Help me pinpont this noise

My truck is a 97, 3.4L V6, it started making this noise last weekend. I can't seem to pinpoint it but my thoughts are that it could be the power steering pump, the reason i say that is because yesterday i was going to try and take the drive belt off of the pump but had hell trying to get to the adjuster bolt and decided i would deal with it when i had more time. I pulled on the PSP pulley and found some play in it but I'm not sure if this is normal or not.
It's not a whine that is normally associated with the PSP but more like a metal on metal sound to me.

Below are a couple of links to videos I made, one is the noise, the second shows the play in the pulley. I hope they work.

https://youtu.be/mUFlBd25UYc

https://youtu.be/1egSttWNXUs

 

I'm thinking power steering bearing is gone and that's where your noise is coming from. Had the same thing happen with an alternator and it locked up and caught fire on my way home on another truck because of the bearing.

 

is this cold weather related?
i had some weird noise pop up on start-up and warming of engine when the Alberta Clipper rolled through and temps plummeted from 50s to near single digits
what is your current trucks mileage?

 

It's not weather related, close to 70 here this weekend, trucks got 232,000 miles on it. Like Yota03DC said, I'm thinking it's the PSP bearing but wasn't sure if that much play is normal. I will try again to get the belt off so I can isolate the pump and see if that tells me anything.

 

have you had the truck a long period that you would know whether or not a noise should or should not be there?
we have the same year of Tacoma and only recently i have some odd noises popping up on the interior that i know have not ever been there until last year!
not at all certain if others out there with this age of truck are experiencing the same weirdness of 'old age' or not or if its just mine

 

That's s bearing chirp noise.

Also could be a belt chirping also,, seems like I've heard that before years ago. Maybe spray some belt dressing on the belt and see if it goes away for a time.

 

The power steering pump on the 3.4 does not have a bearing. Maybe your air conditioning tensioner pulley bearing or some other bearing.

 

That loose pulley in the 2nd vid is not normal, the bearing is bad. The AC idler bearing went bad on my 04 recently and the pulley was loose like that. Caused it to whine/chirp when driving and idling...got worse/louder with more RPMs.

 

Like Gyrkin said, I don't think the PSP has a bearing in it, at least its not shown on the PSP diagram in the FSM. I have already changed out the idler pulley thinking that was it but the old one which had already been replaced less that a year ago was still good. Now its got a brand new idler pulley so I'm ruling that out. This doesn't get any worse with RPMs really its just kind of intermittent. I do believe that I should not be able to push and pull on the PSP pulley and move it in and out like that though.
The timing belt and all that that entails was changed out about 6,000 miles ago, sure hope its not one of the pulleys in there. That work was done before I bought the truck.

 

I've had mine apart, rebuilt it, and I can 100% say there is no bearing in it. That is the 3.4 only, the pumps on 4-cylinder Tacomas do have a bearing.

I just ran out to my truck to check how much mine moves. I can pull it in and out a noticeable amount, maybe not quite as much as yours, but a noticeable amount.

 

Thanks for checking, I won't be able to to get the belt off until Wednesday evening. That should tell me one way or the other if its the PSP or not. Checked with the local dealership, they want $463.00 for a new one, probably not going that route.
Gyrkin, when you rebuilt yours did you just use the rebuild kit with the new gasket, o-rings and oil seal or was it another issue?

 

It's pretty easy to rebuild. Get this rebuild kit: https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem...ion=vane-pump-reservoir-power-steering,,04446

This thread, https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/power-steering-pump-rebuild-how-to-with-photos.377002/ will show you how to do it. That thread is for a 4-cylinder pump, but it will show you enough to get it done. The 6-cylinder pump is actually easier because it doesn't have a bearing.

 

Update: I pulled the belt off of the PSP last night and determined that my problem is not the PSP, still makes the same intermittent grinding noise with the pump isolated. I'm beginning to think it might be the fan clutch or the fan clutch bearing bracket, that kind of sounds where it might be coming from.

When a fan clutch goes bad does it make any type of noise that might sound like the first video? I will pull the AC belt and Alternator belt and see what that does.

 

May be the fan, alternator, or the A/C compressor, it definitely sounds like a bearing chirp somewhere. By doing what you say and pulling the belt and turning both by hand you should be able to find it.

 

My alternator had been making a noise for some time and it finally went out on my old truck last year on my way home. I started smelling smoke about 3 miles from home and called my wife and said get the hose ready, this is after she put it out. Those are the balls from the bearing in my hand.

 

Another update:
Stopped at harbor freight and bought a stethoscope, got home, used the scope to listen to the fan clutch bracket, it was not doing the grinding very often but with the scope I swear I could hear a slight grinding and it would still make the loud grinding occasionally.

I removed the AC belt, still grinding occasionally, pulled the last belt off the alternator, cranked her back up and noise was gone, revved her up and still no noise, i could spin the alt. pulley and it seemed fine but with all the belts off the fan clutch bearing was no spinning either.

The fan could spin freely now, I listened again with the scope and still picked up a slight grinding so I’m leaning towards the fan clutch bracket bearing about to bit the dust.

Thanks for all of the reply’s, I’m not a mechanic by any means but with the help of TW, I’ve been able to undertake a few projects on this truck that I once would have never attempted.

 

Spend 5.00 and get this, you should figure it out very quickly
Mechanic's Stethoscope

 

If my doctor ever comes in with one of those around his neck..............I'm leaving

 

I’ve had my fan bracket bearing go out. It locked up on me and snapped the fan belt.

I’ve seen the fan bracket bearing go out and the fan bracket actually snaps off when it seizes and takes out the radiator, fan clutch, fan blade and fan shroud all in one shot from other members

Rockauto has them for around 100.00

I replace mine now with the timing belt at 100k miles

 

Yeah, I've seen your posts about it, I picked up a stethoscope yesterday, that kinda helped me narrow it down to the fan bracket. I will be ordering a new one from Rockauto shortly. It doesn't look like a bad job, is there anything in particular that I need to be mindful of?