2003 tacoma cold start rear end clunk

When i start my truck first thing in the morning to go to work, put it in 1st gear, 4wd to get out of my driveway (without destroying it) and first start to take off, i get a god awful clunking noise that sounds like its coming from the rear end / something rattling in the bed. But its only on the initial take-off. After that, it drives perfectly normal like it should. Its definitely colder out than it has been, so i dont know if that is part of the issue. I have never noticed it when it was warm out though. Any insight would be wonderful.

 

If your tires are frozen to the ground that would be the culprit. Happens to mine regularly in the winter. If that doesn't work, grease your rear driveline because it's low and it will cause a thump like that, especially during abrupt stops and quick take offs.

 

I wonder if it's just not your rear dif lock engaging. not likely since it usually has to be engaged and you didn't mention that.

I also had an issue with similar symptoms. no noise in summer when warm, only appeared in the cold. got worse a year later.

anyways, check out your tranny mount and your center ball joint. both of them being bad may cause the tranny/motor to shift enough to clunk something. I went into detail on the carrier bearing sticky. here's my post, #131. and check out 132, it has more info.