2017 DCLB Driveshaft Hanger Bearing Failure

Been lurking for a while and thought I'd share my recent experience with the failure of my driveshaft hanger bearing on my 17 DCLB TRD OR. Truck has 84K and the bearing began making intermittent noise at about 60K.

Originally i thought this was purely a brake problem. The truck was warping drums about every 15k miles starting at 5k on the odometer and of course Toyota said everything was fine. I ended up totally replacing everything in the rear brakes in stages and replacing the hydraulic cylinders cured it. Evidently the left rear cylinder was sticking.

The bearing sound persisted after the total brake replacement. The dealer couldn't find it or it wouldn't make the sound while it was in the shop or they thought it might be wind noise. The noise became more consistent and so finally i was able to find it by putting the rear end in the air (this method fixes other problems too) and putting the truck in gear. I crawled up under the truck and made the attached video. I drive 100-125 miles a day and originally it might make the sound for just a couple of miles a couple of times a week. It slowly increased in duration and frequency from there. The sound was most audible when I had the door windows closed and the back hatch window open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEpVlwNqdyk

Hope this helps someone else - Roarke

 

Interesting you ran into this, my truck has 400 miles and the bearing is wet already, seeping down to the yoke. I wonder if some are coming out defective or is it a symptom of something else, (driveline misaligned, out of balance, etc). Do you have any kind of vibration?

 

Vibration definitely increased as the bearing condition worsened. With the new bearing the truck is back to normal - basically vibration free.

Before the new bearing was installed I could grab the driveshaft at the u-joints behind the bearing and pull it back forth laterally about a half inch in either direction. At the time I was ignorant that this was a bad sign. With the new bearing installed I basically cannot move the driveshaft. How the “certified and trained” Toyota technicians missed this is beyond me.

 

Glad to hear you fixed it. Did you get a OEM bearing? Those "certified and trained technicians " is what makes me not want to go to Toyota. But I'll give them a chance, I noticed your bearing looked dry, since mine is wet , I'm curious as to what their response is, hopefully its not the "its normal" at 400 miles.

 

Own a 2017 LB , does this bearing have a Zerk fitting?

 

Is the bearing serviceable separately from the driveshaft? I was contemplating a CV once piece driveshaft for my truck as a replacement sometime in the future.

 

The only Zerk fitting on the 2017 truck is on the front driveshaft if you have 4wd. If you ever have to replace the other joints, get them with Zerks.

 

Had it fail on my 2nd gen, replaced with an SKF brand bearing which seized and tore the rubber apart right away. Parts shop sent me another and all was good.