HELP! Taco lean, or something more sinister?

Over the last few months, I’ve developed a thud feeling whenever I move from brake to accelerator or from in-gear coasting to accelerator. Through my research on TW, I thought I may have been wrong, and it was the u-joints. Nope. Pumped them full of grease, still the thud feeling. Maybe the transmission mount, doesn’t look like it. From underneath, mount looks good I think. Is it supposed to be solid rubber, or only on the ends? Or is it the springs? Driver’s side is 3/4” lower in front and 1 1/4” in the rear with half a tank and a 70lbs. battery. Springs have 140k kms on them, everything else is stock with 180k kms. Truck is an 06 DCLB with Bilstein 5100s front raised .85”. Toyota 17” rims on stock sized tires and a tonneau cover with nothing in the bed.


I’ve psyched myself out on diagnosis, help!
Thanks

 

Is the transmission fluid at the proper level. Also, it's an '06, so it could just be transmission wear. Taco lean does not cause noises or any sort of "thud".

 

Thanks for the reply. I’ll check it out.

 

Out of curiosity......

Have you run thru the 160,000 km maintenance schedule?

A "thud feeling" is not very descriptive. Start with the maintenance schedule, you may find the "thud feeling" in the process.

Another thought. Check the U-joints and Carrier Bearing.

 

The rear diff moves quite a bit under the circumstances you are describing. How does the carrier bearing look?

 

I have done the 160k kms maintenance, got the dealer to swap the trans fluid. Another way to describe it is like hitting a small pothole going 30mph, that jarring but momentary jarring feeling.

Just crawled under the truck, and the carrier bearing has about 1/2” of play in it.

 

I'm not an expert, but 1/2" play in the Carrier Bearing seems like its time for replacement.

This could be your "thud feeling"

 

Thank you.

 

Way to much play wow. Yes. Change that out

 

Okay. So I remeasured the truck, this time from the hub to the bottom of the fender/bed. The front is the same, maybe a 1/16”. The rear is an 1 1/2” difference! 23” to 21.5”. That would be excessive, even for TacoLean, right?

 

Is it the left side?
Is the gas tank full?
And are you on OE leaf springs?

If so, 1.5” is a bit excessive.
I think mine might site 3/4” or so lowers when full. (I have the TSB springs, if it matter)
I’ll go ahead and say, the TSB springs settle just as much as the 3 leaf pack. They just aren’t supposed to break as easy.

 

Does your truck have the old outdated leaf springs? The ones that had a TSB or safety recall for breaking and puncturing the tank? Last I heard Toyota was replacing them for free. Might be worth looking into

 

These are the TSB springs. Had them installed in ‘07 or ‘08. They do have 140 to 150k Kim’s on them. The tank is full, and there’s a fibreglass tonneau cover on. It is the left side that’s lower, and the leaf pack is noticeably flatter.

 

They replaced mine for free.
But I had to take it in for inspection first.
Not sure why? But I think it was to see if they had broken.
If so, I think you were moved to the front of the list for replacement.
Which was fine by me. Mine hadn’t broken, it took about 3 month from the time they inspected them to time of replacement. They also inspected the frame at that time too.

I have to say, Toyota made it right.
Even though mine weren’t broken. SWEET

 

I’m going to say, it is the Taco lean.
But it’s worse due to the cap.

 

To clarify, I mentioned the leafs because I was thinking of axle wrap

 

Okay, thanks. Going to look into the carrier bearing. I was all over trying to diagnose my thud feeling. Now I have a direction. Love this place!

 

Yeah, I can’t say I notice too much.
But then again, I might be used to it by now.
Or maybe it’s all the weight in the tool box in the bed.

I’m beginning to see that Normal to me, isn’t normal to most.