Wheel Play

Ladies and Gents,

Replaced the wheel bearings on my Tacoma last year and am familiar with the process. I’m about to undertake the same job on a 2003 2WD 4Runner but I just developed some doubts.

It was making an intermittent clunking sound when driving at various speeds so I jacked it up and noticed significant play in the right front in all directions. There’s also some slight whining when free spinning the tire.

My concern is this: could this possibly be ball joints instead? Never replaced those but I hear you have to swap out the entire LCA/UCA if they’re bad.

 

Jack up the truck, secure it with a jack stand, have a buddy shake the wheel while you observe what part is moving around.
Parts that can cause movement
Upper ball joint
Lower ball joint
Upper control arm bushing
Lower control arm bushing
Bearing
Outer tie rod
Inner tie rod
Rack bushings
Loose lug nuts

 

Thanks man. This confirmed it was in fact the bearing. Everything else was solid. Also, the shaking completely disappeared when I applied the brakes.