From: andrus@cs.uwp.edu (Bonnie Andrus)
Subject: Vibration in Toyota 4-Runner
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Parkside
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 14:18:34 GMT


I have been having problems with my Toyota 4-Runner and need some advice.
There are 25,000 miles on the 4-Runner and it is a 1990.  For the last
7,000 miles it has started to vibrate when I hit the speed of 45.  I took
it into Goodyear the beginning of April and they rotated and balanced the
tires and aligned the fron end.  They also told me that I needed rear shocks
that mine were leaking.  I did know that was still under waranty and took it
into the Toyota dealers who in tern told me that there was nothing wrong with
my shocks.  I also had Goodyear change my oil at this time.  Well the
vibration~was still there and the 4-Runner started leaking oil so I took it
back to Goodyear.  The seal around the plug had broken and they said I needed
   new tires to stop the vibration.  Well this was Goodyear and I wasn't going
to fall for that line.  Not with 22,000 miles on them.  So I didn't know what
to do and didn't have anymore money to spend on something that I was going to 
get the run around about.  Then in June while driving down the road the
4-Runner just stopped.  I had that towed into the dealer and it took them 2
days to find out that there were some faulty wires in a harness.  Well now it
starts to vibrate when I put on the brake so I took it into the Toyota dealer
again hoping that whatever was wrong was still under warantee.  Well they call
me and tell me that I need new break pads in the front and the my wheels are
way out of balance.  I couldn't believe it.  But what do I know?  I said go
ahead and do what they had to do.  Then they called me back and said the
vibration was gone from the front end but there was still a little vibration
in the back and that they needed to clean the rear shocks to get rid of the
vibration.  None of this was waranted of course, it was considered
maintenance.  I picked up the 4-Runner last night, paid my bill of $198.25 and
proceeded home.  You guessed it, once I hit 45mph the vibration started.  I
turned right around and went back.  The service manager took a ride with me
and couldn't notice the vibration at first.  Then he admitted later that yes
he did feel something.  So now they are going to check it over again and he
told me that they were going to take the tires off a new vehicle and exchange
them with mine to see if that is the problem.  I believe I am being taken
again.  I asked them to check the bolts of the engine and transmission because
it made sense to me that if you had a loose bolt that when the engine was
working harder that it might vibrate.  They didn't think that was the problem.
I felt like (What does this female think she is doing telling us how to do our
jobs when she doesn't know a thing about mechanics)  This may be true, but I'm
not a person with a lot of money to throw out to (obviously mechanics) that
don't know what they are doing.  Someone out there please help me out and give
me some ideas of what could be wrong so that I don't sound like a dummy when I
go back tonight and the problem still isn't fixed.
 
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