Solved: metal clunk at the front while steering, bad bushings.

So I've got 2018 Tacoma with 36,000+ miles, there is Fox 2.0., with 1" lift installed right away after purchasing the truck. I have this metal clunk (can hear in the video) for the past 30,000+ miles, finally I decided to find the cause...

So the metal clunk appears when I turn wheels stationary, moving slowly or breaking from super low speeds, also when hitting pot holes at low speeds. I think this could be steering related, as the clunk appears the most notable when I steer the wheel. I lifted the front wheels and the clunk is gone when I turn the wheels.

I checked CVs, steering rods, steering rack, ball joints, wheel bearings and nothing seems to be loose and looks visually good for a one year old truck. Any advise about where to look or what else to check will be appreciated, or should I just continue cranking the radio up?












TL;DR

It was the steering rack bushings that were making metal clunk upon turning steering wheel. Toyota replaced the whole unit assembly under warranty.

 

Have you jacked it up and checked for play in the tie rods ? Sounds like the inners.... is that swap bar touching the coil bucket?

 

I did check the tire rods, no play and there is a good 1” between sway bar and the coil bucket.

Initially i was thinking that sway bar bushings might have gone bad, but after steering in a still position I tend to think this is steering related.

Anyone had similar issue in the past here?

 

Does it do it jacked up ?

 

Mine does this too. Sub'd for solution

 

No, no noise when front wheels jacked up.

 

Odd, I'd be checking the steering shaft and bushings on the rack. That's all I could dig out from the vids posted. Let us know what you find.

 

I thought some people had said their rack was loose. I'd check there. To me it sounds like something is grabbing then popping / shifting.

 

Third gens do have very soft steering rack bushings b drop the skid and check the 2 bolts on the rack as well

 

May as well torque lower arms while you're down there, I've had similar sounds when they weren't torqued to spec (132/135 ftlb I believe?), though that was usually at mid to full lock.

When did it start? Was it random or did something change or was work done on the front end? Sounds like a big noise to crop up out of nowhere without either some sort of impact or someone working and not re-torquing.

 

Will torque to specs, I thought it was 100ftlb? (need to double check).

Truck got alignment from Toyota dealership in April 2018 with about 2K miles and since then (now at 36,000+ miles) been all over US/Canada on all kinds of terrain at wide variety of speeds, angles etc...
I don't baby it, so I don't expect things too last long, but this noise has been with me since the beginning. I just didn't bother much, since it never gave any issues to me and it's a truck, so there is always noise and squeaks.

No work has been done aside from suspension and minor wiring for AUX lights.



So next time when I have a moment I will:

1. check the steering rack bushings and torque the bolts
2. re-torque the lower arms

 

@Norilsk this is from the 2016 service manual

 

Update:



oh boy, working out of storage unit is not fun anyways, everything got checked for torque and everything was properly torqued.

I then removed TRD pro skid plate, and the clunk is gone at turns or any kind of slow driving. So I would guess something was rubbing against it, but I don’t see any markings


so for now I would blame on the skid, it is been reinforced at few points so it is most likely to rub along those lines

will continue to investigate....

 

If you look in the middle where skid touches the lift/jack point (whatever it's called) it seems it rubbs over there. Frame flexing and rubbs skid across that part. Try putting some kind of isolator between them. Maybe some rubber?

 

That would me more likely from all the jacking up that I did before I think, nevertheless good idea to put something in between.

i will run few day without the skid and then see if the noise re-appears or not.

 

well, never mind it’s back!




back under the truck

 

might be a noob question, but is the steering rack supposed to move like this?

 

You got a 1" lift up front with the Fox 2.0. The back stayed the same but leveled the truck. Correct ?

 

i got AAL at the back and removed overload, so it’s 1” lifted front and back.

 

That looks like and sounds like it's coming from the rack and pinion and steering linkage. It was loudest in the first video and seemed confirmed in the second video with the tires starting to turn as the grip the surface they are turning on. Try doing it on a smoother surface/less resistance on the tires and see if the noise can still be heard. Jacking it up and having no resistance, it will probably sound fine.