Weird noise Help!

Just watched a vid on how to do it. Uh..... no. I'm not mechanically inclined, so I guess I'll bring it to a local shop or the Toyota Dealership.

 

Don’t go to the dealer!

 

And if you do you better grease up before you get there. They will tell you to replace the drive shaft to the tune of about $1,100.

 

Yeah nevermind going to the dealership. I'll take it to a local mechanic that I trust.

 

Since starting this post have you gotten under your truck to see if you have greasable u joints? Takes like 5 minutes. If you do buy a grease gun and grease them. Might make the noise go away, then you can replace them at your convenience. Either way it's something you should know how to do.

 

I checked today. There is no grease zerks on any of my u joints. I was hoping that there was some. I'm still undecided on where to bring it.

 

Good to know! Yeah be prepared if you take it to a dealership they will most likely replace the whole driveshaft, they don't really f around with individual u joints. Any driveshaft shops in your area? I'd hope that you can replace the u joints with greasable ones and maybe the carrier bearing while you're at it.

 

No none in my area. I called a local shop that is really good at doing front end work, but when asked about replacing the U-joints they didn't seem too confident about replacing them.

 

I called a local shop and they said that they can do it. It's there now. They are putting ones with grease zerks. Now for another question. How often should I grease them and what kind of grease should I use?

 

Every oil change or at least every 10k miles. I use Lucas Red N Tacky.

 

Yup. Any NLGI #2 rated grease will do.

 

Cool that's the kind I will use then. How much do I put in every time? Sorry for all of the dumb questions, I've never messed with U-joints before. The shop just called me and said one of the U-joints was bad. I'm assuming the rear one since that's where the noise was coming from. I told them to replace all 3.

 

Pump in grease until you see fresh grease coming out of all 4 sides of the u joint. Pretty easy stuff. Clean up is the most difficult part. Get some shop towels, or some folks just leave it and sling it everywhere when they drive it next.

 

Ok that seems easy enough. Thanks for the help!

 

So my Tacoma is a 2018 at just under 50k miles and developed the same squeak. Shop said they’re going to replace the rear u-joint. Should I ask them to just grease it? Doesn’t seem like a lot of miles.

 

If it is a sealed joint then it cannot be greased. If it is meant to be greased, but hasnt been in 50k miles, its probably toast

 

Ah the sound of uJoints going bad. My PreRunner also has no grease fitting

 

Well the shop called today to let me know my truck was ready. Couldn't make it today, but I cant wait to pick it up monday!

 

Picked the truck up today and everything feels great!

 

Get Dana u-joints if you can. That is all I will use.