New Tacoma owner, drivetrain whine question.

Hi, Just bought a used 2006 Tacoma yesterday with 130k miles, 6cyl automatic trans. The motor runs great.

Here is what is happening:

Transmission shifts very smooth into park drive reversee and 432... Car drives very smooth, when speed picks up there is a quite audible "whine" That increases with vehicle speed (not related to engine speed)

This whine is only active while my foot is on the pedal, and is the same if my foot is all the way down, or just even barely touching the gas pedal. As soon as I let go of the gas pedal, the whine completely stops while I am "coasting"

There is also a weird little fumble sometimes, where there is a quick bout of vibration I believe coming from drivetrain, often happens when changing gears.

First thing that popped into my head is the torque converter, but I am VERY interested to hear what the pros on here will say.

My first course of action as of now will be to do a diy tranny flush into a clean container. (still reading on if this is a DIY thing or if strictly Dealer only since it is a sealed tranny) And if it is better to just do some drain and re-fills instead of an entire flush, as it does have 130k on presumably factory fluid.

Sorry that my first post is a stupid newb one, Yes I searched the forums all morning with no matches of my problem, hoping to get it all dialed in ASAP.
Thank you so much in advance for any input!

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...th-pics-for-second-gen-4-liter-trucks.289913/

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/noisy-rear-diff.354666/

 

Awesome, looks like some great info in here. Will be reading all night, hopefully have a better idea of where to begin tomorrow. Thanks so much!

Anyone else with any helpful tips Im all ears at this point. Will keep this thread updated with a (hopefully simple) solution to the problem.

 

Looks like the driveshaft carrier bearing is shot, have one on order, will be here tuesday, hope to have it installed by wednesday, and I will update thread, hopefully that is the wine.

 

Wanted to keep this thread updated... I drained and refilled both the front and rear diffs and transfer case, as well as did a full flush of the tranny fluid. Im definitely glad to have done all of this because all of the fluid was pretty dirty aside from the transfer case... I also replaced the carrier bearing or center support bearing. The wine is still there, no change. I found this thread here where people seem to have a similar although not exact problem:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/pinion-bearing-going-bad.195199/

So I am thinking it is likely a worn out pinion bearing, or ring and pinion. Trying to find a used third member for a TRD 4x4 now to just swap the whole thing out.

 

Now that you replaced the transmission fluid , do you still notice the fumble or vibration between shift points ?
As far as the whine goes , sure sounds like a crown and pinion issue . If it was a pinion bearing in your rear diff , you would for the most part hear noise on acceleration as well as deceleration

 

Hey thanks for the help again, and good question, surprisingly no. I have driven plenty enough to have concluded that issue is gone, and likely because of the tranny flush, where I used a synthetic non Toyota brand fluid (said it was usable in WS applications). Transmission seems all around healthier. Fluid was pretty dark, I also dropped the pan and cleaned magnets there was a little debris on them, and changed the filter.

I will definitely update this post when I drop the third member and check things out in there. Your input is much appreciated, I am now anticipating some odd wear on the ring and pinion.

 

Just wanted to update this thread, I ended up ripping third member out and replacing it, no more whine, There was some odd looking wear on the ring and pinion. From the hours and hours of reading I did on this subject, it is likely due to improper pinion bearing pre-load, as it looks like the pinion nut was "staked" a couple times... If you have a whiney rear end on a used vehicle I suggest checking to see if the pinion nut looks like it has been removed. Some may replace nut with new one so not a fool proof way to see if pinion has been removed but if they replaced the nut, chances are they were knowledgeable enough to set the bearing pre-load correctly.

 

What was the third member that you replaced? Was it the rack n pinion that stopped the whine or the transmission flush?

 

By "third member" I was referring to the rear differential, which contains the "ring and pinion" not "rack n pinion".... It was the ring and pinion that had bad wear that was causing the noise.

Funny you found this thread, Im pretty sure this was my first post ever on here. The used 3rd I put in still going strong! Let me know if you have anymore questions.

 

great job OP. i am still running my 2006 around. it has been great. 130K miles is nothing..i am at 200k i think.

congrats on sorting it all out.

 

Wondering if the truck had been regeared at some point?

 

Thanks! Not sure if you noticed but this is an old thread. Kudos to @Brewski531 for using search digging it up

Now have like ~170k without any issues that werent my own doing.

It had stock gears when I bought it but somone had been in the 3rd member monkeying around with something at some point.

 

Yea man, Google led me right to this post based off my search criteria. It certainly helped narrow down the noise and the fix which must be accomplished at some point. Thanks man!