Scotty,
I have a 1999 Toyota 4Runner, 4 cylinder, automatic transmission, with 182K miles.
Just recently, my car has started shaking/vibrating when going over 70 mph. It happened from one week to another after having my car parked the whole week.
Where would I start to find what is wrong?
It was U-Joints!
i guess the main symptom was a clunk when going from park to drive. I really knew it was u-joints once the truck was vibrating on acceleration and at low speeds. When testing them on the truck though, there was hardly any play.
Hope this helps someone else!
The most common cause of this behavior is unbalanced tires. You need to have them checked and balanced out properly, along with the correct tire pressure for your particular set.
The first thing I would do is look at your wheels and see if you lost a tire weight. With as hot as it has been lately, it's possible that the adhesive that holds them on the wheel melted, and it flew off when you started driving again. There may be a trace of it still on the wheel, or there's a clean spot where it was.
Beyond that, something might be worn in the suspension, but that usually comes on more gradually.
I found a rusted/loose clamp that’s supposed to connect the exhaust pipe with the engine block, could this possible cause violent vibration?
Probably not. A motor mount could, but that doesn't sound like a motor mount, and it would shake constantly. I'd go to the tire shop and have them check the tire balance first.