What Have You Done To Your 2nd Gen Tacoma Today?

If you really want to impress this crowd make that Wreath Light Up and Report Back!

 

Hey, I know that wheel......in vinyl or urethane or whatever..................it controls my toaster.

 

8” shocks or gtfo! JK nice, you get them from accutune with a tune?

 

Got my brake lines on!

 

like many here....took advantage of BF sale from @Diode Dynamics and snagged SS3 Pros, then today's ridiculously warm weather (52) I got them in. Pretty simple stuff.

Damn these things are bright.

 

Wheelers black friday

 

Goes great with the red truck and grill badge......nevermind the superior performance of yellow in rain and fog.

 

All new rear lights done...3rd brake light, tag lights, and rear housings illuminated



And daylight

 

what kind of clunking did you have? i got some clunking when turning the wheel either way at slow speeds.

 

Thats alotta beef

 

So... it’s a little hard to describe. It was when I was turning but also going over speed bumps straight. Way noticeable off road. You could sort of feel the play and hear it. Like a soft clunk.

But in my experience... it can be a couple of things... both of which I experienced this year.

If you wheel and or otherwise abuse your truck, especially with bigger tires, over time you can bend the inner tie rods, this also warps the seals in the rack. If you have someone in turn the wheel while you are under the truck, you can feel the clunk in the inner tie rod going through the warped bushings in the rack. That’s is a bit more subtle, but you see evidence of leaking power steering fluid in the boots.

In my case most recently the inner tie rods end on was side was fully shot. You can see in my little GIF that there was play in that inner tie rod even when everything was connected. That clunking is a bit more pronounced.

 

Got my Tacomapocalypse bed bars in today, now just to get them actually screwed in somehow now that my tailgate latch is broken

 

I have some clunking as well. Got under the truck yesterday and the only thing I could find that has any play to it was the CV joints. Attached a picture here. Is that something I need to replace the entire thing?

 

Check your cam bolts are torqued to spec too. If you’ve had alignments done at shops, plenty torque the frick out of them and you get awful clunking, especially in reverse and especially over small bumps like backing out of a driveway or parking spot.

 

My softopper comes tomorrow!!!! I know what I'm doing next.

 

That I don’t know. Though I think you are supposed to have some play in them.

The problem with some of these mysterious clunks is that they show up under vehicle weight while youre moving... like shot LCA bushings, bad lower ball joints, bad tie rod ends inner or outer, are hard to pinpoint, until you take them apart or replace the whole thing.

I can’t hazard a guess about your CVs. But suspect it’s actually the some other part of the suspension, like the LCA bushings or ball joints, tie rod ends, or steering rack gone bad.

Look for leaking fluid in the inner tie rod boots, do the ball joint boots still seem to have grease in them? Etc. When these things go bad there are often fluids/grease leaking from places they shouldn’t be.

if all else fails jack up the truck and take your suspension apart. When the tie rod end is free from the spindle, lots of play in the inner or outer tie rod means they need replaced. New tie rod ends and ball joints are stiff but movable, dead ones just flop about.

Good luck!

 

Need details on this install!

 

Bolts make noise when they are loose. I do not understand how a bolt that is too tight would make a noise.

Those are supposed to fit loosely. The CV shaft is smooth and rides inside of a bushing where it goes into the diff. They're held vaguely in position with a circlip at the inner end.

Tacoma's are not like certain passenger cars where when a component clunks, it can easily be found by hand. I don't know if dial measure indicator precise type tools are needed, but let me put it this way. If you have a clunk on an old Benz, you can find it by wiggling the wheel, looking at parts, and prying ball joints with pliers until you find the loose one.

2nd gen Tacoma doesn't work that way. You can have a failed part that still does not have detectable play by hand, but makes noise when driving the big heavy truck. Like lower ball joints. Because those should have been replaced anyway around 100k miles. But people don't. Then they clunk driving. But you can't feel it wiggling the tire by hand. So it's harder to figure out.
It is not a bad start to begin by replacing cheap parts that should be replaced anyway for other reasons such as reaching the end of their service life interval of miles/time. LBJ's are like $60/pair.

 

Last parts finally came in the mail so a busy weekend ahead for me. New UCAs, coilovers, leafs, shocks, brake lines, wheels. Basically everything. Wish me luck!

 

I added heated seats today