Toyota is replacing my 47k old drive shaft!

My trusty 2015 TRD with 47,000 miles is having an issue.

So about a week ago I started noticing a rotational whining/squealing noise at about 20mph and up and it faded away when slowing down at around 10mph. immediately this drove me crazy. i must have crawled under my truck about 40 times and spent hours on here looking for what the issue could be.

At first i thought it was something simple like a rock caught behind the brake dust shield so i pulled them back a little and still the noise was there

Then i greased the drive shaft. still. annoying noise

Then i thought maybe the brakes were going? nope

I really didn't want to go to the dealer but i ended up going. turned out it was a good idea!

I explained my situation and got an answer an hour later telling me it was a bad U-joint and that the carrier bearing was gone. then he told me how much it was going to cost to fix which was 2.5 hours labor and $333.00 in parts ughhhhhh. So i said "wait a minute..... wouldn't the driveshaft be covered under the powertrain warranty?" he said "ahhh no". i knew he must have been mistaken.

So i did some reading online at the dealer and made him double check on that. 15 minutes later he came back and gave me a high five and told me that in fact it was under warranty!

I wonder how many poor souls paid for warranty work because they were misinformed by service writers and didn't know any better.

Anyway he called me this morning and told me not to drop my truck off just yet and that since its a warranty job they are going to replace the entire drive shaft instead of just those parts and get me a loaner!!!


Needless to say I'm pretty happy how this situation turned out!!!! now i just need to wait on the backordered drive shaft and continue with the squealing for a little longer.

 

Good for you! You gotta love dealer service departments... How could the driveshaft not be part of the drivetrain?!?

I went to see mine the other day regarding T-SB-0044-14 (Spark Knock Noise). Despite the fact that the TSB clearly states "This repair is covered under the Toyota Federal Emission Warranty. This warranty is in effect
for 96 months or 80,000 miles..." and my 2013 has only 50K miles on it, the first guy I talked to said there would likely be a $150 charge. Only when I insisted on talking with someone else did I get the correct answer that it's COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. DUH!

 

Glad it worked out OP.

@Norton still trying to get Toyota to include 2011 on TSB for spark knock.

 

thanks guys!!

hahaha right? The main component that delivers the POWER to the axel to drive the wheels! POWERtrain warranty!

 

Same thing happened to my 2010! At about the same mileage! I took mine to a mechanic first though then he told me to take it to the dealer for warranty. I too lucked out on the warranty.

 

Nice!!!! For the life of me i could not figure out what was causing this. It was driving me nuts! hahaha

 

OP Did you not grease the universal joints before the noise?

They should last longer than 47K. Good that they covered it.

 

Good job, the only one that watches out for you is you.

 

In all honesty I was not even aware there were grease points on these trucks. Best believe me I'll be sure to keep this one greased every oil change.

 

I bought my Tacoma used with 55k miles and it still had the remainder of the 60k powertrain warrant. I started to notice some driveline vibration not long after and the dealer replaced the driveshaft under warranty at 58k miles, no questions asked, no hassle.

Valley Hi Toyota in Victorville may have terrible sales staff, but their service department is pretty top notch. I wouldn't take anything there if it didn't have warranty coverage though because holy crap their labor charges are insane.

 

I have a rotationally whiny sound in my 2015 Tacoma too. But it began immediately after having ECGS differentials with 4.56 gears and ARB air lockers installed. So I assumed it was the new gears making the noise.

 

Still under 60k? Take it in and have them check it out! You may possibly have the same issue?

I couldn't find anything else on here about the issue I was having.

 

Did it fix the spark knock noise?

 

Appointment is set for Monday, so hope to have feedback after that...

 

Its a good idea to be greasing these every oil change, 5000 miles. They dry out quick and get dirt and water in them easily. Greasing them purges out the old bad grease with new. Otherwise youre just grinding dry dirty metal.

 

Sweet

 

LOTS of data on this TSB, including reports from many who've had it done, located in this thread.

 

About a week after I installed the lift I started getting vibrations. Went back to the shop and it was a carrier bearing. The truck is under warranty, but I figured angles changed and caused it to break. After fixing that, different type of vibration started happening. Most subtle. Ended up replacing a U-joint. That helped, but not completely. Ended up doing transmission fluid flush. After that everything is working all right.

Not sure if the dealer would've covered this. Probably not