Horrible sound from front suspension

Hey guys, my 2011 Tacoma makes a strange (horrible) sound somewhere from the front end when I go over some speed bumps. It sounds like a crunch and I cringe every time it happens. Truck is stone stock PreRunner, I know I'm not dragging the skid plate and I know the tires aren't rubbing anything. I don't haul arse over speed bumps, on the contrary I crawl over them to avoid hearing this sound. My only guess is the suspension hitting the compression limit (some sort of bumpstop?) I check frequently and have yet to find anything that looked damaged. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

I would take it back to the dealer and explain the problem, this doesn't sound good. Welcome to TW!

 

If the speed bumps are big enough they could be hitting the mud flaps

 

This.

 

Mud flaps, swap them out for soft ones or cut them shorter before you damage the fender flares.

 

Didntn't think of this, take them off the front and see if the problem is gone.

 

The bottom edges will be abraded if they have been dragging.

As most here know, the flaps are too long, especially the fronts.
I took about 4-1/2" or so off my fronts to match the rear spacing for now.

I used a tin snip for the rough cut and finished them with a sanding block.
They look OEM. They were done off the vehicle.

 

Trim the flaps

 

It probably is the flaps, it's amazing how much stuff those things will hit. They are waaaay to long from the factory.

 

Thanks for the tip lads! The bottom of the front mudflaps were all roughed up from dragging the speedbumps. I will cut them down to match the rear flaps. I would have never thought of checking them.

 

Awesome. Another quick solution brought to you by TW!
Don't be a stranger. This place is full of good ideas of things you can do to your truck. Have a look at the mod(ification) posts on here
Welcome to TW!

 

Here's how I did mine...

Get the truck on a level slab and measure the clearance from the REAR flaps to the ground.
So far I'm happy with my rear flap clearance. The 4x4 label is in the wrong place to allow non-ghetto trimming, IMO. A trimmed rear Pre-runner flap would be my solution to shorter rear flaps. Maybe the new Husky product, maybe not.

Take that clearance dimension and apply it to the front flaps.
That's your cut mark.
I think I took about 4-1/2" off of mine. I can't remember the clearance number.

Now take both front flaps off. There is a combo of bolts and plastic push rivets. I tried to finesse the push rivets but it went better when I got a little rougher with them. I broke a couple with my "finesse method".
The Toyota store has more.

I used a white "China" marker and squared across at the new cut line.
Then I used the other flap to trace the proper radii onto the new cut line.

I used a good tin snip (Wiss) to make the rough cut, about a shy 1/8" from the cut line.
Then I used a good sanding block (made from a piece of 1x and belt sander belt) to do the final shaping.

Reinstall the flaps.

 

Have someone watch you go over a speed bump lol

 

Yeah, I broke a few before I figured out a good method. I think it looks better without the mudflaps, but I will cut and re-install them before I go flying down the dirt trails out here. Don't want dings from rocks.

 

Well that was an easy fix hopefully you won't have anymore issues

 

I have the exact same issue, bone stock right now and when I go over speed bumps at low speed there's this loud crunch/squeak. I've inspected it everytime and don't see anything wrong, my thought was maybe the coils is making the noise when it compresses or the inside of the tire rubbing on the UCA.
Anyhow, I took my truck in for my first oil change and explained my issue with the crunch noise over the speed bumps, I also mentioned I wanted the rear leaf TSB done, they gave me no hassles and ordered the parts for the rear leafs and said when I bring it in to do the TSB they will address the front noise issue and inspect further. I hope they can find an explanation because it really $ucks going over speed bumps with this loud crunch noise. I will let you know what they tell me , in the meantime if you hear anything or figure out what is causing it let me know.

 

If you have the exact same issue as the OP, you may benefit from the exact same fix that was repeated in half a dozen posts. If you already ruled out the flaps it's worth mentioning, as your problem is then an entirely different issue than the OPs.

 

I wouldn't mention it if it was the mudflaps, I'm not retarded.
It's NOT the mudflaps!!!!!!

 

Don't take offense, man.

You sound so sure of yourself, but how do you know?

Fact is, the very low hanging front factory mud-flaps scrape on speed-bumps making a crazy suspension-broken sounding noise.

Takes a lot of TW members by surprise, including me, when I first got my truck.

There are no other common suspension noises/problems that manifest themselves on a new unmodified taco. So if that's not it, the dealer's going to have to run it down as a warranty issue.