. Drove vehicle for several days and noticed the shimmy was still there between 60-65mph. Went on Summer vacation. When returned, took vehicle back to Gallatin, TN dealership at about 13,000 miles. They worked with Toyota and got new tires approved. They suggested replacing DUNLOP tires with GOODYEAR WRANGLER tires. The put the new tires on and then "force road balanced" the tires. Told me the problem was fixed. Next morning, took my wife to work and still had the shimmy! Back to the dealership. Service manager doesn't know what to say. States they never had a problem like this before. It was as if I was making an untruthful statement about the shimmy. It was pretty bad. He took it for a drive and said it was characteristic of other 4Runners on the lot he drove. I asked to drive another vehicle from the lot. Prior to that, the Used Car Lot had a brand new 2016 4Runner traded in with only 780 miles on it! The sales manager agreed to let me drive it. I noted a "slight" shimmy at 60-65mph... It had DUNLOP tires - same as my original tires. The shimmy on that vehicle was nowhere as bad as my vehicle which now has 17,500 miles. The next day, the Service Manager and I took a brand new 4Runner SR5 (with Bridgestone tires) for a test drive. There was absolutely no shimmy in the steering!!! We then took mine out. It had some shimmy, not as bad as most days on the way into town with my wife. I spoke with the son of the dealership owner several weeks later while at the dealership. Mentioned the problem with my vehicle and said I would like to get it fixed. He said he was driving a Demo 4Runner and noticed a shimmy the first few miles he drove it. He wanted me to trade in my 4Runner and said he had no problem with the shimmy. Of course, that would be a big loss $$$-wise for me. On 10/17/2016, I contacted Toyota Customer Customer Experience Center and reported the problem. She kept asking me what I wanted. I kept saying I liked the vehicle, but would like Toyota to FIX THE SHIMMY! Gave her the complete rundown above. She contacted the dealer and they agreed to check it out again. I took it in yesterday morning. Got a call from the Service Foreman stating they checked everything out and couldn't find a thing. I advised they keep it overnight and take it for a test drive this morning and get it up to 63mph and they'll feel the shimmy. I also requested they take a set of wheels (with the Bridgestone tires) off their new 4Runner and put them on my vehicle and let me drive it overnight. I would drive it back in the next morning and tell them if that fixed the problem. He has to get permission from higher up. I mentioned Toyota had an open complaint case on this and they should help foot the bill for that so I can resolve in my mind whether this fixes the problem. I've read a lot on the different websites like "toyota-4runn.org", "cargurus.com" and "edmunds.com" and it appears there has been a "LONG-STANDING" history of problems with shimmy and vibration in the 4Runner. So, Toyota should not be dismissing this as a "characteristic" of the 4Runner or that "they have never seen this problem before." This is my second Toyota and we loved the previous Toyota Highlander. However, if Toyota can't or refuses to resolve this, I do have other options (as Airlines remind us when we fly). So, I may just invoke other options to resolve a problem they refuse to fix...TOYOTA - if you are reading this, feel free to contact me and let me know what you can do to resolve this. I'm sure you can figure out who I am just by going to Ron Hibbard in Gallatin, TN... Thank you.,
- Frank S., Gallatin, TN, US