Needle Bearing Failure With Lift (How Many)

what are the effects if you don't replace it and just deal with the vibes?..... like if you drive it daily for a coupla months until you get a chance to fix it?

 

Rode mine for 6 months. Got sick of the vibes so I replaced it. I would say minor risk of the needle bearing actually breaking. I wouldn't take a chance though. The ecgs bushing is only $60.

 

I did some research on this last night. I think you are still fine to drive on it and it's no emergency to get it replaced. I think it can cause abnormal wear your CV's and part of the diff if you were to never get it fixed.

 

I have bad luck so installed the ECGS with my 2 inch 5100 lift and aal. No issues before or after.

 

Figure I'll chime in with my experience.

Drove my 2017 straight home from the dealer and installed my lift with less than 20 miles on the odometer. Didn't bother to do the bushing as I heard I wouldn't need to replace it. Made it to 51k miles when I could tell the bearing was beginning to fail so I had it replaced by a local shop who knocks these out pretty regularly. They used the clamshell bushing from Nitro Gear. I've put about 4k on it since the fix and no issues to report.

 

~2" lift.

Have vibes now, mostly goes away in 4WD.

Ordering ECGS bearing.

Anyone in Sacramento area have the tool?

 

Here is my experience with getting the ECGS Bushing installed by a shop. This was the thread I used the most to diagnose the problem and am super thankful I got this done cause it was driving me nuts!

Installed a 1" spacer and newish front struts off a V6 OR DCSB on a '17 Tacoma SR Access Cab, 4x4, 5 Speed.
Gave it a quick test drive after install and between 20-35mph a very prominent, driver side, rotating roar/hum could be heard. Could feel slight vibration in the pedal and floorboard.
40-50mph less noticeable, 60+ totally gone. What confirmed it was the needle bearing was putting it 4WD (just like everyone else) and the vibration going away.

I unfortunately had run out of personal time to pull the truck back apart and replace the bearing. I ended up going to a local 4x4 shop, actually referenced by the OP in one of the beginning threads to get it done.
My biggest anxiety of this whole process was calling local axle and transmission shops with a self diagnosis, with the company (ECGS) to order the part from only to get silent responses back, basically having no clue what I was talking about. 3 shops told me they could diagnose it and use their own parts for the repair but wouldn't take my diagnosis.

I was reluctant to use the 4x4 Shop I did because over the years they have had mixed reviews from people who have dealt with them in the past.
Ended up calling them, they knew exactly what I was talking about, installed the bearing and it 100% fixed the issue which I was stoked about!

Tools and Parts to do it myself was coming out to like $270 (that's not renting but buying).
The 4x4 Shop quoted me $60 for the Bearing, $25 for the differential seal and 3 hours of Labor at $90.00 an hour + Tax.

This bearing is an absolute must to be done when lifting these trucks, I wish in my research I just read this thread and done the bearing install when I was doing the lift! But glad to get it fixed!

 

Just ordered my ecgs the other day finally got me. Wish you were up here I’d have you do it. Hope all is well brother with you and the fam

 

Have a 2020 TRD pro. Westcott front lift and Icon AAL went on at 19,800 miles. By 20,200, I got the vibration. ECGS bushing is getting installed next week.

 

Family is great man blessed. Hope all is good with you and yours.

Meet me somewhere in the middle. Change that baby out in an Autozone parking lot.

 

so why is it that almost any type of lift you do 1" and up will cause vibs most of the time but the TRD pro are lifted 1" factory and I assume they have the exact same front diff and bearings why dont they vibe?

 

Great question. My 100 series LC has a smooth bushing similar to ecgs. Needle bearing is a weak point TRD pro or not. I'd be interested to know if any PRO owners have had to change it out.

 

My Pro is lifted 1.5" over factory Pro suspension. It lasted about 400 miles before I got the vibes post-lift. Did my needle bearing go bad in just 400 miles? Probably not. The lift probably just exacerbated and accelerated the wear on what is already a poorly designed part.

 

I replaced the needle bearing on my 2nd gen with 200,000 miles; 100,000 of those miles were lifted 3”. The needle bearing had zero wear patterns of any kind. Of course it was already out so I replaced with ECGS.

Im on a 3rd gen now with 3” of lift and get vibes only between 50-60mph.

The point of sharing this is by and large, the bearing is not going to explode on you. It’s more of an annoyance. For those who asked, they vibe due to CV shaft side loading in the diff when lifted. But again, it’s important we sensor how we share info for those who aren’t mechanically experienced; many people spend a lot of $$$ in a panic to “solve” a problem that might just not really be a major deal, especially for a truck with 1-2” of lift.

 

The added lift changes the geometry of the front CV axles. Triggering bad vibrations. It also happens on stock trucks. There is a TSB for certain years.

 

For 3rd gen or 2nd gen tsb? Probably for pro version though because of factory lift?

 

I just received my ECGS bushing and noticed the welding seem inside is not super smooth. Is it normal to be able to feel the welding inside?

 

Pic?

 

2nd and 3rd gen. Not sure if that includes PRO.