Is your suspension/steering quiet when doing slow maneuvers or do you hear knocking?

Ive come to notice recently, at 21,000km that my suspension and/or steering knocks and bangs a little when stopping, going and steering in something like a parking lot. Didnt realize this when I first got the truck. As far as I can tell its from the front end on the driver side. You can hear it while going over parking lot speed bumps aswell slightly. I think all the other sounds blocks it out a bit when doing that though. Its like something is engaging and disengaging everytime. Say your backing out of a stall, turn your wheel 45 degrees and lightly hit the gas and hear a knock. Same when you go to straiten it out and go forward.

I dont feel anything wrong with it, just hear it. I took a look at everything you can see in the wheel well and everything looks the way it should, unless something is not as tight as it should be, hard to tell that with a load on the parts.

If its normal so be it, if not Ill bring it up to the dealer at my oil change next week.

Oh and this is stock suspension and tires.

 

Not full lock. And can even hear it when the wheels are strait sometimes.

 

I tried bouncing on it and wouldnt make the same sound. But Ill play around with it this weekend to try and find a guaranteed way for a service tech to hear it.

 

Update to add to the vast knowledge of tacomaworld!!

Readers digest version, it was the lower control arm out of spec. Most likely do to this horrible dealership in surrey called jim pattison toyota not doing an alignment properly. Nobody else has been in there messing around with things.

Long version,
The noise got worse and worse over the next 5000km. I finally made time to get it to a dealer and reported it as a popping sound. Suggested something was loose. Tech heard it right away and put never seize on my wheel stops and told me the big chunks of hardened dirt around my skid plate and frame was causing the noise. All sounded like he was just being lazy. Regardless I took it home, dropped the skid plate and took off the front wheels and pressure washed the fuck out of the entire truck. Took the opportunity to soak fluid film on everything. Which made the noise worse. Makes sense if something is loose and popping back and forth, its now lubricated and moves easier.

So today I went back to the dealer and politely requested a different technician take a look. New guy looked like he was 20. But he also heard it right away, made the comment sounds like a spring or something is loose. He checked the torque spec on everything he felt necessary. Found one bolt loose which was the lower control arm. Problem solved.

Aside from the first technician giving me the bullshit "its the dirt" on my TRD off road. Still not all that bad of an experience. This dealer was Toyota Town in Langley.

Ill just leave this here aswell....

 

Just a random picture on the net, unfortunately nothing like that on my trips up the back roads lol. One can dream though

 

Holy hell. What was this thread about?

 

How do you know for sure that that lower control bolt was loosened during the alignment? If no caster adjustment was done, it wouln't have been touched. It may have been loose from factory, no?

On the other hand, since it was loose, the alignment should be checked and adjusted accordingly now, not just a quick retorque of the bolt. Sounds like the dealer dropped the ball there.

 

I guess it could have been loose from the factory and slowly got looser over 20,000km, no way to know 100%.

Would I be able to tell something is wrong with the alignment? I havent been on the freeway for a while but will be going for a bit of a drive tomorrow. Such a pain in the ass making time to go to these dealers who do half assed jobs.

 

This thread reminded me of a possible issue. I am use to my jeeps squeaking and popping while off road and flexing. I have also noticed it with my truck do other experience this too?

 

If the alignment is out you might feel a pull, get some wandering, etc. Or the misalignment might not show up until your front tires are worn unevenly, at which point the tire wear has cost you more than an alignment. Unless you're looking for an excuse to upgrade your stock tires, I'd say get it checked now. Agreed on laziness / incompetence being annoying, its not just the auto industry though.