cool_hand_luke
05-16-2010, 07:35 PM
Friends,
I've only made a few posts on this forum. Frankly, I have learned much more than I have contributed. Thanks to the great folks here and this great community for sharing. I am going to share a post here in case someone else has the same problem.
I own a 2007 Tacoma Double Cab Pre-Runner with approximately 46,000 miles. About a week ago I noticed a high pitched squeal/squeak for a day. I thought it might possibly be a u-joint, but since the squeal/squeak noise only lasted a day I didn't investigate.
About three days after I noticed the squeal noise, my Tacoma began to experience a shake/vibration on deceleration from 20 mph to 0 mph. The shake/vibration was very noticeable, and I immediately suspected a u-joint problem. I crawled under my Tacoma and tried to rotate the driveshaft, expecting to feel some play. Zero, nada, zilch. The driveshaft had no play whatsoever. I grabbed a flashlight to more closely examine the u-joints... they all looked perfect! No sign of rust, no sign of wear, no indicator that there could be a u-joint problem.
After my inspection I thought, 'it can't be a u-joint, they all look fine, it MUST be something else.' So I drove the truck for another day and the deceleration shake got worse. Not knowing what else to do, I thought I'd chance it and replace my u-joints -- I stopped by NAPA and picked up 3 u-joints @ $13/each.
Today I dropped the shaft and IMMEDIATELY noticed that the u-joint near the differential and the u-joint adjacent to the carrier bearing could only move easily in one direction. 'Ah-ha,' I thought.
Sure enough, as I popped out the factory u-joints I saw the tell-tale signs of a failing u-joint: RUST. On the u-joint closest to the differential two of the four spiders had rust -- no sign of grease in those two spiders. On the u-joint closest to the carrier bearing one of the four spiders had rust, again, no sign of grease in that one spider.
Long story longer, I replaced all three u-joints and the truck runs buttery smooth again.
I've done u-joint work before, and what puzzled me with the Tacoma is that there were NO VISIBLE SIGNS OF WEAR OR RUST and NO PLAY IN THE DRIVESHAFT. The rubber boots that come with u-joints were all in tact and showed no sign of wear or failure.
I hope this post may help someone else in the future.
Andy
I've only made a few posts on this forum. Frankly, I have learned much more than I have contributed. Thanks to the great folks here and this great community for sharing. I am going to share a post here in case someone else has the same problem.
I own a 2007 Tacoma Double Cab Pre-Runner with approximately 46,000 miles. About a week ago I noticed a high pitched squeal/squeak for a day. I thought it might possibly be a u-joint, but since the squeal/squeak noise only lasted a day I didn't investigate.
About three days after I noticed the squeal noise, my Tacoma began to experience a shake/vibration on deceleration from 20 mph to 0 mph. The shake/vibration was very noticeable, and I immediately suspected a u-joint problem. I crawled under my Tacoma and tried to rotate the driveshaft, expecting to feel some play. Zero, nada, zilch. The driveshaft had no play whatsoever. I grabbed a flashlight to more closely examine the u-joints... they all looked perfect! No sign of rust, no sign of wear, no indicator that there could be a u-joint problem.
After my inspection I thought, 'it can't be a u-joint, they all look fine, it MUST be something else.' So I drove the truck for another day and the deceleration shake got worse. Not knowing what else to do, I thought I'd chance it and replace my u-joints -- I stopped by NAPA and picked up 3 u-joints @ $13/each.
Today I dropped the shaft and IMMEDIATELY noticed that the u-joint near the differential and the u-joint adjacent to the carrier bearing could only move easily in one direction. 'Ah-ha,' I thought.
Sure enough, as I popped out the factory u-joints I saw the tell-tale signs of a failing u-joint: RUST. On the u-joint closest to the differential two of the four spiders had rust -- no sign of grease in those two spiders. On the u-joint closest to the carrier bearing one of the four spiders had rust, again, no sign of grease in that one spider.
Long story longer, I replaced all three u-joints and the truck runs buttery smooth again.
I've done u-joint work before, and what puzzled me with the Tacoma is that there were NO VISIBLE SIGNS OF WEAR OR RUST and NO PLAY IN THE DRIVESHAFT. The rubber boots that come with u-joints were all in tact and showed no sign of wear or failure.
I hope this post may help someone else in the future.
Andy