04 Tacoma 4x4 extended cab center bearing problems

Hello everyone,

I just joined today because I have been battling center bearings going out ever 6 months or so for the last year and a half. I have replaced the darn thing 3 times now. I have been replacing it with the 30 buck chuck you get from autozone or napa. I have read various threads that say not to do this and to fork out the money for the Toyota OEM part (which is probably what I am going to do this time), but I had a few questions 1st. I do have a 2" lift in the rear (blocks above leaf springs) and do not have any kind of drop kit for the center bearing. Would this be contributing to the bearing going out? Any comments or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and the truck is a 2004 2.7l extended cab 4x4 with 140,000 miles. Thanks!

 

I've had my 2.5" lift on for 18 months and I'm still on the original center bearing. 150k too.

where/how do you drive?

 

I drive 40 miles a day (to and from work). All highway, 60 - 65 MPH to work, and coming home about half of the drive is 30 - 45 MPH. Same drive I've been making for 5 years. The U-joints all seem fine. There is probably about 2" of play in the bearing. The rubber is pretty much gone.

 

Yeah that's too much play. pony up for the Toyota bearing and get a 1-2" drop for the bearing. can use washers with longer bolts or there are some spacer kits out there as well

 

Do they make drop kits that are angled? my diff is still in its original location, therefore the shaft goes back at an angle. I know it is only 2" difference, but would that be enough to mess that bearing up? I work at a shipyard and work on bearings for shafts that are 3' in diameter, and having the bearing true to the shaft is very important. Thoughts?

 

You could possibly be getting some axle wrap if you're using blocks. At 2" you shouldn't have issues with it.

 

you can make your own piece that is angle although not really necessary. they do sell axle shims that help with the angle of the pinion.

also you mentioned blocks "above" springs? did you mean spring above block above axle? the 4wd is spring over axle, so blocks over spring wouldn't get you lift (just wanted to clarify)

 

Yes that is what I meant. Sorry about that.

 

https://youtu.be/K4F-hrYeG-E

I took a video of the movement on my bearing. Not as much movement as I thought. But still pretty bad.

 

Actually that doesn't look terrible, a little hard to tell from the vid though. How are you determining that the center bearing is bad? Just based on movement?

I would recommend replacing with OEM. If you're not battling any kind of driveline vibration, don't bother shimming the bearing down, it'll just wear out faster and you'll put more strain on the u joint at the t case output flange.

 

Yea I get the squeak sound when taking off (especially when I give it some gas) and really bad driveline vibration. For about 2 to 3 months after I replace it, the vibration comes back. I've had wheel balancing and alignment done as well. Other than replacing all of the U-joints that is the only other thing I can think of.

 

Ah, yeah it's probably the vibrations that are killing the center bearing. You have an un-cancelled angle at the rear diff u joint due to the lift. With a double cardan driveshaft (like ours) you want the rear diff pinion to point straight at the center bearing. This requires shimming the rear axle so the pinion points up slightly. You can use angled leaf spring shims to do that, you probably need 2-3 degrees. I believe 4crawler makes custom ones. Also a good resource for measuring driveshaft angles.

Shimming the center bearing down is the quick and dirty way of doing the same thing, but it's not a good long term solution. It puts more strain on the bearing and the front u joint, and there's no way to shim it enough to fix the angle at the rear diff.

 

Awesome! thanks for the info. I will look into shimming my leaf springs when I put the new bearing in. I will probably end up doing to u-joints while I have the shaft down anyways. Better safe than sorry.