Wholesale suspension squeaks after desert trip.

Been combing the forums looking for clues on how to fix my suspension squeaks. Happens over any sort of uneven ground...just normal street driving is enough. Seen a lot of talk about sway bars and body mounts, but they seem to be coming from everywhere under there. (I've tried to convince my buddy to ride under there as I drive over speed bumps to help me isolate the problem, but so far I haven't been able to get him drunk enough to do it).

The problem seems to have started after I came back from a particularly dusty trip to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada last Labor Day for Burning Man. That surface is like talc and it gets everywhere. My suspicion is that it's become embedded in the soft parts of my suspension and is causing some dry creaks. Brought it to Toyota for regular maintenance and they said all the fittings are greaseless and they can't do anything about it.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

That sound is known as the “Toyota Crunch” among my friends who work as archaeologists and biologists in the desert. 99% of them own Toyotas, too! Dust between the spring leafs, their mounts and up front bushings- only thing you can do is clean and grease them. Every generation of Toyota truck and Ford I’ve owned did this after dry dirt road trips.

 

Exactly. That's my routine after every trip off pavement. Pressure wash the leafs, let em dry, then spray 'em (I use Rust Check, similar to fluid film). You gotta get all the pads/bushings too.

 

triflow and crc dry ptfe spray

 

So I'm a bit new, but after taking my truck through the mud my leaf springs started squeaking like crazy, tried pressure washing, but didn't help. Eventually I found out that Toyota put out a TSB, (T-SB-0273-17) that deals with this issue. Yoy can take it to your delear and mention this to then.

 

Good find - forgot about that TSB, and if he’s running stock, OP should check out the file attached in this thread describing it:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tsb-0273-17-leaf-spring-silencer-noise.506384/

Those of us who lifted our trucks with single AAL’s or spring packs will probably be told our warranty is void on the spring TSB’s - but its an easy DIY fix if its needed (Im not planning to change mine and can live with it).

 

That fine sand gets everywhere. You might try to pressue wash the undercarriage.

 

Thanks for the advice and link to the TSB. yes, i pressure washed the undercarriage after the trip, but it could probably use another go now that i've put some miles on it since. good call on the PTFE spray. knew some sort of spray would probably help silence it, but didn't want to blindly attack it with Kroil or other penetrating oil without doing a poll first.