Issues with drive shaft/u-joints/wheel bearings...!

I am having the hardest time with wheel bearing and drive shaft u-joint issues. After 170,000 miles on my 2005 Taco PreRunner 4 cyl I started to get crazy noise going with my truck. I am now at 185,000 miles. I replaced the driver side wheel bearing assembly which i got from the guy bama1997 here on the forum. The roaring sound went away after that.

Not a few months later I began to have a major shudder when coming to a stop and at high speed a vibration and roaring again. I checked u-joints and replaced the very back one myself. Everything smoothed out, was like a new truck.

Few weeks later vibration started again and shuddering coming to a stop and starting out. This time took it to a driveshaft place in dallas called driveshaft king and let them figure it out. He said I had two bad u joints. So I had them replace those. So i have three new u joints now.

Everything has been smooth until a few weeks ago the vibration and noise started again and it from 60-65 mph and its just nasty rough sounding. I got under the truck and pumped grease into all three u joints untill i saw new grease coming out the seals. It took quite a bit of grease for the rear one, about half a tube and the rest of the tube split between the middle and front u joints. Everything was smooth again!

Now after about 2 maybe 3 weeks it is back to same symptom of 60-65 mph not nasty rough sounding but a little roaring and vibration. I don't know what is going on! I am going to go pump some more grease in the u-joints again and see what happens, but they shouldn't need grease that soon?! I have a "sling ring" of grease plastered on the underside of the truck above each u joint...is this normal, even after I cleaned off most all the grease after I serviced them?

I do know that I need to replace the passenger side wheel bearing assembly to rule that out and I also am in need of new tires. I plan on doing both of those over the next two weeks. Other than that, I could go back to drive shaft king in dallas and have them replace all three u joints again and balance the drive shaft...maybe something is up with my drive shaft and or yoke's that are not playing nice with the u joints?

 

Carrier bearing is where I would start. Get under the truck and move the driveshaft around in the carrier bearing. It should be fairly difficult to move more than .5-1 inch, but it should be smooth. If it feels rough/grinding while your moving it around, should be time to change it. Mine only lasted to about 100k, if you have a lift kit it will put more stress on it

 

I've been having issues too. I'm around 120k miles. Had to have a U joint replaced recently. And they replaced the rear leaf springs because of a recall. I've got a strange vibration happening now at just below 30 mph and again just below 60 mph. "It's probably your tires." was the thought at Toyota. e swapped to my winter wheels. Same thing at exactly the same speeds. It's subtle but it's there and wasn't before the work on the U joint. It's going to be like pulling teeth trying to get them to admit something is not right.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.

 

Where along the drive train is the Carrier bearing?

 

Yea, I forgot about the carrier bearing. I need to get that replaced. He mentioned to me at drive shaft king that it was ok for now but would be on its way out soon.

 

That sounds like a U joint to me. Put your truck in park, parking brake on, crawl under it, and try rotating the drive shaft. The transmission will let it rotate a tiny bit, but watch the u joints to see if there is any movement in there, if there is any movement in the u joint it should be replaced.

The carrier bearing is the part attaching the drive shaft to the frame between the transmission and middle u-joint. Will be a circular aluminum frame with a rubber donut in the middle with the driveshaft running to it.

 

When one u joint goes out, usually the next two are not too far behind. Also could be the carrier bearing, I posted a few posts up how to check it

 

The rule of thumb is- if its shaking the steering wheel, its in the front end, if its shaking your seat, its in your drivetrain

 

No shaking in the seat or steering wheel. The feeling is coming through my feet in the floorboard and I can feel it a bit under my seat on the floor. I can hear an audible noise like a labored machine noise not related to the engine as well.

 

Update: After putting on 4 new tires which I needed badly, I took it over to Drive Shaft King in Dallas. They replaced the rear U-joint, lubed all three, checked the carrier bearing and said it looked fine, straightened my drive shaft because it was warped in three places and then balanced the drive shaft. It drives smooth as butter now!! I highly recommend Drive Shaft King if you live in the Dallas area! The guy's name is David and he is an amazing expert and does an unbelievable job and for a fair price.

 

warped driveshaft ? methinks OP doesn't just drive to church on Sundays. unless church is at Trophy

 

Yea, he said it was out by 22-25 1,000ths in three places...moderate but not severe warpage. Could be caused by torque.

 

that is 1/40th of an inch. plenty to cause vibes in the приводной вал

 

I went back to Toyota. They went over everything again, balanced the tires, tweaked the alignment as well as they could, had the drive shaft out again and reinstalled. The service manager said that was pretty much all they could do . The actual mechanic wanted me to let him now if it made any difference. If it was still an issue he'd double check what brand of U joint they's installed. There was a slim chance that it may not of been Toyota and that might be the issue. Uuuuuugh. I'm looking into local drivetrain speciality shops in the area.

 

did they check the cardan joint as well?

 

I have no idea. What is a cordon joint?

 

..."cardan" joint?

 

cardan joint on the left u-joint on the right.

 

I get it. Thank you.

 

The cardan joint is basically 2 u-joints but they arent normal sized ones. Vibes could be coming from that. Theres a thread that covers it more in-depth on TW.

My truck only has 2 ujoints you replace, then the cardan joint. I replaced my center bearing and ujoints and the noise/vib went away.