Major power train repairs on pre-owned Tacoma 1 month after purchase

Hello Everyone,

First time posting here, just bought my first Tacoma (always been a Jeep guy in the past but needed a truck and have always wanted a Tacoma so here we go!). Things are not off to a good start. Bought the truck with 50k miles on it from a local Toyota dealership and immediately had to bring the truck back due to a humming noise coming from the drivetrain. I’ve since brought it back 4 times and they have replaced the left drivers side bearing, the front and rear differentials and the axel bearing (~$8k in repair coats covered by dealership) - this is within 2 months of owning the truck. The noise went away for about a week and is now starting to resurface again. I’m planning to bring it back next week to request more repairs, but am wondering if this is just going to be an endless cycle of problems with the drivetrain. I should also note that this truck was lifted and as such only cane with a 500 mile warranty. If I keep the truck I will purchase an extended power train warranty, but I’m on the fence at this point.
Curious if anyone in the community has run into similar issues with their tacomas, and/or if anyone has suggestions on how to proceed. I’m thinking the previous owner must have really beat the truck up, but the underbody shows no signs of previous off reading.
Thanks!

 

That humming noise has a TSB depending on what year the truck is. And chances are you are not going to get rid of it and its gonna continue, I am guessing you hear it when you are going around 50 MPH or so especially when you let up on the gas? If so...thats pretty common and toyota says that it is a harmonic issue coming into the cab behind the rear seats.

I am surprised the dealership changed all those parts, I guess on the bright side you got some new bearings and differentials. If its lifted, it might make the noise resonate more, or depending on the quality of the lift, it may be causing all that wear on parts. If its stock, its pretty common and so far has not shown to have many issues attached to it. I've had 2 of them and both have made a little noise a you describe, and both were/are trouble free


Here are over 300 pages talking about it
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...oise-howling-when-feathering-throttle.442341/

 

You bought a pre owned lifted truck with 50k miles and we have no idea what it’s history is. Hope everything works out, but tough to provide much insight in this situation

 

Hopefully that’s all it is. Definitely surprised they did all that work on it.

 

Oh good another bitchy thread about how bad Tacoma’s are.

 

Thanks all for the responses - quicker than I expected!
So the humming noise is present at around 25-30mph and again between 40-45mph. It’s cyclic, repeating about once every two seconds with silence in between. Dealership says they e never heard the noise before.
mad far as history, they couldn’t tell me much. Carfax was clean with it starting life as a rental car for 30k miles the. It had a second independent owner for the next 20k miles.
Thanks for all the replies

 

Sounds to me like they're just throwing parts at a problem they haven't located. I say see how far you can take it, maybe when they're done you'll have enough new parts that it'll be a new truck

 

Sounds like the needle bearing in the front diff

 

He said they replaced the front diff.

Sounds like the normal Tacoma humming to me, and I guess that dealership got lucky and sold all Tacomas that didn't make the noise,

If they are saying they have never heard that before..lol. It must be a certified Toyota used car and they are milking corporate for that warranty money.

 

Does the noise go away in 4hi? If so the front diff needle bearing is to blame.

 

This has to be a one of the more classic cases of 'I don't know what's wrong, or how to find it, lets throw expensive parts at it.'

Wow.

 

OP, assume the noise is not going away and go from there.

 

You don’t want that apostrophe there when indicating plural. Apostrophe S shows possession of something. Observe: That Tacoma’s windshield is broken, VS look at those three Tacomas.

No need to thank me. Just doing my part.

 

i like lego's.

no need to thank me.

 

Search up ECGS bushing. Very common.

I bet it did it on the test drive.

 

Get your money back and buy new?

 

I'm sorry.

 

Your best bet is to get rid of it and buy new.

 

That is basically Toyota's TSBs for this issue (at least by description) for both the Tacoma and the 4Runner. I'm just surprised the dealer played along when the truck has a lift on it.