2006 Tacoma makes crackling noises

Hello

I have a 2006 Tacoma Regular Cab that makes crunching, crackling, and popping noises that are coming from under the hood. The noises start once the car is turned on. Here is an audio sample of it. Is it the alternator, fan on the radiator, or something else in the engine ? Some help would be great.

Thanks a lot

 

Welcome to Tacoma World. It's always difficult or near impossible for us to troubleshoot noises over the internet but I'll give credit that recording was clearer than I would have assumed. That being said, still nearly impossible.

I'll still venture a guess that something in the belt/pulley system is loose or bad. Possibly your tensioner, possibly one of the idlers, or all of the above. That 'chirping' sound you hear every couple seconds usually is a water pump but no way to say for sure if those other idler bearings are shot. If you are mechanically inclined, you could take off the serpentine belt and see if you can replicate the rattle on any of the pulleys moving them by hand.

How many miles are on the truck? If it has over 100k and you don't know if anyone ever serviced those parts you may want to do them for maintenance alone. Get a new belt too, OEM if possible.

Check for other loose things in the engine bay area. With the truck off and cooled down, get in there and wiggle some things. Could be something completely different that has a loose bolt making sounds we would never expect.

Good luck!

 

Sure nice to be here too. Yes I can see how it is so hard to figure out what noises are over the internet yes my iPhone is able to record the sound better than expected. But true, still is very hard.

Is this where the timing belt or chain is going to be as well ? What is the idler and tensioner and how to find that ? If it is the water pump then it needs a mechanic to go down there and replace it. I'm not really mechanically inclined so will just give this to a real mechanic to take care if that. I'm not sure what the serpentine belt is. Also, how to know the spark plugs are not bad ?

This thing has a little over 300K miles on it. Yes, I know that is quite a lot and not sure if any of these parts were serviced in the past. Sure, a new belt makes sense

Yes I will look for anything that loose in the engine area. I will need some gloves, but if I wiggle stuff, how to know it is bad ? Maybe the alternator is no good too. I see, is any way to rule out the radiator fan and spark plugs at this point ?