Front Body Mount Noise Fix - That noise may not be your leaf springs

This may be a fix for those who believe they have squeaking leaf springs, or hear other squeaking, groaning or popping sounds.

Over the past month, my truck has been noisier than my 12 year old 4Runner that I traded with 170,000 miles on it. This one is only 8 months old with just 5,800ish miles on it. I thought originally it was my leaf springs, I cleaned and lubed them, with no improvement. I found on this forum many complaining of the front passenger side body mount. I know the dealer should replace this under warranty, but my dealer spends 2.5 hours on an oil change with an appointment, I didn't have time to deal with them actually doing real work. I ordered Energy Suspension part

$35 9.4101G UNIVERSAL MOUNT

9.4101G off Amazon, for $25.10 (they also had a red version for a few cents less)

Tonight I replaced my front body mounts, while I have installed body lifts before, and this is really no different, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get behind the bumper. I figured I would do a little writeup.

You will need a 14mm Deep Socket, a 14mm wrench, a 10mm socket, a flathead screwdriver, a jack and blocks, and possibly a prybar.

Edit: I have an Off Road with no front air dam. If you have an air dam, likely your first step will be to remove it - I am not sure if it will be in the way, but I am guessing it is.

First turn your wheel to whichever side you want to start on. You will peel back the splash guard in the wheel well. Using the 10mm socket unbolt the two bolts (one black and one silver) on the bottom of the bumper. You will see an orange clip behind one of the bolts, this needs to also come out, get behind the orange clip with the flathead screwdriver and pop it out.


Then using your flathead screwdriver pop out the clip in the back near the splash guard by just sticking the screwdriver under the clip, and the clip on the outer edge near the fender flare by turning 90 degrees so the slot is horizontal and popping it out from there.


Then you can pull the splash shield back and prop it on the steering tie bar, and you should be right where you need to be with the mount right in front of you, excuse the white lithium grease, I had tried spraying that on everything trying to quiet it down.


Pretty self explanatory now, use the 14mm deep socket and wrench to remove the nut and bolt on the mount.


Use your jack and block to lift the body off the frame just a little bit.


You can now pull the rubber mount out


and you can see how it is damaged, the metal was worn through the rubber making contact with the frame and making the noise.
Take the new parts, and take the larger of the mounts without any metal on it, and place it between the frame and body with the little nipple facing down into the hole in the frame.


Then insert the metal rings.


and then the large washer on top of everything. You can now send the bolt down from above and through everything. You now get to lower the body onto the mount and frame, and remove the jack.

You can now take the smaller mount and put it on the bottom of the bolt, and then the smaller washer, and the nut, tighten it up, and put the wheel well splash guard back together.

To do the other side, you would obviously do everything in reverse.

My driver side mount was not worn through the rubber yet, and I have not heard anyone on here complain about the driver side, but mine was distorted and not centered. Here is a pic of the driver side


Also while the passenger side went together with no issue, I had to use a prybar when putting the driverside back together in order to line up the bolt through all holes, I am afraid it could wear through at some point in the future, though the Energy Suspension parts are higher quality and I am sure will last longer than factory.

After I was all done, I took it on some light off roading and did not hear a thing, nice and quiet, before I couldn't back out of my driveway, or go over the speed bumps in my neighborhood without terrible noises. The whole thing took about an hour and a half, with taking pictures and figuring out how to get behind the bumper without taking it off.


Feel free to ask any questions

 

Nice write up, and pics to boot! May have to do this soon.....

 

Nice write up, but honestly this is the exact same mod done on the 2nd gen's which has been in circulation since early last year posted by me, so this is not exactly new news. You are even using the same

$35 9.4101G UNIVERSAL MOUNT

9.4101G bushings by energy. Is that where you got the idea from?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/polyurethane-radiator-support-mounts-cab-also.361346/

As a footnote, apparently all of the body mounts on the 3rd gen are utter shit. You guys might want to make a push on Energy to make a 3rd gen specific poly bushing mount kit.

 

I had the noise on both the driver side and passenger side. Was fixed under warranty a couple months ago and no issues since.

 

"Fixed" by replacing failing bushings with the same oem bushings that will fail again ? Read this thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/polyurethane-radiator-support-mounts-cab-also.361346/

 

Shouldn't this be warranty work

 

Warranty work replaced with the same bushings that are failing in the first place...

 

Can I grease the shitty ones in the mean time to stop squeaking sounds ?? Until the 3rd gen poly ones are ready?

 

Read the post.

I'd pay more than $25.10 to do something myself than deal with a dealer.

Try fluid film, it'll creep and isn't supposed to be as harsh on synthetic rubbers as petroleum products can be. If you have metal to metal you're boned.

Surprised you guys are having these issues this early. When I did my radiator support mounts (thanks @12TRDTacoma) they looked about the same but with 130K on them.

 

Yes I did get the part number from the 2nd gen forum, I guess I should have given credit due there. Unless I missed it there was no instructions on getting to the part on a 3rd gen, and I don't think I saw it on the 2nd gen either. All I saw was at least one 3rd gen guy saying he had to remove the entire bumper!!!, I did this to show it isn't that hard and put all information in one place, because I know a lot of 3rd gens are dealing with noisy trucks, and probably because of this, and like the title says, they may not realize why, so it is here to help the other 3rd gen guys understand and fix an annoying problem, I'm not trying to take credit for coming up with something totally new.

Absolutely, and it would have benefitted all other 3rd gens by having the dealer document yet another bad mount so that Toyota would realize they messed up, but it wasn't worth the hassle at the dealer for me, 45 min each way drive, explaining to the idiots there what needed to be done, I know they would have the truck a couple days, so a fight for a loaner when I'd rather have my own truck, all while I haven't had the time to do this in weeks. This took less than 2 hours total in my own garage.

I doubt it, I tried with white lithium grease, and while I know that is not very heavy, you can't stop the metal on metal with just a little grease.

I forgot to show a picture of the metal sleeve that came out of the factory mount, it was very chewed up, another couple weeks, maybe less and I would have been through it and damaging the bolt.

Also I am not sure a 3rd gen specific mount is nessesary, my thought is the 3rd gens share so much with the 2nd gen, that I would be very surprised if there would be a 3rd gen specific mount that was any different.




Also by the way my truck is only 8 months old with only 5,800 miles on it.

 

I think my truck has this issue with only 1,500 miles on it.
I have a left hand turn I make everyday and there is a small drainage relief in the road. When I hit the drainage relief the truck makes this awful metal on metal popping noise from the front passenger side. It sounds like it is right behind the passenger side front wheel. What say you?

 

Pretty sure that's it, now if you are at full lock it could also be the steering stop making noise as you go over the elevator in change. If you are at full lock, try it next time by backing off on your steering wheel just a little bit.

 

I am about 70% to full lock when I make this turn.

 

I'm pretty certain that would be it then, I was also hearing just squeaking and noises going over bumps. It turning and at least for me I couldn't pin it down to the front end by noise only, so if you can I'd say you definitely found it, it will get worse over the next couple weeks if it is the mount.

 

Thanks! I imagine it is what a sway bar breaking under a load would sound like...except it isn't the sway bar. If that make any sense?

 

Thread started in July about this. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rad-front-body-mounts-shot.440118/

 

I hadn't realized this, but as you can see these guys are talking about removing the grille and bumper which isn't necessary, (also one guy in there shows a pic of his mounts installed and they are upside down, so maybe not all the best info in there) just trying to help some people save some time and work, and explain at the beginning that the noise some may think are suspension noises are this.
I linked in there to here, if a mod wants to merge I'm all for it.

 

Doesn't matter to me, good info gets lost in all the BS here all the time. If you had seen the thread earlier, might have diagnosed it earlier, lol. Glad you got it fixed, I know mine was annoying as fuck and took me a little while to figure out where it was coming from, has been all quiet ever since.

 

I'll take repetitive/informative posts over threads asking about tire size/rubbing/"what quality lift that is good but not too expensive" any day.

 

from this picture doesn't the small bushing go on the top?