Anyone have an idea what this noise could be?

At first I thought there might be something hitting the fan…but that is all clear. The pitch changes with the RPMs and I noticed that the dash lights flickered a time or two during the last drive.

anyone else experienced anything like this?

2016 TRD Off Road with about 100k

 

Welcome to TW….Is the belt loose?

 

Belt tensioner, idler pulley, or alternator. Never seen an engine bay as dirty as that. Not trying to be an ass. But with that amount of dirt, sand, and grime, surprisingly more hasn't failed.

 

yeah. Haven’t had a chance to clean the engine bay since my last excursion a few days ago. I’ll look further into these three options and report back.

 

You need to get out and use your truck more. That engine bay is only a couple good mud puddles worth of splashes and some dusty roads away from clean. I don’t think mine ever looked cleaner than that after it left the dealership lot.

 

Start by unplugging the fan. If it doesn't go away, you know it's not the fan so then you can try removing the belt to see if it goes away. If it's a pulley then just start spinning them by hand one by one until you find something that's rattling like that. If you still have no luck after the fan and belt are removed and the noise continues, might have to get underneath.

 

Sounds like a pulley or drive belt issue. Pull the belt off (like he said^^^) and see if it disappears. I've been seeing reports of the lower idler pulley bearing failure on the V6.

 

Yeah I'd want to eliminate that noise too!

 

My Dad taught me the golden rule; when in doubt, start with cheap and/or easy and go from there!

After giving that engine bay a good bath, I would put a new belt on it (especially if that's the original belt). We had someone post here not long ago with a God awful sound worse than yours, and a new belt solved it.

 

Noted! I sure hope it’s that easy. I’ll report back once I have time to dig in and sort it out.

 

Well like I said, if that is the original belt you probably should swap it out regardless with that amount of miles on it. And you might get lucky and this is all that is needed to make your engine sing like new again. But if the belt does not do the trick, then start looking at your pullies as a possible culprit.

PS: Friend of Crows gave a decent trouble shooting approach above that you might want to consider using.