Another Front End Clunk Pop Noise

2014 DCSB Tacoma with 145k. NC truck. Doesn't see much wheeling outside of mountain fire roads a few times a year. Front subframe and cam tabs re-enforced with Marlin Crawler kit, welds inspected and not cracked.

I have searched, and searched, and scoured this forum. I have read almost every thread at length. I don't know what else to do.

@140k ish, I installed new Bilstein 6112's and 5160's. The 6112's are set at 7/5 for 1.2" of lift which roughly matches the lift (hub to fender) I had previously on my TRD Baja Suspension. I installed these with new KYB upper strut mounts, and verified all the hardware was installed in the proper order, and torqued correctly. I also installed new Beck Arnley UCA's, Sway bushings, and endlinks. All the Beck Arnley parts looked identical to OEM, which the sway bushings even having OEM part numbers on them. Everything was torqued to spec. LCA's and UCA's torqued with the vehicle on the ground at height. Had an alignment. Everything was quiet with no issues for a few hundred miles.

Then the pop and clunk started after some snow and the weather really got cold in the teens, and it hasn't went away. I feel it in the floor, seems to be drivers side. Usually at low speed turning, into parking lots, onto side streets, more so if there's a hill or the terrain is off camber and unlevel. If I'm braking ahead of time then turning, I feel like I'm more likely to hear it. It's not brake pad slap. I can jump up and down on the truck, shaking the hell out of it, wheels turned or straight, no noise. Turning the wheel left and right while parked, with and without power steering assisting me, nothing. Driving straight, hitting speed bumps, dips in the road, it's silent. Long sweeping turns, curves, and on-ramps while driving, silent. Drove it on ramps to flex it (ramp on front right, ramp on rear left, and vice versa), nothing. Nothing is rubbing with the sway bar or endlinks. Skid plates are tight, still makes the noise with them removed. Axles look good, boots good, no clicking. Doubled checked every nut and bolt. Checked cross member bolts and cab mounts as well, torqued to spec. Greased and lubricated my OME 095R rear leaf pack to the point that believe it or not, it's pretty much silent. My body mounted slider steps do not appear loose or coming in contact with anything. When shaking the body I'm not observing any excessive play in the body mounts either. Wasn't making the noise as often when it started as it seems to now, but it was certainly there.

Went by ECGS and had them do the needle bearing fix. Unrelated to the noise but I had the vibes and they were getting worse. After the ECGS fix, the needle bearing vibes are gone. I had them look at the truck for the noise. They thought LCA's and/or steering rack. Steering rack bushing play appears normal. I do not feel the noise in the steering wheel at all. The noises we were able to make from the rack I was able to replicate on my families 5G 4Runner and 3G Tacoma, so I'm calling it normal noise. Example... Key on, truck off, no power assist, moving the steering wheel left and right quickly with one hand there's a clunk you feel in the drivers tie rod. Also... Truck running with power assist, foot holding brake, turning the wheel you hear a pop and feel it in driver's tie rod. All things I could replicate on two other trucks, so yeah, calling it normal.

At this point, 145k miles, I doubled down and decided to replace LCA's, all the alignment Cam hardware, and outer tie rod ends with OEM. I had a local shop do this with Toyota experience. The cam hardware came right out without any cutting or fighting and minimal surface rust. New was installed, using Anti-seize on the cams to prevent future issues, and torqued to spec at 100ft/lbs. I double checked it at 105ft/lbs and yea, it's good. Still popping and clunking. Tech inspected inner tie rods while he was there and said they looked fine with no play or issues. Rack boots are dry, so no significant leaking to speak of.

The shop did identify my Front body mounts, by the radiator, were shot. Drivers side was torn all the way thru the rubber part that goes into the frame allowing metal on metal contact between the sleeve and the frame. Passenger was worn thru on one side. Took the bumper off to replace them for ease. I replaced them with new OEM rubber bushings. Torqued to 34ft/lbs, doubled checked after some driving for settling.

Still making the noise, and I feel like it's more often then it was back when I first noticed it. Mentally I'm fried. I can't keep throwing money at maybe this and maybe that.

I did see some people have issues by the front radiator body mount with the sheet metal failing and tearing, which my shop also advised me about. I wasn't looking for it at the time but nothing stood out at me when I had the bumper off. I looked around in there today to make sure I didn't miss it, grabbing and pulling on everything, but it all looks and feels solid.

Today I'm gonna spray the residual fluid film off where the LCA bushings mount with brake cleaner. Maybe they're sliding even at torque? I'm gonna mark around them to see if they're shifting. I saw a Youtube video of a 3G Tacoma owner that greased the rubber bushings for his front diff mount. He had a similar noise and said that after greasing those it resolved for a year and a half until and the grease had washed out. He re-greased them and it went away. He could replicate his noise in park though by turning the wheels, so not sure if this will do anything. Might try this, we'll see

I cannot replicate this pop clunk noise stationary. I'm at a loss of what it could be. Any advice is appreciated.

Maybe unrelated, but prior to the LCA replacement, I noticed a slight vibration in the truck between 55-60mph that wasn't there before or right after doing the Bilstein's. My Yokohama's are a year old, rotated regularly, and recently re-balanced/rotated after I installed the new Bilsteins. I've played around with tire pressures some, but am running them around my normal. The vibration isn't in the steering wheel either, it's in the cab. I've regularly greased my U-joints, and feel a very little shudder on take off so I'm sure those and the carrier bearing will have to be done eventually. Not sure if this is related to the noise I'm hearing or not. Thinking it's something with the tires, and prolly the colder temps, but it seems more prone to it after some driving and they've warmed up.

 

I'm saying this as a low-confidence possible root cause but throwing it out there just in case. Have you checked or replaced the steering intermediate shaft during all this troubleshooting? They are known to go bad and sometimes make click/pop noises as you describe, though I'd expect you'd feel it or see dead spots in your steering which you said that seems good. Worth inspection either way.

If the noise started after installing the new Beck Arnley UCAs, I don't suppose you have the old UCAs or any other aftermarket ones laying around that you could install and check if the noise goes away? Based on timeline of events I'm wondering if maybe one of those balljoints is just bad from the start and it didn't really give you trouble until after that one cold day where it was really showing up. Maybe you just got unlucky on that. Lots of aftermarket/OE replacement UCAs use Moog or lower quality joints (and Moog is a far cry from the quality they used to be).

That's all I got. Noises like that get tricky sometimes. Best of luck chasing it down.

 

So I grabbed and pulled back and forth on the steering shaft, and it does have play and make some noise. When I did this I had someone sit in the truck holding the steering wheel and as expected she said said she felt the movement and clunk in the wheel. When I hear the noise I'm hearing, I don't feel a single thing in the steering wheel. No dead spots or issues with steering or steering feel. I did notice after doing the suspension my power steering fluid was slightly low, so I've done a few syringe drain and refills from the reservoir with Valvoline Maxlife ATF to refresh some of the fluid. Suck some out, fill it up, drive it for a while, repeat. Lazy yea, but oh well.

The noise didn't start right after the initial suspension replacement. I did the Bilstein's and UCA's and drove like that for 2-3 weeks, after alignment and everything, and not a single noise.

It was only after it snowed and got down to the teens in temp that it showed up. I did cut some donuts in the snow, but it didn't show up immediately after that. Prolly 3-5 days after.

Fair guess tho on the UCA's, I've considered it. I still have my stock ones. I would just hate to do that again, especially since the passenger side was such a bitch. Plus they look exactly like OEM. I personally saw a different aftermarket UCA that looked like junk compared to the Beck Arnley part. I've pried up on the UCA near the balljoint using the tire as leverage and it appears solid, and I can't replicate the noise under any other condition. Other threads with UCA issues, people say they can shake and bounce the truck stationary and replicate the issue.

Thanks for the advice

 

So update for resolution.

Despite it sounding like it was coming from the front end, and feeling it even in the pedals, it turned out the issue was with my Dakar leaf springs.

I had to do a three point turn, backing up a driveway that was a steep hill, and heard all kinds of popping from the rear. I also noticed, perhaps with the weather warming up, windows down, other noises from the rear from all the Super Lube melting into everything.

I installed new Dobinson's 110 leaf springs, Dobinson's bushings, new U bolts, and so far the truck has been perfectly quiet. Also, the 55-60mph vibration seems to mostly gone away as well. The ride quality of the Dobinson's is much better too

I could see where the Dakar leafs were hitting my OEM rear shackles. Best I can figure it was that, possibly the leaf getting hung up in the little groove it made in the shackle, 7 year old poly bushings, and the fact I had basically lubed the ever living hell out of the leaf pack to the point they were easily shifting around left and right in the pack.

Crazy how sound transfers thru the frame of the truck. It wasn't so much turning that caused it (sometimes it wouldn't), but the flexing and shifting of the leaf pack that would occur during turns.

 

Fucking Dakars... I had basically the exact same noise from my old Dakars. It was the bushings. The noise is from them rotating inside the eyelets slightly. But they don't make noise on fast movement like bumps. Only on slow weight shifts like turning or accelerating. It's similar to noisy disc brakes or when you squeeze your thumb and index fingers together and try to move them around. I think the term is "stick-slip". When moving them slowly, you get some initial friction and then jumpy movements that make noise when you break that friction. But if you move them around quickly it's basically silent. Same concept with the bushings. It's wild how loud they are when this happens though. Sounds like metal on metal and you can actually feel it. Took forever to narrow it down to that. I did have contact with the rear shackles (everyone does) but still had the noise even after cutting the tips off the leafs making contact (second leaf).

Pretty sure it's just the compound that OME uses in their yellow bushings. I've heard that black poly bushings typically have graphite in them to prevent such noises. But honestly that's just one of the many reasons why dakars are shit and should never be put on a Tacoma. I now go out of my way to warn people about these leafs. Interesting to hear that Dobinsons are noticeably better. They actually have a very similar design to the dakars. But obviously different enough that they are the clearly better choice. I went with Deaver stage 1 and love them.

 

That is a perfect description of the noise and the symptoms that cause it. I was running the Black Wheeler's poly bushings too, but I guess it took them several years to get to that point.

Re-greasing or replacing those bushings was always on my mind, but I never got around to it and always just kept greasing everything with either Fluid Film, Boeshield B12, Red & Tacky, and/or SuperLube as a bandaid.

The other day I was jacking up the front of the truck one corner at a time, and actually noticed everytime I'd pump the jack past a certain point, I'd just barely hear the Dakar's make that noise. Not full blown like when driving, but close.

I was looking at Deaver, but the price was a bit more than I wanted to spend. So far so good with the Dobinson's. Time will tell. They don't have the issue with the second spring hitting the shackle. Spring retainers and spring isolators look better designed as well, by comparison. This go around I'll try to be better about periodically dropping the pack every few years to re-grease the bushings... maybe.