Faint Vibrations in 2wd after having in 4wd

We recently had snow in my area (rare) which required me to put my Tacoma in 4Hi for a few miles. After putting the truck back in 2wd, I have noticed a slight vibration that stays with the speed of the truck. I have had the truck since new (2013) so I am very in tune with how it drives, sounds and feels. I can feel the vibration in the steering wheel, gas pedal and can hear it as well. It sounds just like I am rolling on super swampers. I have checked and it seems to go away when it is in 4wd. I have checked alignment and performed the wheel bearing "12 & 6 and 9 & 3" push pull test. There is no wiggle on either side which is surprising to me. The truck has 112,000 very easy miles and only been in 4wd a small handful of times. I am not an offroad junkie so it has not been abused. It does and has had a 3" lift since a week after purchase. That is why I was originally thinking it may be the wheel bearings but I have read several post that make me think it could be the diff needle bearing. What is even more confusing is I remember this same thing happening several years ago immediately after having truck in 4wd but it went away after a few days of normal driving. Does this sound like needle bearing or wheel bearing issue?

 

Sounds like the needle bearing to me.

Goes away in 4WD
Lifted truck

All points to needle bearing.

Just because you can, I’d go underneath the truck and grab the CV where it goes into the differential.
Wiggle it up and down, and pull it in and out. It should move freely. And not have “a lot” of play.
But some play is normal

Maybe, just maybe, it’s in a “bind” and you can work it free.
I’ve never seen that happen, or work. But it’s free to try.

Plus, it gives you an idea on the condition of the bearing and axle.

 

@TnShooter, thank for the reply. I will give this a shot. One other strange thing I noticed when checking the wheel bearings is when I tried rotating the hub by hand without tires on, it took some power to rotate. Not an ungodly amount but more that I would have expected. Is it normal for the brake pads to have that much friction? I would have expected to be able to do a wheel of fortune type spin on it.

 

Yeah, it’s normal for it to take some muscle to turn them.
You have to remember, you’re turning the hub, the whole cv axle and spider gear in the differential.

As for how “hard” it should be to spin. That’s hard to describe.
But you’re not just going to turn it with one hand “easily”.