Vibration and clunk driving me CRAZY

Hello all, I am a fairly new (3 week) Tacoma owner. Long story short, I was away for 6 months, came home and wanted to buy myself a new vehicle. Had very little time to make a purchase before I had to move, etc. I bought a 2007 tacoma trd sport access cab automatic truck at a dealer with 90000 miles for a good price. The truck was lifted with stock wheels and crap tires. Drove it around for the test drive and it seemed to run GREAT. well i finally get it home and after driving it around for a while, I noticed that while pulling out, the truck has a strange vibations around 10 mph and then again between 25-30. Also, while driving, if i let of the gas, then accelerate after the truck is drifting, it kind of clunks before starting to accelerate again (kind of feels like something in the driveline has to lock before it goes?) I am no mechanic by any means, so while I was away, my girl took it to a garage to have it looked over. It had the trans and diff fluid changed, among other things. Now I am driving the truck back and forth to work and everytime I get in it, I get irritated by the vibes and the clunk in driveline. I did quite a bit of research on here, even took it to a toyota dealer to ask about the TSB for it. It is of course out of warranty so i have to pay for it. I am just looking for any information on this or if any of you have been able to fix this problem. It's bothering me enough that I almost want to get rid of the truck! sorry this was so long-winded as well.

Thanks and any info/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Here's a few picture's of it:

 

Im not a fan of lifted or modified suspension trucks,the truck was designed by Engineers who made the the truck and all its components function effectively at a certain height. Now the height has been altered it has put more stress on CV joints,Universal joints any of which are now more prone to wear out or not operate as designed.

 

Try looking into a carier bearing drop. Streetacos.com sells them. It will help get rid of your vibes. Also, you might want to look into getting all of your u-joints replaced. It only cost me around $114 bucks for the u-joints and installation

 

Could you possibly get a video of it. Could help us diagnose it.

I totally agree. I love the looked of a slight lift and what not. But that's if I know everything was done right. I could never buy something lifted from someone else, unless I know them and how it was treated. In your case it's hard not to feel like your got taken for a ride and now it's something that you have to diagnosed and fix. This is how come people get inspections before they buy used vehicles. Especially with the mods on your truck. Keep us posted.

 

I would have a look at the carrier bearing itself too. I had to replace one on my old 96 last winter and it similar symptoms to yours. It helped quite a bit but I think the driveshaft on that truck was a little out of balance too. Couldn't complain much though considering it had over 250k miles on it.

Like someone else said I love the way a lifted truck looks. From the age of 17 until I was about 30 I always had a lifted Toyota truck as a DD. But with the exception of the solid axle rigs like the FJ40 I just sold and a few early minitrucks there were always issues with lifting them that snowballed into more parts and more money to make them right. I've had a few that I actually spent the dough to make "right"(proper suspension lifts, ring and pinion swaps, etc.) but whenever I went to sell one I absolutely lost my shirt. Not to mention the huge decrease in gas mileage the whole time while driving it. My last 4 Tacoma's I've left stock. And to be honest totally stock they'll take me the exact same places I used to take my lifted FJ40. But I'm not exactly a hardcore off roader any more either.

 

Hey there,

I own a Toyota 4Runner and we have these same issues with the 4x4 model of the rig. There have been extensive discussions about how to fix it over on T4R.org, the best solution would be to have the TSB done. However, there is another temporary solution.

Quoted directly from a thread on T4R.org

Source: http://tinyurl.com/psqa924 (Links to the thread)

I'm not 100% sure this works in the Tacoma 4x4, but I'm pretty sure the 4x4 system is the same in both rigs.


Cheers,


Ryan

 

Lifted truck done by "no one knows" over sided tires unknown gearing and you wonder why it vibrates?

 

Howabout some post from people that have lifted trucks and may have had the same issues instead of people bashing him for buying a lifted truck that seems to have an issue.

 

I would check wheels and tires. Make sure they're balanced and aligned. Then, I'd look at the carrier bearing-if there's no drop, I would add one. You can argue that the sway bar should be dropped too. idk. I relocated mine.

The clunk is a littler harder. If you have something like the Auburn Gear limited slip diff installed, that could be a part of what you're hearing. You could go find any area with a dirt surface and with the truck in gear, stab the gas. Let the wheels hook up then hop out and look at the marks left in the dirt-both wheels spinning indicate there's a limited slip diff in the truck. Whether you do or don't have a limited slip rear end, change the diff fluid. If you have a limited slip diff you will need to run regular gear oil with a friction modifier and *not* the LSD fluid you can buy.

Good luck.

 

the vibration and clunk is coming from your slip yoke. Try putting it in neutral and grab both sides of the shaft and give it a twist back and forth and watch ur slip for any play.