Yup, another wheel noise thread

Hey everyone! New to Tacoma World!

I've been digging through threads for forever now trying to figure out the 'roar' noise Tacomas seem to develop. It seems to be common among these trucks - I have a 2009 single cab prerunner manual for reference. About 125,000 miles. Stock tires, no mods whatsoever, mostly street driven but occasional dirt road hauling dirt bikes. Stock Dunlop AT20 tires replaced a little more than a year ago with 10,000 miles on them.

My symptoms: Truck drives nice and straight. At 40mph I can hear a little bit of wheel "roar" like if you had mud tires. It goes away at about 42mph. Once I get to 70mph roar increases a ton and is very, very noticeable.

Easy one first - took it to Americas Tires (I bought tires there). Balance and tire rotation. Didn't solve anything. $0 out of pocket so no big deal. Didn't fix it.

Second solution - tons of people say wheel bearings are the culprit. My cousins truck had exact same problem at exact same mileage (same truck except his was a 4x4) Shop wanted $800 to replace, easy pass. Got brand new front hubs from a vendor on TacomaWorld.com for $500 (which led me to the site), jacked up truck, bolted them in and...problem is still there. Didn't fix it.

Looking for more ideas now. I don't think it's a transmission issue, when I push clutch or put into neutral the noise does not go away.

I'm going to take it into an alignment guy near my house that advertises a $40 alignment next unless anyone has any better ideas.

Thanks!
-C

 

Had to replace a front driver wheel bearing at 55,000 miles. Had a roar in the front. Dealership changes it and said the passenger side was going bad too. Haven't had any issues so I didn't change it. Have 105,000 miles on it now, now other issues. May be worth looking into. My initial thought was tire roar.

 

I replaced the two front hubs. After reading so many threads pointing to this exact problem, I was surprised swapping them didn't fix the issue!

 

When you put it into 4wd, does the noise stop or continue?

 

Prerunner. No 4wd.

 

New tires and alignment didn't fix mine. Unless your tires are worn unevenly, you're wasting $40. Sorry I don't have a solution for you (yet).

 

Well darn. Maybe something with the flywheel or something like that? Making stuff up at this point.

 

Maybe a rear wheel bearing?

 

Well surprised to find this thread so easily. I've got a 2006, 2WD. SR5, just hit 140,000. Recently start hearing the harmonics at about 47 mph, let off the throttle it subsides. Does not seem to be affected if you swerve the wheel side to side. Had my mechanic drive it today, he heard it but could not come up with an answer. Thought I'd check here first before we put on a lift. Don't ever remember replacing wheel bearings, last main item was the u joints. Been looking at anything loose around the exterior or the wheel wells also.

 

Oh yeah, it's right there.....

 

This is my next guess.

1. So far, swapped out the front hubs for some prebuilt ones on Tacoma World - $500. Could have saved my money but so many people talk about how these go bad, I was SURE this was the issue...it wasn't. Old bearings weren't super smooth so I figure they would have gone anyway.
2. Got my tires rotated and balanced - free at America's Tire. Smoothed out front end a bit but noise is still there.
3. Changed rear diff fluid, going to change out trans fluid - cheap and it's due for it anyway. Diff fluid didn't solve noise.

Going to look at rear wheel bearing and if that's not it look at U-joints on the driveshaft.

 

U joints are cheaper than rear wheel bearings, but I just replaced mine (UJoints) and still have the roar. I ordered front hubs since I'm at 130k and it can't hurt anyway, but let me know if you end up replacing the rear wheel bearings.

 

Just a thought... Have you tried changing the diff fluid lately? There's a chance it's the differential howling.

I'm going to jump on it this week and I'll report back.

 

Update** didn't work. Changed front and rear diff fluid, noise is still there. Didn't get around to the transfer case yet, but it won't make a difference.

 

Did you try putting it in 4wd?

If the sound goes away, it's the needle bearing in the driver's side differential that's your issue. A new bushing from ECGS is the fix.

 

Already did the ecgs bushing. New wheels and tires, rotation/balance and diff fluid. Next is wheel hubs but the shop that did my alignment said my wheel bearings are fine.

 

Well been dragging my feet on this noise issue, getting louder, the guess still is front wheel bearings. I've looked at the kit supplied by Marionbumper2bumper, pretty slick. Maybe no cheaper, but all new parts and quicker to install. Question is how easy to install the front pair? Does the brake line need to be disconnected to move the caliper out of the way? Or just move it over and keep supported? The rest does not look like rocket science. Any other uninstall/install concerns? My "friend" professional mechanic wants $200 to install the set. Seem reasonable or dive in myself and get dirty for a couple of hours? Anyone know of a YouTube video installing this set? Hey BamaToy, any of your infamous sales coming up?

 

Will be doing the install with a friend when we install my lift. Have seen a video of a guy killing himself to swap out a 4Runner bearing/hub, but mainly because he wasn't familiar. Caliper should just move out of the way and tie up eliminating the need to remove the line. Seems pretty straight forward install, a lot cheaper than dealers. That $200 ain't bad though.

 

Unbolt the caliper and hang it off to the side, it's straight forward just takes a bit of persuasion to get the hub off.

 

Thanks.
Found this You Tube video, almost makes it look too simple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ-DGdt2J2U it is from another company(bluepitbearings.com video is also on their site) that puts the hub assembly together, they are a bit more expensive than the two on this site. Guess would be nice to have the impact gun. big need to torque the nuts? Harbor freight has torque wrench on sale for $10 right now. Just also need the 17mm and 35mm sockets.