Tick Tick Tick Tick Sound

[MCoupe]

OK, new sound on my 2000 2WD Tundra, 115,000 miles:

Tick, tick, tick, tick-tick-tick, tick, tick. Appears to be coming from my right front wheel, though since I only hear out of one ear. . . New sound in the last month or so. Only happens when truck is 'cold', but lately that is 70-75 degrees. Goes away after 3-4 minutes. Sometimes individual ticks, sometimes several grouped together (more than one tick at a time? Can't tell).

Speed dependant, so if I lift throttle, tick remains same, and if I hit the throttle, tick is the same (accounting for speed). If I steer right or left, sound unchanged. If I apply the brakes, or parking brake, sound is the same.

It is not detonation, I know that sound well. No pebbles or nails in the tire. I just had the oil changed, no difference. New plugs and air filter (time for those anyway). No sound at idle in driveway.

So what comes to mind is wheel bearing. But Tundra wheel bearings rarely go bad, and are expensive to HAVE replaced (hard core DIY-er myself, but this is a job I'll leave to the pros (in THIS vehicle, others may be easy)).

Front of truck jacked up, and I try to wiggle the wheels top-to-bottom and side-to-side, no movement/give, except a bit in the steering rack, that I would call normal. Tires spin by hand, no sound. Well, click as brake pads shift, then a bit of sounds as pads slip over disk. . . But truck was driven a few hours ago, I will repeat this test in the morning. As a shade tree mechanic, I would call this the gold standard test for wheel bearings (up and down = ball joint, side to side = tie rod end, both = bearings).

Any ideas? Suggestions? If it is wheel bearings, can I wait to fix it?

Thanks!

[LGL002]

Originally Posted by MCoupe

OK, new sound on my 2000 2WD Tundra, 115,000 miles:

Tick, tick, tick, tick-tick-tick, tick, tick. Appears to be coming from my right front wheel, though since I only hear out of one ear. . . New sound in the last month or so. Only happens when truck is 'cold', but lately that is 70-75 degrees. Goes away after 3-4 minutes. Sometimes individual ticks, sometimes several grouped together (more than one tick at a time? Can't tell).

Speed dependant, so if I lift throttle, tick remains same, and if I hit the throttle, tick is the same (accounting for speed). If I steer right or left, sound unchanged. If I apply the brakes, or parking brake, sound is the same.

It is not detonation, I know that sound well. No pebbles or nails in the tire. I just had the oil changed, no difference. New plugs and air filter (time for those anyway). No sound at idle in driveway.

So what comes to mind is wheel bearing. But Tundra wheel bearings rarely go bad, and are expensive to HAVE replaced (hard core DIY-er myself, but this is a job I'll leave to the pros (in THIS vehicle, others may be easy)).

Front of truck jacked up, and I try to wiggle the wheels top-to-bottom and side-to-side, no movement/give, except a bit in the steering rack, that I would call normal. Tires spin by hand, no sound. Well, click as brake pads shift, then a bit of sounds as pads slip over disk. . . But truck was driven a few hours ago, I will repeat this test in the morning. As a shade tree mechanic, I would call this the gold standard test for wheel bearings (up and down = ball joint, side to side = tie rod end, both = bearings).

Any ideas? Suggestions? If it is wheel bearings, can I wait to fix it?

Thanks!

Sounds like a cracked exhaust manifold a common problem with the early Tundra's. Mine cracked about two weeks ago and sounded just you're describing. I was lucky got in on the TS JBA header group buy and they arrived UPS today. It ended last Friday.

Larry

[MCoupe]

But was it speed dependant? I would have thought playing with the throttle would change that. . . But that's another test, shift into neutral going down a hill and rev it, see if it changes. Better than playing with the throttle while in Drive. I suppose the sound 'going away when warm' could be heat sealing the crack. . .

Something to check. Thanks!

[LGL002]

Mine had just cracked and I can hear it loudest when I first start the truck in my garage. After that I hear it when I drive slowly past a close object or building on the right side of the truck (window down) mostly under light acceleration. I have a Aero-Turbine muffler that exhausts at the factory position and that drowns out some of the ticking. Good luck finding the source of your ticking.

Larry

[MCoupe]

Bing bing bing bing! While drifting down a hill this morning I shifted into neutral and revved/idled the engine. It certainly is rpm dependant, making the cracked header very likely. And spinning the front wheels by hand while cold produced no noise. Thanks, Larry.

I suspect that this will end up cheaper than the wheel bearing to fix, as I can (I assume. . .) do the work myself. Too bad I missed the group buy!

Alright, header, front bumper, rear bumper. . . Only a few more bad parts and it will be cheaper to buy a parts truck!

[Wstar425]

Lots of info under the engine forum on this but I would bet my pink slip that the exhaust manifold is cracked or leaking somehow. The problem is what to do about it. There is a good chance that the other side is ticking also and you just can't hear it over the bad side. The replacements from Toyota don't seem to have been improved at all so original replacements may just give you the problem again in a few years/months.

JBA headers seem to be the way to go lately by most. Then you have the install on both sides instead of just replacing the manifold on one and extra $'s

I elected to just replace the one side that was ticking for money's sake. Now the other side is also ticking though not as bad and it doesn't bother me as much since it is on the passenger side. I only hear it when I am along a wall or something on my right side. So, now do I replace that with stock or ditch the almost new left side and go with JBA headers? I did the job myself, it was not a lot of fun but not impossible by any means. Air tools helped immensely, otherwise I think it could be a real project. If I had to do it again I think I could do it quite a bit quicker and with a lot less frustration, but hope I don't have to prove it.

The ticking does seem to go away when the engine/exhaust warms up but if you pull a heavy load you will notice that it is still there. Igot sick of listening to it while pulling the horse trailer and sort of think that I actually compensated in the way I drove to try and eliminate most of the heavy throttle applications. It was like getting a new truck and an extra 50 ponies after replacing the manifold, but my gas mileage probably dropped like a rock!

Go do some reading in the engine forum under manifold/header/ exhaust. Probably not an easy decision where one right solution is the correct one for everybody. I think the one smart thing to NOT do is give a Toyota dealer anything like $1300.00 to fix a problem that they should be taking care of at NO COST TO US!

Happy Hauling,

Doug