front end growling noise

The Tundra TSB calls for them to check the splines and replace the front axles as necessary. But there is no TSB on this for the Tacoma, so I bet they don't even look at them. I totally agree on the quality. Yes, the same crappy parts are in the new ones. To me, if you're replacing parts with others that haven't had the design defect fixed, you should be guaranteeing them for life! Why does it always come down to class action lawsuits? If mine goes bad again down the road, it'll be my last Toyota. An admin over on TN went through 3 new front diffs in 15 months before he finally got rid of his Tundra.

EDIT: Forgot to address your driving with it that way. That's precisely why I got mine fixed in a hurry before a long trip. I was concerned with it overheating and seizing doing 70 mph for 8 hours at a time. And since we don't have hubs to disengage the front axles, I'd have been screwed. I will say that it was noisier than you can imagine when I had the fronts set to 1.75. It could be heard over the radio and by anyone on the side of the road when I drove by (over the BFG AT KO tire tread noise too). Fixing the angles helped a lot by almost eliminating the noise. But within a few thousand miles, it was getting worse and worse. So how long can you go like that? It just depends on how noisy it is when you first discover it. I'm guessing I put on 5K miles with them being noisy before I got really concerned.

 

out of curiosity what were you oil change intervals and what oil was used in front diff ?

 

On mine right now.. the noise starts at 20mph and goes away after 40mph.. when the noise is occuring, it's loudest/strongest vibration when the speed is 20-25. Sometimes it's a wooo woo wooo type noise, other times, it's a constant rumble. When the music is on, I can't hear (unless I really try) but I can still feel the vibration. When I get faster than 40mph, the truck feels fine.

Did you examine your axle spline when the front diff was replaced? How were they?

 

Standard time frames (I have an LSD) and standard dino (non-synthetic). I've wondered whether increasing the interval or switching to a synthetic would make a difference, but then I remember others had their front diffs go bad with less than 30K miles.

I wasn't around when they swapped it out, so I don't know how the splines looked. As far the noise, you're describing it perfectly. It's a cyclical woo woo sound. I think that's why I always thought it was the tire tread since the sounds are very similar (until it gets real bad then there's no mistaking the grinding sound). You're definitely the first I've heard with this problem on a 1st Gen, but then I don't tend to peruse those forums. I just happened to head over to the tundra forums to see their situation since they have a TSB on it.

 

I think your truck must have seen a nissan and it wanted to kick its a**

 

Reason why I asked was, that, I did hear that happening on 1gen trucks but it was usually related to either somebody not changing oil very often/running low oil leve in IFS , getting into water/mud, or/and running lift beyond 1.5 inch
Once bearing wears out it looses the preload and vibes come. And those are shimmed so not like lock nut can get loose or anything like, the only way to create space is literally wear the bearing down.
Hopefully somebody who is getting new diff can snap photo of those bearing to see what is that its wearing them down.

EDIT: to give better idea
1. If lets say bearings are chipped then its bad material
2. If they are discolored, burned then its low oil problem
3. If they show signs of erosion then it would be water/mud
4. if they are kinked (have wear in two particular spots,) that would be too much lift

I would worry about #1, that would indicate bad batch of bearings.

 

So the next person (most likely me) should save parts and take pics?

 

try changing gear oil to heavier weight. sounds like its coming from front diff (internal). possible bearing (pinion or cv axle going out)

 

The axle input bearing is sealed right? Or is it lubricated from the diff fluid? I bought a couple quartz of amsoil, thought about putting it in.. then I figured it wouldn't make a difference and don't want to waste $30 worth of gear oil...

 

If you could that would be awesome

Now looking at Tundra TSB those can not be the same bearings as its for Tundra diffs with higher gear ratio then Taco .....unless.......... only people with Tacos that have 4.10's encounter that problems.

 

is your grinding ?
yes it is lubricated with gear oil. You know what you can try adding the LSD additive to it.

 

The lsd additive should make things a bit more slippery, but i dont think it would change anything.

 

Yeah I do have the grinding, identical symptom as Moose. I'm assuming it's a worn bearing.

Hmmm more heavy weight oil and adding more LSD additive? Do both achieve the same thing? What does the LSD additive effectively do to the oil?

 

LSD is used also to quiet down chatter in gear boxes and differentials (aside from being used for Limited Slips)
groaning could be due to wear in bearing but you should be leaking gear oil from the seal like ExxonValdez. Did you check oil level, is it still correct. I mean usually thats the first indication of failing bearing - rubber seals go out first. Since nobody mentioned oil leaks, and sound goes away in 4wd maybe whats wrong are not carrier bearings but that clutch system for 4wd. And grinding is really a chatter of gear spinning loose little too fast.
EDIT: Heavy grade oil would slow down the spinning gear, and put some "weight" onto it, that way gear would not spin out of control.

 

How is the front axles connected to the front diff output ? Is there a mechanism that's holding the spline within the diff assembly?

 

Driver side goes directly to carrier, pass side connects to that tube that has ADD mechanism.

 

should I be able to see the bearing by pulling back the boot?

 

Nope
Edit: Not on 1gen I dont know about 2 gen though

 

Hmm I'm thinking another solution is to convert to manual hubs? I believe the only reason for the rumble in 2WD is because the axle still spins in 2WD...

 

I didn't know if any of you have been reading the forum over at ToyotaNation on the same problem.

The rumor is that some guys have replaced the outer shaft bearing I believe, and got the noise to stop. Has anyone heard of this? Here is the link to the site that has the bearings and they don't cost much.

http://www.trademotion.com/partloca...2060&callout=5&catalogid=1&displayCatalogid=0