Popping in front suspension! Help!!

Recently I started feeling excessive play in my steering wheel as well as clunking and popping while I drive at lower speeds. At speeds of 70mph+ I have a bad vibration throughout the truck. I am trying to figure out what’s going on because it’s driving me nuts!! I had the tires balanced, which did NOT take away the vibration. I replaced my inner tie rods as well as my tie rod ends. I also replaced my front and rear shocks. I was told that it might be lower control arm bushings so I took it to Toyota and they told me that my bushings are fine and it looks like everything is tight. After having them perform an alignment for me, 2 weeks later I was out of alignment. My U-joints and ball joints seem to be nice and tight as well.. Please help!

Here is a video I uploaded of the popping:
https://youtu.be/fvfcArol_dk

I appreciate any advice I can get!

 

I had the same popping noises. It really is the LCA bushings. Even though the bushing look fine, they're worn out so they don't have the same rigidity. I replaced the LCA's with Moog aftermarket ones that have urethane bushings and the popping went away.

 

Thank you! Did you replace the cam bolts as well or use the originals?

 

I replaced them with Moog's version with a grease zero and that was a big mistake. They went out of round within months b/c of the cheap steal and loss alignment because of that.

Luckily I saved my original cam bolts. Living in the CA desert, they hardly had any rust. I just coated the bolt with a good amount of anti seize and put them back in place of the Moog garbage cam bolt.

 

I’m going to give it a try! Thanks for the info. Hopefully I can salvage my cam bolts.

 

One thing to be ready for is solid poly bushings will transmit a LOT more energy into the truck. The original rubber bushings are actually quite good at taking care of a lot of little imperfections in the road and such. That first initial hit before the suspension starts doing its work you will now feel. I know this because I recently did my bushings. That being said, the noise I had is now gone and the truck holds a perfect alignment.

 

One other thing to mention is your cam bolts on the LCAs might be too loose. I just got my truck aligned this week and had a popping noise when turning or changing directions. It was on the right side exclusively. I got under the truck and checked the torque on the cam bolts. The left side was VERY tight. The right side wasn't torqued down AT ALL. Once I tightened it up we were good to go. The vibration you have might be related to the alignment being bad too.

 

I've been chasing a popping / clunking noise down in the front end for awhile and finally traced it down to a worn steering rack guide. I was also having excessive play in the steering wheel like you mentioned. It might be worth checking to see if thats the issue. You just have to pull the drivers side boot off the steering rack and have someone shake the steering wheel while you watch the shaft coming out of the rack. If the shaft has any up and down play then the steering rack guide needs to be replaced. It was a $50 part, a 20 min job, and made my steering feel like brand new.

 

2nd gen too? I’m having some sounds and every suspension bushing is new, new UCA, new LCA, new shocks and mounts, new hub assemblies.....

 

2nd gen tacomas should have steering rack guides as well

 

So I replaced the driver side LCA with Moog's version. I didn't have time to get the other side done but it made a big difference! The popping went away and it feels better so far just with one side done! Thanks for the help! I'll be doing the other side soon.

 

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to check that out as well!

 

Thanks for the heads up! I can see what you mean, I can feel the springy feedback when I drive now. But the popping went away and it does feel better. I still have rubber bushings on the passenger side so I probably haven't felt the worst of it until the other side is done. Thanks for the help!