3rd Gen Poll: Rear End Noise howling when feathering throttle

I love my truck. It's grown on me over the past year and a half. We had a rocky start but it's almost there. It's soo close to being solid.

...But this fucking howl. It's disgusting and disappointing. They gave me an8 year 125k warranty, but it's useless because they don't fix anything. What's the point? They are almost golden hancuffs.

I made up my mind that if it's not fixed by the time the math works out and I can find an acceptable replacement then I'm done with Tacomas.

 

Same here, my friend. I love my truck and loved my second gen too. But, I never thought I would see Toyota launch a product with this many issues. Mine is great except for that rear diff howl and I'm tired of getting peed off every time I drive my truck. If it doesn't get fixed right by Toyota I might try a private shop. Any more issues like this and I'm done until Toyota gets their crap together.

 

I keep mine under 50 in the city and above 65 on the highway. Ignorance is bliss.

 

I do get the howl from about 52 to 58,anyone else get a higher pitched howl when under hard acceleration from 68ish all the way up to 78ish?

 

Jesus. Is it that bad? I think I hear a howl but it lasts like 2 seconds and goes away. Definitely not something I'm going to throw a diaper on, kick and scream about it..

 

It's brutal and piercing if you have it bad. I've driven in lots of tacomas as loaners, and all but one howled. None of them howl like mine though. Maybe they haven't had enough time to get bad. Aero's videos show his is pretty loud too.

Like everyone else in the thread: tell us you acknowledge a problem and give us a timeframe on a fix. I'd settle for an official " we are investigating remedies" statement. The radio silence and outright denial that this is a problem makes me want to dump Toyota all together.

 

Mine is first heard at 30mph and then goes away until 55mp where is starts and is loudest. It NEVER goes completely away now. It lowers in volume and changes to a higher pitch all the way up to as fast as I ever drive 75'ish. I hear it but have grown numb to it....definitely not happy, if there were other mid-size truck options that I trusted wouldn't have other/worse issues I would have jumped ship already even though I have Toyotas for over 20yrs now. Going to check with dealer again this week and if nothing firm is offered up about an impending solution will begin looking for a good rearend shop.

 

It's been theorized that the noise is due to driveline angles and given your vibrations, sounds like the leaf pack shims may be a fix you need. The number of folks that have the updated leaf packs that also have howling diffs seem to be way fewer.

 

If only they would release the part number for the shims... Or communicate that new leafs could fix it.

I think the geometry is related to the problem. Smitty said his got better with his small lift.

But I'm not trying to throw parts at it or otherwise void my warranty. I'd go bananas if I added shims to help with the noise to be told that voids the recall/tsb (assuming one comes out).

 

No, mine is drowning out my radio between 53-60. I have to have the radio on 40 or above to not hear it. I'm loving my truck but this howl is driving me crazy. I'm hanging tough until they get a fix. This is the truck I want so unless it falls apart underneath me I'm all in.

 

Are you still considering taking it to an Indy shop?

 

Yes. I am contacting Toyota just to get the documentation started and at my 5k mile service I will get the howling addressed. I will give Toyota a chance to get it fixed but I'm not going back multiple times like some of these guys. If Toyota doesn't get it fixed then I'm off to a new rear diff made by and installed someone else. It beats losing that amount on a trade. For those that may not think it's a big deal, mine is loud. Very loud. I also have the howling from my 2016 Yukon XL but it is not loud like my Taco.

 

I got a new diff at 5K and I think its worse than the original one. I should have just kept it but I guess its a gamble that a new one might be better...

I'm thinking if I invest in new R&P's I'm going to 4.30 or whatever the manual gear ratio is. Maybe 6th gear would be useful at that point.

 

Its not a rear diff problem, its not tire noise. Heres a little. TROUBLESHOOTING 101 If you change a part and the problem does not go away ....that part is NOT the problem. I laugh at these ppl that change the same part multiple times and expect to get a different outcome when it doesnt fix it the first time. The noise you are hearing, more than likely, is the Carrier bearing. Its caused by a slight misalignment, or faulty part. At least, when I lefetd my truck and readjusted and shimmed the carrier bearing, the harmonic it was producing went away.

 

Best of luck. Like many others on here, I just want mine fixed. The howling my Yukon makes is livable but my Taco is on a different level. Maybe Toyota will have a permanent fix soon.

 

Could it be that these people that change the same part multiple times are doing it because their service department is telling them to do so? Maybe Toyota is saying this is the fix. I have seen multiple bad parts get replaced with, you guessed it, bad parts. Wouldn't it stand to good reason with so many of us having this issue that the parts are just defective? Maybe it is the carrier bearing (that would be a less expensive fix) but so many of us have little control over what Toyota is saying to do to fix the problem. I do know that they have one shot at mine and then I'll get it fixed on my dime to my satisfaction. I'm glad yours is resolved. Maybe we can get the thousands of others fixed now.

 

That may be the case but with my truck under warranty I let the Toyota mechanics do their own diagnostics and they assured me it was a bad pinion bearing. So they replaced the whole diff, then when the new diff started howling at 0 miles it became "normal".

I'm assuming that the mechanics at the dealer can tell the difference between a loud carrier bearing and a pinion bearing, but who knows. Sound could be traveling up and down the driveline.

I also think that if it is a bad pinion bearing then lifting the truck or changing the angle of the driveline is probably adding a extra load directly to the bearing. Which could quiet it down at least temporarily.

 

This sounds like a most excellent way of getting a free lift from Toyota! OK, it was worth a try. I'm holding back until I see some success with getting this issue resolved. I'm not the most patient person in the world so I'm not down with having my truck be a guiena pig. Surely something has to come down from corporate soon.

 

This thread. It dies and then someone has to give it CPR once a month and bring it back. My Taco howls. So does my 2014 GMC Sierra. The GMC is louder than the taco.

 

Do you have a reproducible procedure us howlers could try?

Edit: that aligns with that Lexus tsb that was released for the es350 diff howl (I know I know it's a completely different vehicle), but they added a spacer to change the angles to fix the howl.