2022 Raptor Steering Wheel Shake

[cparker]

Hey guys, so here's the deal. I have a 2022 Raptor with around 50,00 miles on it. Over the past month, I started noticing my steering wheel was shaking side to side. My initial thought was perhaps it was time for new tires, so I threw a set of Falken Wildpeak AT4's on. After driving it for a few days, the shaking actually felt worse, so the dealership chalked it up to a "bad set of tires" and actually gave me a new set of the K03's. The day I get the truck back.... steering wheel is still shaking.

To make a very long and agonizing five weeks of my life with back and forth to dealerships short.. Two different dealerships have gone through the front end and cannot find anything lose, or needing replaced. The final time into the dealership they actually told me to "just lower the tire pressure down to around 30, and it will make it better". I'm beyond frustrated, and just ready to go back to a reliable 3rd Gen Tacoma. The steering wheel shake seems to come and go depending on speed and road surface. Some roads it's smooth as can be and feels perfect, then I'll hit a 20 mile stretch where the wheel is shaking back and fourth (video below) and is maddening to drive, especially over 50 MPH.

Has anyone come across this, or have any suggestions of what to do?



View attachment Raptor.mov

 

[Keith88]

Do you have after market wheels and/or a level kit?

 

[GCATX]

I wonder if you have a bad shock? I saw a raptor going down the highway and the driver front tire was visibly bouncing up and down. If you can duplicate the problem you might have someone drive next to you and watch, just to mark that off the list.

 

[cparker]

Do you have after market wheels and/or a level kit?

I do have RRW wheels, but no leveling kit.

 

[cparker]

I wonder if you have a bad shock? I saw a raptor going down the highway and the driver front tire was visibly bouncing up and down. If you can duplicate the problem you might have someone drive next to you and watch, just to mark that off the list.

Hadn't thought of that, I can give it a try. Thank you!

 

[Keith88]

I do have RRW wheels, but no leveling kit.

My steering wheel never shook like that but I got wobbling. Turned out the methods I have aren’t hub centric. Had hub rings installed and the problem went away.

 

[cparker]

My steering wheel never shook like that but I got wobbling. Turned out the methods I have aren’t hub centric. Had hub rings installed and the problem went away.

Assuming I'm looking at this correctly, it appears to be hub centric.

 

[Keith88]

Assuming I'm looking at this correctly, it appears to be hub centric.

View attachment 467934

Yup. Can rule that out.

 

[FordTechOne]

Well I’ll say you had me laughing out loud at “reliable 3rd Gen Tacoma”. Nothing like pulling an entire engine to reseal the extremely common timing cover leaks, or paying $13k out of pocket for new cylinder heads for the notorious valve failure issue.

For the vibration issue I would recommend ruling out the wheels and tires completely before going any further. Swap a known good set and re-evaluate. Is everything else on the truck stock, including the front springs/ride height?

 

[smurfslayer]

Road.
Force.
Balance.

My brand spanking new KO2’s on Motegi trail lite wheels did the same thing after getting them installed at the local stealership. Took her to the local discount tire and had them lifetime r/f balanced. 98% of the shake is gone. I have 6 wheels in rotation and even though they were fine when I took them off, each time I’ve rotated I’ve had to go back to discount tire to get them rebalanced and it’s been better.

If you look at the factory wheels when they come from Ford, they are usually balanced perfectly, but, will have a LOT of weights on them. One of my OEM bead lock wheels has 22 ounces of weights. I’ve not been able to convince Discount tire to go that far, they’re very hesitant to add that much weight.

Even if the wheels and tires are perfect, now you have a stable platform of troubleshooting to build on.

two different dealerships have gone through the front end and cannot find anything lose, or needing replaced

What exactly did they do? put eyes on everything and look for damage? You won’t find an out of spec component like that.

- move tires on one side back to front, reassess; repeat for the other side.
- are the wheels out of round?
- how old are the shocks and have they been rebuilt? They’re about due, maybe 10k more if you’ve babied the truck
- has the truck ever been in a collision?
- any hard hits off road?
- consistent in 2h, 4a & 4h ?


I’d posit that if the road force balance improves or vastly improves things, that is probably your problem. If it doesn’t change anything, you might to as @FordTechOne suggests and repeat. If you get an improvement, again you’re probably on to the fix but if it doesn’t help at all, you’ve got some kind of suspension or driveline issue going on.

HTH