2006 Tacoma Off Road Differential Whine Video Help.

Long time looker first time poster.

always been a Toyota guy and just the other day picked up a 06 off road to use as my dedicated woods runner.

Test drive was great and you could tell the truck was well taken care of not any rust and super clean.

He had never used the locker function so we had to figure it out together. Once I had made the purchase and hit the highway I noticed a whine coming from the back end.

once I got home I jacked it up blocked the front and was able to duplicate it on video.

Hoping someone on here can help diagnose my problem.
https://youtu.be/iCMUFBfuDj0

 

I would suspect a center support bearing or u joint

 

I checked both those places and they looked good. The sound is definitely isolated to the axle and gear housing. There is no sound forward of the pumpkin unless somehow the harmonics carry it to the housing from there.

 

chipped tooth on ring gear?

 

I plan on draining the diff tomorrow and checking for metal in the oil. I would do it today but nobody has gear oil in this little town.

 

Could possibly be a carrier or axle bearing then.

 

Ya if it’s either of these I don’t think it’s a job that I would be able to tackle.

I’m kinda surprised with as well taken care of as this truck was that those bearings might already be bad.

 

I hear too much exhaust in that video. Start with draining oil like you planned. Go from there. If no obvious metal pieces come out then you don’t have to fix it right away. If the gears are OEM Toyota they are unlikely to be causing the noise and a loud bearing can be driven on for a looong time before it fails.

 

@Fishnowhuntlater
Theres some threads on an upgraded carrier bearing if you're interested and if that is the issue.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/carrier-bearing…-alternatives-and-solutions.419706/

 

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely update here once oil is drained and changed.

I contacted the original owner a bit ago and he said rear diff fluid was drained and changed about 10k ago. It’s definitely not full but I can see oil at least an inch down from the fill hole. Hope it being low is my problem and it did not do any damage.

My biggest concern is being stranded by an issue I knew about.

 

Hopefully its a bad axle bearing, that is a way cheaper item to fix than diff problems. I heard one noise like yours on a Landrover a friend owned, was a rear axle bearing.

 

Maybe get a stethescope from harbor freight and try to pinpoint where its coming from while its running.

 

I took another video where I placed it in neutral then shut off the engine towards the end to eliminate the exhaust noise if it helps

https://youtube.com/shorts/bkXtFdWPbhU

 

That definitely sounds like a dry bearing to me. More of an axle bearing for sure. But could be pinion as well. Hard to diagnose things via video though

 

Drained fluid about 5 minutes ago below is a picture of the plug. Is this a concerning amount of metal frags. Original owner said he changed it about 10k ago.

 

That would concern me. That is a good amount of flaking going on there. What did the oil look like? Glitter?

Something in the pumpkin is coming apart.

 

Do you believe the original owner changed it 10k ago?
If so, that seems like a lot for 10k miles.
If he had never drained it. That wouldn’t be “as” concerning.

 

Ya he is an honest guy and the oil did not look very old. Pretty sure that’s where all my noise is coming from. Gonna try and confirm it tomorrow.

 

Did not see a lot of glitter In The oil and I ran a heavy magnet through the oil and did not pick up any more flakes.

 

You could clean it all up, reinstall the drain plug, fill it back up and roll the dice for 10K and see what it looks like then.