undercarriage noise question

Hi,

Newb (and mechanically challenged) with a 2009 SR5 Crew Cab, 6500 miles.

Last week, the truck started making a popping noise which sounds to be coming from underneath the truck, in the area of the right front wheel, but the noise sometimes seems to travel toward the rear of the vehicle.

Most of my driving is on the freeway, and the noise so far has only occurred on straightaways, at speeds greater than 35 mph. It doesn't happen whilst turning or going over bumps in the road.

It's usually just a single "pop" sound, but sometimes occurs in clusters of three or four.

I've crawled underneath, looking for something loose or obvious, but everything seems to be as it should.

I read some of the posts in this thread: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/suspension/46299-strange-popping-noise.html but I'm not sure the advice there would apply, since my noise does not occur while turning.

Any ideas?

 

mudflaps bending and coming back into place.

 

good call brian, it would be easy to check if thats the issue. Just pop them off for a little drive and see if thats it. Maybe a easy quick fix.

 

So is this a pretty common problem? And, is there a solution? Better, after-market mudflaps? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll try that tonight when I get off work, and post results.

 

Real fix, hum.......can cut them down or remove them. I would do the cut down first that is unless you plan on running bigger rubber (lift) then remove.
I had close to the same issue, but I found the the inner fender well wasn't in correctly and the flap made it move a little.

 

So I finally got around to removing the mudflaps. As soon as I hit the freeway - actually, the onramp - pop-pop-pop-pop in rapid succession.

While I was replacing the mudflaps, I noticed that the right front fender was loose; there was a little bit of wiggle if you grasped it and pulled. So I tightened the three bolts I could find, and no more wiggle.

Back into the vehicle and onto the highway, and...no change. pop! pop-pop-pop! three seconds of blissful silence, and pop-pop.

Any other ideas?