front end differential noise

it's all good. i just don't want this little vibe to be early signs of something awful happening. does anyone know what the long term effects would be, or the worst case scenario? hopefully it's just a vibe that i can get used to. does the transmission mount have something to do with this?

nope, not yet. i am going to order both in the next few days. i will try the CB first. hopefully, the CB will take out the vibes, but i have heard of a few that it didn't change anything or even made it worse. then again, some said the CB didn't work, but just the shims did. and once again, some needed both. so i guess i'll have to toy around and see what combo works.

 

I guarantee That surging vibration is the needle bearing in your front differential failing. Check out this thread http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...k-found-questions-about-front-diff-now-2.html

On pages 3 4 and 5 kcolo talks about rebuilding his diff and fixing the problem.

The best way to.diagnose it is to lift all 4 wheels of the truck and run it in 4wd and use a stethiscope to listen to the diff. Chances are the noise is coming from the drives side

 

tacosupreme54,

Too bad you got stuck with a loser tech at the dealership! Here's what I would do. Call up the dealership and ask to speak with the service manager (Manager, not Adviser). Explain what happened and see what he has to say. If he's not cooperative, ask him what you should do and offer to call Toyota Corporate to get your warranty problem looked into. But in all likelihood, he'll apologize and ask you to bring it back in (if not, I wouldn't go there anyway). Tell him you don't want the same guy you dealt with before touching your truck because he was very rude to you and based on your previous experience you don't trust him to be honest.

Now, I'm assuming you've switched to 4wd while the vibe is occurring and it stops when switched? If so, we all know what the problem is and it's just a matter of giving enough clues to whomever you end up dealing with (clues and subtle guidance). You didn't mention in your earlier post about having the tech that drove it do this step. If you had and the vibe went away, he wouldn't be able to explain it away on the tires or any or BS (and if he did, he didn't know what he was doing anyway). So somehow fit this into your discussion with the service manager and point out that it would not cause the vibe to go away if it were the tires. Then just say that you've been doing research online to try and find an answer and have discovered this is a common problem with both the Tacomas and Tundras (Tundras have a TSB, Tacomas don't).

Then if all else fails, call Toyota Corporate and complain and ask them where you can have warranty work done.

 

just noticed this vibe in my truck yesterday, I switch to 4wd and sure enough the vibe/noise goes away. All I could say was "DAMNIT". I tell you that damn Toyota is really started to piss me off with these POS parts they are installing nowadays!

 

Sorry tacosupreme54, I would go back again just like 05Moose says. Or find different toyota dealership.

My local service did test drive on 2wd, he notice the vibe and turn on 4wd, it went away. He know that I got new tires (265/75/16 Goodyears Wrangler Silent Armor) 7,000 miles ago and had nothing to do with it.

 

called my dealer today and I will be taking mine in when they call me to fix my noisy blower motor AGAIN! but the service guy I work with is cool, so I told him that I had researched this and it seems to be a common problem with the Tacoma and Tundra and that the Tundra even had a TSB.

 

I may do that. They called back this morning. I didn't answer, but it was the nicer guy that I dealt with first. He was saying that they wanted to inspect my u-joints, lol. ok? I may call back and try again with this approach. And yes, it is fine in 4wd. I had to drive about 20 miles in 4HI today because of the weather. So as long as 4HI verifies it, then that's it.

 

Yep. Point that out and let them explain it. Then just tell them you'll give them a hint to save them some time.

Actually, I'd call back the "nice" service adviser and tell him your experience. Then tell him why you know what the problem is and can't believe the run around you got from the tech who "obviously doesn't know what he's doing." Tell him you may complain to Toyota Corporate about them trying to brush off your problem so as not to cover it under warranty.

Or just go ahead and call Toyota Corporate and file a complaint with how you know what the problem is and how the dealership didn't handle it. If you go that route, you'll get a call within a couple of days from the dealership asking you to bring it back in.

 

This thread and the experience in it confirms for me that the 4x4 Tacoma should not have the 3" lift. While the lift isn't the precise cause of the problem it certainly would appear that it is a design issue, coupled with inferior parts that creates this mysterious problem where the front diffs are slowly dying from scoring of the front driver side axle shaft. The lifting of the truck seems to magnify the problem and accelerate the death of the front diffs.

Here is another thread with lots of other reports of the same problem.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/56236-front-end-growling-noise.html

This is extremely disappointing for a Toyota vehicle, especially for me since it is my first Toyota.