Grinding feeling in front End

I have really appreciated the knowledge I’ve gained reading this forum. I have an issue with my 2009 Tacoma TRD Off-road 4WD Dbl Cab. The truck has 178000 miles. Since I’ve owned the truck I’ve replaced both front wheel bearings and cv joints. I’ve also replaced the lower ball joints and control arms. In addition I’ve leveled the truck using the Bilstein 5100”s. No other mods. I have a fairly consistent grinding feeling in the front end with an intermittent cyclical grinding noise at low speed. Sounds like coming from the right front. Both of these issues seem to improve in 2wd after running the truck in 4WD for a bit. At highway speed I can feel a grinding sensation in the steering wheel when turning right. When my last alignment was done the tech told me that my tie rod ends were “frozen” and hard to adjust. My question is: Could these issues be related to tie rods/steering rack?

 

Normally the first suspect on a lifted Tacoma with grinds/vibes is the needle bearing.
It’s located on the left (driver) side of the differential.
The vibrations usually “goes away” when in 4WD.
And comes back pretty fast when switching back to 2WD.

Since you are having issues on the right side of the truck and while turning, I’d be looking at the wheel bearing. It may not be the bearing, but many guys have had to replace bearings soon after installing new one. Usually because of low quality assemblies or they didn’t replace both seal.
There are 2 seals you need to replace when doing bearings. The O-ring is not one of the seal. But should also be replaced.

I’d also have those tie rods looked at, as they won’t help your situation any.

 

Thank you whatstcp & tnshooter for the advice. I have the ECGS bushing. Just haven’t installed yet. Guess I need to take care of that soon. I was kinda wondering too if I hadn’t gotten a bad bearing & bearing install.