Bearing issue? Which one? Maybe Wheel Balance?

I've had an issue with what seems to be a wheel balance issue with my duratracs. I'm hearing a whoop whoop whoop sound (quiet sorta) and a decent shake from the front end. However, after a few balance sessions, I think it may be a bearing or something of the sort in the drivers front. I jacked the car up and spun the wheel, shook it trying to diagnose if it was a wheel bearing but nothing moved, just rotated. Sounded a bit dry, but nothing out of the ordinary. Jumped under the truck and felt out components to see if anything was obviously broken or loose. The thing to the left of the fill plug seemed a lot looser on the drivers side than the passengers side. Both moved a bit, but the drivers side had noticeable more play. So... what is that and could it be the issue?

Oh yeah 90k on the truck, bought new, just hit 4 years old.

Thanks!!!

p.s. thanks to whoever put the photo up on TW, I found it on google. Bit dark for pics here now.

 

Zzzzzz

 

what you are describing is an issue with the needle bearing that is in the drivers side Diff. you describe like you copied it from the web so I have no doubt it is your problem. I am getting my bearing replaced by Toyota tomorrow. I lucked out and was given a 12 month power train warranty when I purchased the truck used from a Toyota dealer. other than a modest deductible I should be all set for awhile.

Easy way to tell if your bearing is going bad: get to a speed where the vibration is constant then put the truck in 4Hi. if the vibration/noise goes away you got the issue... if not keep looking.

the solution is "not" to get the bearing replaced with another bearing but instead to install a bushing made by ECGS. go to google and search ECGS bushing tacoma (it will be first hit) or search this forum for ECGS. there are tons of threads and all are helpful.

I am going with another bearing because it is a warranty fix and the cheapest solution for now. if/when it fails again I will go with the bushing.

P.S. my truck just hit 89K but it does have a 2.5 inch lift.

Carl

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...differential-bearing-vibration-thread.152173/

 

Hmm, that would be nice if its that simple. I took a quick spin around the town but didn't really get a good feel of if it was helping, or if it was me hoping it was. I'll try again on the commute to work tomorrow. Thanks for the help so far!

 

shift into 4wd - if the sound goes away, that's it.

 

How new are the Duratracs? The reason I'm asking is, I just put new Duratracs on my truck and had all sorts of issues with them at first. It took 3 attemps at balancing them before they seemed to do OK. I was playing around with pressures to get the best mileage and best ride. I started out in the low 30's. The truck shook and vibrated something fierce. We (me and the tire dealer) finally decided there was one out of round. We took that tire and broke it down, rotated it 180 degrees on the rim and reinflated. That tookaway most of the vibration. I then pumped 'em up to 40psi and you can't hardly tell if the truck is moving or not it's so vibration free now. I THOUGHT there were all sorts of issues, but it turns out it was just a tire deal.....

 

Whelp, the needle bearings not it. No change whatsoever going into 4.

The duratracs are almost 2 years old at this point. I've always had a bit of rumble with them, I assumed it was road noise since its never been that bad. I dunno, maybe it threw a weight more recently. I typically run them around 40. I'll be going back to the tire place to have them rebalanced again and rotated while I'm at it.