HELP! Tacoma creaking/ popping noise.

Hello everyone I recently started developing a loud creaking / popping noise. The noise can be heard whether in drive or reverse and it’s most prevalent when turning the wheel. On top of this noise there is also a new squeak that has started and it’s noticeable when driving on flat surfaces.

For some context the noise started a couple days after I received the truck back from a reputable shop. I rear ended someone
The damage wasn’t too extreme. The offroad shop was able to look over everything and fix all the issues. When asked they even advised me that my uniballs and UCA/LCA bushings still had some life in them and they didn’t need immediate replacement. They also performed an alignment and it’s been driving great.

since the sounds have started I also went ahead and sprayed some tri flow lube on the upper and lower uniballs and hit the UCA/LCA/leaf spring bushings with silicon lube hoping it would do the trick. Unfortunately the sound did not go away nor did it get any less quieter after.

I’m hoping someone can point me in the direction of a few things that could be creating these noises. I was able to record a video of the sounds I know I recorded it at night so u can’t see much but hopefully anyone can think of certain parts that would make this ugly noise.

 

Welcome to the forum, I’d take it back to the repair shop and show them what’s going on, they missed something.

 

It sounds like a cracked core support or associated panels. Crunchy sounds are usually indicative of the glued front panels(core support/battery tray), i had to get mine repaired due to it cracking from light off-roading. There’s a few forums on it in TW, here’s a few i found.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/core-support-is-tearing-itself-apart.564190/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/cracked-core-support.831396/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/core-radiator-support-cracks.462386/

Good luck with the fix!

 

From the crash I did notice some cracks but never thought they would be the cause of such noise. I’ll have to look more into that.
Thanks for links.

 

At the end of my video there’s also that weird squeaky sound that you can hear when driving even on flat surfaces. Do you think that could be coming from the same problem that’s causing the creaking?

 

I had 3 different cracks, all under the battery(driver side inner fender and support), had my buddy weld it back up while he was performing some other maintenance(plated both sides of the crack). Mine made the horrible popping and creaking/crunch noises, turned out to be those panels had cracked, and the cracked edges were “scraping” past each other whenever the body flexed(mine was as simple as turning the wheel to hear the noise, to include pulling out of the driveway. The added “flex” in the body caused by the cracks will expose even more noises(usually around body bushings and mounts)

 

Any luck diagnosing the issue? My truck makes similar/same noise. I thought it was just my aftermarket suspension (Kings and Camburg). I'm only at 40k miles too. Ugh. At first I thought it was my axel, since it was leaking axle grease since there was a puncture. I replaced the axle and the noises persist.

 

Still haven’t found the issue. I am taking the truck to the shop they said they think it’s probably some type of bushing making the sound. Once I drop it off and they find out I’ll update.

 

Cab mounting bushings?

 

Any update? I am having the same issue with my 2017 Tacoma..

 

Hey just popping in to see if any solutions were found? I need to pull the battery and start digging into this on mine...