My truck and all its problems....

^^ Glad everything worked out.

 

Me too..

However I am wondering how I trashed my u joints? Toyota is trying to blame my tires but that sounds like BS... The truck has been on pavement for the last year, no off roading.

 

60000 miles, does it really matter?

 

I changed mine at 50k miles, the part cost me $80 and took about an hour to change. No big deal IMO. Like you I don't off road.

 

Yea big tires dont make any difference on u joints. Most likely they got wet/salt in them or overheated and seals went out. Personally I dont like u-joints that can not be greased and I have no idea why Toyota put them on the truck. I guess they figure out pre-runners will stay their life on dry pavement only. I grease mines every oil change and in between from time to time. Pretty much every time I am under the truck for any reason. So far not one truck that I owned had u-joint go on me. I wonder if you can replace them with greasable ones.

 

happy to hear after the issues you had.

 

I agree with others who don't think that tire size did this. Stuff like U-joints typically last as long as they stay lubricated and clean. If the rubber seals that keep dirt and water out and grease in ever fail, then wear can happen pretty fast. That's a normal process that could be accelerated by getting sand or dirt on them. Rubber deteriorates with age too so that's probably a factor. It is possible that previous off roading accelerated wear at that time and caused these to fail before you would hope.

Regardless, it is good to get that fixed before you did the drive shaft pole vault! (I'm not sure if that's possible on a Taco, but dropping a drive shaft on the ground is never a good idea. )

 

There is another possibility, even if you went offroad once but hit driveshaft and knocked out of balance it will eat u-joints constantly

 

Where can I find the info on that TSB, just noticed today a small leak at the rear of the tranny

 

Parking lot at my High School was a dirt lot that sometimes flooded to the point of covering 3/4ths of my 32"s, its possible the damage was done there, but still unfortunate. I'm just happy I got it fixed.

 

Link : http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/45728-new-tsb.html

 

I'm wondering if mine has the same issue now. Its intermittent, but after I do even the slightest amount of crawling over parking blocks and molehills, there comes a squeaking in the rear-end that occurs anytime I throw the weight toward the rear, as in accelerating...especially from a dead stop because its more noticeable when there are no other noise interferences. But its not a fluctuating squeak, like that of a u-joint (increasing with driveshaft spin - acceleration) so that makes me think suspension lubrication issue. Anyway, I also have a front end grind issue, that only goes away when I engage 4x4 action. 4x4 disengaged: grinding from the right front wheel, ever present. But its a fluctuating grind, increasing with speed, but never does it fade. Every so often, when I disengage the 4 wheel drive it'll pop out kinda loud...everytime it happens I'm like "WTF!". I'm positive it's related. I'll bring it in soon, it's under warranty so I'll get some answers and let you know

 

how much did that 60k set you back? ouchie.

glad it all worked out. the nice thing about ujoints..they usually let you know they are not happy.