3rd generation steering column rattle

I recently bought a used 2019 Tacoma that came with a horrible steering column rattle. All my online searching only turned up a well know issue with the 2nd gen trucks.

Today I went looking for my noise and solved it. Here's what I learned, hopefully it helps someone.

Where the steering column meets the floor there is a plastic cover. It is held in place by 4 fasteners that can easily unscrew by hand.



Pull the over off and expose the rag joint where the steering column connects to the intermediate steering shaft. When I pulled mine off I found a green spacer loose, behind the cover.



Looking closer at the rag joint I found where the spacer belonged and that it was allowing the intermediate shaft to bang against the center of the rag joint.



I was almost able to get the spacer to reseat by hand, but in the end grabbed a screwdriver to help coax it back into place.



Best of all, it's a 5 minute fix that doesn't require any if the dash or steering column to be taken apart

 

That's one of the fixes for the 2nd gen problem. A zip tie wouldn't fix this issue

 

Nice work!

 

Great find !!

 

The bushing pops out because there is a lot of flex and movement in this rag-joint design.
Instead of using one big reinforced coupler disk they have those 4 rubber bushing things...

Zip-ties can help retain the bushing.

 

hey
s.wilson in your second pic that retain clip has fallen down just like mine has and toyota is saying casue im lifted its not under warranty and have to get a new column, do you know if that clip can be pushed back in or anything cause toyota is saying it cant .. how do i prevent it from breaking again in the future?

 

I notice its actually up in the first pic and slid down in the 3rd pic. Interesting. I also have a slight rattle in my steering wheel when I pull down on it or go over small bumps at low speeds. I will be checking both of these out when I get home from work.

 

Has anyone had any luck getting this retaining clip back in. Also thank you OP I have the same rattle after lifting the body off of the frame for cab mount relocate. Will explore all of this when I have another day off. Hopefully I won’t have to purchase a new column.