Bad vibration coming from the rear of the Prado

[Jon_Prado Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Jon_Prado]

Hi All unsure where to post this as not really sure what is wrong with the car!

Doing my research on these cars, I quickly became aware that seems they are common in Australia! And you have a lot of experts.
Hoping someone could help me with my 1999 3.0 TDI Auto Land cruiser (Prado). When I hit 55/60MPH (95kmh)I get a bad vibration to the point it shakes the car ( cannot feel it much in the steering). Back seat passengers tend to feel the vibration before the driver. Driving below 60MPH (95KMH) the car drivers 100% perfect, you would not guess it had any problem.

I am bit new to 4x4s (it’s my first) but I do little bits on my other cars, so I am looking for some help/guidance please. I have searched about and some suggest it could be the prop shaft UJ? Is there anyway of testing this? To confirm/eliminate it… Also I had someone I know say it could be the gear box? Is this possible?

Thanks! I could not see a introduction section of the forum

Jon

[scottkz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scottkz]

Ihad the same problem, steering dead smooth turns out the tyres were out of round caused by worn out shocks
New pair of rear tyres fixed it. Fronts were fine
I borrowed a mates full set from the same car to confirm it before I believed the tyres shop

[Hogey66 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hogey66]

Try rotating front wheels to rears and see if the problem migrates to the front end if you can't borrow a set of wheels from someone else. Sounds like either out of round as stated above or wheel balance, may have lost some weights off the rim.

[CoreyTroy Member Find all posts View Profile Close CoreyTroy]

Agree with other comments, rear tyres

[2000RVPrado Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close 2000RVPrado]

If its not wheel balance you could try rear roters they maybe badly warped.

[Jon_Prado Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Jon_Prado]

Thanks for the replies  I am going to have the wheels checked, or consider putting my spare on each corner 1 at a time. To see if the problem goes away. I have done some searching and found it could be the UJ on the prop-shaft.

To check the UJ can I remove the shafts 1 at a time, and put the car in HL to drive it just to test which one is causing the issue? Or would this damage the transmission?

Thanks again,
Jon

[Whitey1 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey1]

To check the uni joints just get under there and grab the shaft near the joint and try to move it up and down. If there's movement, then they need replacing.

[scottkz Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scottkz]

Yes just remove a shaft at a tie then into high lock

[raydes Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close raydes]

Toyota also did a recall on the rear wheel bearings on the 90 series. They took mine in and changed them free of charge