Truck makes a dripping/pinging noise after parked

Hey all,

Have an issue that I'm going to try and record the sound of with my cellphone camera later today, but so far I haven't found anything with a cursory glance into my engine bay and under the truck.

When I park the truck in the garage, as I'm walking in to the house, I've heard a dripping noise coming from near the firewall in the truck. I only hear whatever is "dripping" that hits something metal, and it's more frequent right after I turn the ignition off and gets less frequent the longer it sits. At first it's probably one drip - ping combination per every three or four seconds, and it gets less frequent from there.

I see no oil stains on my garage floor, and I see no signs of any dripping on the floor and see no liquid or steam when I visually inspected the engine.

I'll be taking the truck into the garage here soon to have some other minor stuff done, and was going to document what's happening with a video to show the garage, but does anyone happen to know what this is? It doesn't sound like it's normal (to me), but it might just be one of those things new vehicles do during the "break-in" period.

 

Very interesting, and sounds like a very possible reason. Where exactly is the drain tube? After peeking into the engine bay and under the truck, I thought it was closest to the firewall, but I didn't actually get completely under the truck.

 

x2 on what Chris4x4 said. I haven't heard this on my Taco yet, but my old F-150 did this, as well as the 3 ford trucks and 1 SUV that my parents owned.

 

Thanks for this - I'll take a look tonight when I get home. Almost positive you'll be right on this one.

Thanks - wasn't really sure what it could be.

 

Sounds like the exhaust is cooling down and contracting to me, which is normal I'm still interested in what you find though.

 

exactly

 

I was gonna say this but everyone sounded so confident that it was the AC dripping on the exhaust. My 2006 still pings for a few minutes after shutdown, it is clearly the metal exhaust cooling and contracting.

 

I've owned a few Toyota trucks and they have all done the same thing. Never resulted in any problems. I figured it might be an expansion/contraction issue with the exhaust when warming up or even cooling down.

 

This is what I was thinking also, sounds like a ping. I could see where maybe sounds like something dripping onto a pan or the like.

 

If it makes any difference, the noise was still there on the ride home today after I kept the heat off. Also, when I do use the heat, the AC light isn't on, so I don't know if that would make a difference for the AC pipe theory.

The expansion/contraction theory makes sense, too. I have a convection baseboard heater that does the exact same thing like clockwork.

Just glad to know it's not an issue.

 

Mine does that. No big deal. Just one more Tacoma sound.

 

Yup. Exhaust it is. no its not a 'Taco Sound'.. Almost every vehicle does this... my buddy has an '11 Sierra that does it REAL bad!

 

Exhaust. But just FYI, your A/C runs in either of the two defrost modes when the fan is turned on but the A/C light will not come on with it. And you can see the drain tube for it coming out of the firewall by looking down on the passenger side of the engine compartment with the hood up. It comes out of the firewall and hangs just a little above where the frame comes out from under the firewall.

 

all i can say is.... THANK You for this INfo!!! new taco owner went paranoid