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Another issue with the Rav4, Please help

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  ravenuer 
#1 ·
Hello everyone, just a quick recap. I swapped out all the front end suspension components recently including front wheel bearings. Also, I changed all 4 tires to continental pure contact tires. However I changed them 2 at a time during a period of 1-2 weeks.

Now the issue I'm currently having is that there is a vibration in the car at speeds above 45mph. The entire cabin including the seats are vibrating. I can also feel some feedback on the steering wheel but its not shaking.

This all started (I believe) after I installed the 2 front new tires (had them road force balanced). At the same time, I rebalanced the rear new tires which were already mounted from about a week prior.

What exactly could be wrong? Faulty tires? poor balancing? Please someone with experience offer me some advice because I'm just about tired with this car and thinking about trading it in...Thanks
 
#3 ·
It's also possible that a weight fell off. But I'd think it would have to be a big one to cause the problems your experiencing.
 
#5 ·
Thank you all for the replies...

It could be that it needs to be rebalanced properly, but the shop I went to has high reviews (which I've used in the past) and they only do road force balancing.

I doubt a wheel weight came off because I felt the vibration 5min after the balancing was done. Then I drove back to the shop and they checked it and said balancing was fine.

As far as a bad tire/s, could be. I rotated the wheels and the vibration was still there. Whats strange is that the actual steering wheel isn't shaking in the manner it should when the front tires are unbalanced. However, then that may signal that the front tires aren't out of balance but perhaps defective hence why I only feel cabin vibration...
 
#6 ·
My guess is either there's something wrong with their balancing or your bearing install.

Hadn't heard of road force balancing but it makes sense to have a roller applying "road force" pressure to the tire while balancing it. But if not operated properly such as in having the rim perfectly centered and heavily clamped in the machine a bad balance job is possible. Tire pressure would have an effect too. I'd get the tires checked on a conventional balancer just to rule out an operator error. An out-of-round tire is easily seen on a conventional balancer. I may not be on the road force type.

Not doubting your mechanical ability on the bearing replacement but a simple thing such as debris behind a rotor could cause problems. Possibly put the car on jack stands and run it up to 45-50 mph (either use cruise or have a helper) and watch each wheel for any unusual movement.
You can disable the rear drive by pulling the plug on the 4WD ECM located just forward of the glove box. If you did that you could jack up one front wheel at a time to further isolate the shake. That's the method I've used many times to find which wheel bearing is bad. Just have the car parked with nothing in front of it in case something goes wrong and remember that wheel speed will be twice that indicated on the speedometer.

Another thought: Do a jack stand test w/o any wheels to make sure nothing else weird is going on.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the reply. The wheel bearings (both sides) were done the day before I had the car wheels balanced and aligned. So while I could be wrong, I'm 95% sure that the vibration wasn't there while driving to the tire shop so everything was after

1 - Mounting/balancing 2 new front tires since the rears were already installed a week prior

2 - Balancing rear wheels/tires

3 - alignment

I will rule out alignment because I took the car in for a re-re-recall of the rear suspension arms and they re-aligned all 4 corners and vibration was still present.

I also changed out the 4x4 ECM to the new version because I was getting the roaring issue. That issue was resolved with the switch but the "balancing" vibration was still there.

I will first try taking the car to a regular tire shop with conventional balancer and have all 4 corners redone.

Could it be possible that these new Continental tires don't respond well to a road force type balancing?
 
#9 ·
I will first try taking the car to a regular tire shop with conventional balancer and have all 4 corners redone.
And watch them do it if you can.

Could it be possible that these new Continental tires don't respond well to a road force type balancing?
Possibly, since apparently the road force units were developed specifically for the newer super low profile tires. I also suspect the road force balancer may require a higher level of operator competence.
 
#8 ·
Here's another scenario as to what could be going on. As Dr. Dyno knows, I just had to have the rear u-joint replaced in my 07 Sport. The symptom I was getting that let me know something was wrong, the truck was vibrating at highway speeds. Could feel it through the steering wheel (not like a bad rotor) and through out the rest of the truck. Easy way to tell is to remove the drive shaft completely (I believe it is a total of 10 bolts) and take it for a drive (be careful of front tire spin if you have the V6). You will know instantly if this was the problem.

Toyota says the u-joint is not replaceable and it was going to cost me $1300 for a new one installed, found a drive line shop with an in-house machine shop who was able to machine the shaft and install a new u-joint. Total cost all said and done was only $220.
 
#11 ·
Yes, everything happened after that.

I want to thank everyone for the help and contributions but I wanted to say that I sold the rav4 to a local dealer this evening...I got good value for it so I'm happy especially since I don't have to deal with anymore issues.

Now the quest is to buy a 2015 Rav4 Limited or CRV Touring...
 
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