2013 Tacoma 2.7 4x4 Regular Cab - Drive Line Grinding Noise

First time poster here due to the following problem: I lifted the rear 2" with helper springs. What is didn't know at the time was the mechanic disconnected the rear driveshaft and reconnected it 90* out of phase. 1,000 miles later i get a grinding noise at high speed, 65+ mph, when decelerating or in between on-the-gas and off-the-gas (neutral load on the driveshaft). I had the driveshaft phasing corrected, installed 2" front lift and 3* shim on the rear axel but the noise remained. Next i had the two rear driveshaft u joints replaced and still the same noise remains. Again, this occurs 65+ mph when off the gas or neutral gas. This is a regular cab model and so the driveshaft is one piece. It sounds like a bad bearing noise to me. Can anyone help with the next steps in the process to resolve this please? This is manual 5-speed transmission.

 

May have nothing to do with it but check the cat heat shield that is mounted to the underside of the cab floor is secure.

 

Checked the heat shield and no that's not it. But thanks for the suggestion.

After looking at it with my buddy last night we are suspicious of the slip joint. It has a fair amount of play up and down whereas the transmission flange and differential flange do not have any play in a vertical plane. So the thought is that the driveshaft being out of phase has worn the slip joint, not the u-joints as previously thought. I have calculated the 2" lift has lengthened the driveshaft 0.5" and am thinking this may have contributed but is it significant? I have not read of anyone having to replace a driveshaft as part of a lift. Anyone else have this problem? This is my daily driver. I am putting 100 miles/day on it. I hope I don't damage the transmission or differential. Any idea how much a new driveshaft should cost? Should i go with OEM or custom with an extra 0.5" length? I will report more once this is sorted.

 

I had the same problem. I don't know what really fixed it, but I did 5 different things to solve it. Replaced 1 bad ujoint, 2 degree shim(fat end towards front of truck), flipped the driveshaft 180, 3/4 inch driveshaft spacer from 4crawler.com, marked and separated the driveshaft at the splines and greased with moly fortified grease. It's been 50k miles since I did all of this, no problems have returned.

 

Thanks. Very helpful. Did the problem you experienced get caused by driveshaft installation our of phase? Or just from a lift? I am thinking the driveshaft being out of phase on my truck for about 1500 miles before it was corrected has worn and damaged the splines. I didn't notice any vibration or noise for about the first 1000 miles. Just spent some time on the 4crawler.com website learning about driveshaft spacers. Will try that next. I just hope the splines are not worn/damaged. But very glad that this is looking to be a driveshaft problem and not related to transmission or differential. Too bad there is no grease fitting at the slip joint.

 

My '14 4WD RC had a driveline grinding when stock. After installing a 1/2" spacer in front to eliminate some rake, it's all but gone away. I'm guessing it changed the front driveline angles just enough to fix it. I still occasionally get it under braking (when the front end dives and returns to closer to stock angles I figure) and also when I haven't greased the shafts in a awhile. I just keep all 5 zerks packed full and it seems to be good.

I have heard about that flipping the driveahaft 180 degrees helps most trucks and had planned to do that till mine went away.

 

when you say flip the driveshaft 180 degrees do you mean front to back, and back to front?

 

That's my understanding. Put the transmission end on the differential and vice versa. Search it in this forum and you should be able to get an answer from someone who has done it.

 

The drive shafts are balanced as piece not an assembly in the truck connected to trans and rear Marking so it will be in phase or whatever phrase is not necessary.

You can mark that one off your list of possible problems.

 

old thread I know but did you ever fix this problem?