Tacoma Squealing While Driving After Greasing U Joints

Hello, I am new to Tacoma world and this is my first thread. Yesterday I greased the U joints on my 2013 Tacoma, there were 5 zerks in total. After greasing them I went to go for a drive and there is now a squealing noise while in any forward gear. If I engage the clutch and go into nuetral, the noise slowly fades away. I will attach a link to a video I found in YouTube. The video is not my mine. My truck seems to be making the same identical sound. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nIro-P-hgmQ Any help would be appreciated. I cannot find any helpful information on the web or other forums so far. Please forgive if this post is on a newbie level. Thanks in advance for any information.

 

Mileage on the truck ?? Does the noise change if you "slightly" press the clutch ??

Some thoughts that may or may not be relevant ... hard to tell from the video ... I realize it's not really your video as well .....

- Dry splines on the drive shafts??
- What grease did you use for the u joints?
- Try adding a little more grease?
- did you clean the zerk before adding grease?
- For the hell of it - check to see if motor mounts, tranny mounts, cross member etc, are OK, not broken, tight, etc.

 

I have 71,000 miles. At this point I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference in sound only slightly pressing the clutch pedal. The sound seems to take a few seconds to fade away once I’ve taken the truck out of gear. I rolled down a hill in neutral and there is no noise.

 

IDK, Check Diff fluids. If the noise does change with the clutch pedal slightly engaged it may mean throw out bearing,.
Did you check for a slipping /worn clutch?? Any chance the squeal is from the engine front ??? - Serpentine Belt slipping / bad idler pulley, bad bearing in the alt, PS pump/water pump etc?

 

Squirt some more grease through the joints making sure you get new grease out of all four caps.

 

There is a chance it could be From the engine front. I’ve yet to get to hear it from the outside of the vehicle. The sound isn’t immediate, there is no noise till I’m going over 15 Mph or so. Diff fluid is fine and the clutch doesn’t seem to be slipping. I have had a morning squeal after start up lately. I just found it odd that the noise immediately started after greasing the u joints. The exhaust was still warm from driving when I greased the joints. I went for a drive to see if there was a difference in anything after greasing and there was the squeak.

 

I went to the store today and got More suitable grease. I pumped more grease into the joints until I seen grease come out all 4 caps. The grease was only coming out of very small holes on the caps, but I did see a bit of grease come out of every cap.

 

Any difference
Welcome to TW by the way..

 

Sounds like transmission bearings, possibly input shaft bearing(s). When you push your foot on the clutch and take it out of gear everything stops spinning in the trans.

While rolling take it out of gear. If the noise fades away, put it back into gear (still rolling). Does the noise come back? Can you make it come and go by pushing the clutch in?

 

I have 400,000 miles on my Tacoma and this has happened twice to me. I watched your video. Sounds exactly the same as mine. Sounds just like your carrier bearing needs to be replaced. It is an easy job to replace once you have someone press the bearing on its a peice of cake.
The local repair shop wanted 200 to do it. Found a bearing place who pressed it for me for 30 bucks. Just took the driveline down with the carrier on it and too it to the bearing place And the presses the new one on. Went back home put the drive line back up and the squealing goes away. If this is the problem. Really it’s no biggie.

 

Man, the more I listen to that the more convinced I am that this is it. I think it’s just coincidence that you greased them now the squeak.

 

REDdawn6 Sorry, there was no real difference. Maybe a little quieter but not by much, if any.

b_r_o The noise goes away when I push the clutch in while in gear. The noise is only when I am in gear moving. Accelerating or decelerating. As soon as I push the clutch in to take it out of gear the noise starts to fade away. Even at decent speeds the noise takes a second to start, once put back in gear and clutch released.

 

That fading away could be the bearings/shaft inside the trans coming to a stop. And then when you put it in gear and let the clutch pedal out, the bearings come up to speed again.

Jack up the rear end and listen with a stethoscope right at the case

 

Still think it’s your carrier bearing.

 

I’ve seen a few times the carrier bearing mentioned and I was hoping someone would bring it up on here. Someone who’s had experience with it in the past.

 

Stethoscope would tell

 

Yes. I’m just hoping for whatever the cheapest/easiest fix it lol.

 

For whatever reason. The first one lasted 250k the other one lasted 50k. Lifetime warranty the bearing itself isn’t much at all. Even if you try and squirt some sort of lube on the carrier itself it will not stop. It’s to tightly protected. But if you could get it on a lift and get under the truck and list I’m almost positive you will find that’s what it is. As long as that drive shaft is turning it will squeak. Right now it may start quiet then start squealing but trust me it will get to where it sqeals all of the time while the drive shaft is turning and it will get a bit louder. Sure hugs the crap outta ya though.

 

Okay. I will hopefully get some answer tomorrow and will keep everyone updated. It’s late right now so I won’t be doing anything else tonight.

 

Good luck!