Do you hear gear whine? - Edit: Now Wheel Bearings?

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AeroAggie

AeroAggie

10 Year
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Threads
20
Messages
123
Location
USA, Mexico
I don't remember hearing any drivetrain noises when I bought my cruiser a month ago, but now I definitely hear a very faint *something*. It's a 2010 with 140,000 miles.

It is speed sensitive, it is definitely not tires (like-new Bridgestone Duellers), and I don't think it's CVs. My first thought was low/old diff fluid, but when I opened the diff filler plug it drooled out some fluid and it still looked and felt like new. I don't think it's transfer case either, as the noise kinda feels like it's in front of me. It's faint under power, and becomes a wee bit more noticable when coasting or braking at low speed. It doesn't sound bad, but it bothers me that I don't remember hearing it the first couple of weeks but I do now after spending a lot more time in it.

It's probably nothing at all but after many wheel bearing, drive shaft, and differential failures in previous vehicles, I'm a little bit paranoid when I start to hear new noises in the expensive hard parts.
 
Noise update: I've rotated tires and replaced front diff fluid and the noise hasn't changed. I'm now thinking wheel bearings or maybe some other bearing in the front diff or axles.

I jacked up the front end and tried to wiggle the wheels at 12 and 6 hand positions - they felt pretty damn solid. Maybe they're just not worn enough to feel it by hand yet. I still need to go do circles in a parking lot and see if it changes with a turning load.

Are any of the other bearings in the front axles likely failure candidates? Pinion maybe? I still feel like it's a little more gear whine than bearing grind, and a bad pinion bearing could allow for some gear slop. I just don't know how common these kinds of failures are on a 200 (I'm only a couple months into ownership). On the other hand, my old Bronco would ruin a wheel bearing about once a year.
 
I have 1 2011 lx. (61,000) I have a whine at 45 mph. Lexus dealer told me tires were cupped (BFG less then 9k) Went back to Discount tires 3 times. The took tires back (85%) discount on new tires. Switched to Michelin tire. Still have issue. Going back to LX dealer tomorrow.
 
FYI when you have noises of any kind, just take a video and post it for people to listen to. Noises are so subjective it's nearly impossible for people to guess what the problem is. My water pump is making a noise, so I took a video and emailed the link to my service advisor and he put me on the schedule for a replacement. If I just emailed him a description of what I was hearing, I'll bet they would have had the car for a day and charged a diagnostic fee to tell me what the 30 second video clip told them.
 
mcgaskins said:
FYI when you have noises of any kind, just take a video and post it for people to listen to. Noises are so subjective it's nearly impossible for people to guess what the problem is. My water pump is making a noise, so I took a video and emailed the link to my service advisor and he put me on the schedule for a replacement. If I just emailed him a description of what I was hearing, I'll bet they would have had the car for a day and charged a diagnostic fee to tell me what the 30 second video clip told them.
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Great idea. I will post next time I drive vehicle. My bigger issue is dealer said they drove vehicle at 60k service. If they drove vehicle, it never went above 40mph. There solution was to say tires were cupped, and add 10 psi to each tire.
 
Sorry for the late follow up, I haven't been on the forums in a while. My problem turned out to be rear wheel bearings. One side had a leaky seal and water got to the bearing. I had both sides replaced as a precaution; I'm a believer in "while you're in there..." preventative maintenance. Should be good for another 100k or more.
 
AeroAggie said:
Sorry for the late follow up, I haven't been on the forums in a while. My problem turned out to be rear wheel bearings. One side had a leaky seal and water got to the bearing. I had both sides replaced as a precaution; I'm a believer in "while you're in there..." preventative maintenance. Should be good for another 100k or more.
Click to expand...

Thanks for update.

Curious what the cost was at your shop...
 
Markuson said:
Thanks for update.

Curious what the cost was at your shop...
Click to expand...

I used a local Lexus dealership (I've found they're actually cheaper than the Toyota dealer, different owners). The total was $3000 to do both sides. That's not an easy pill to swallow, but for me in this case, it was worth it. Parts are about $400/side. The inner bearing race is press fit onto the axle, and is apparently an extraordinary bitch to cut off. You can't just press it off, can't hammer it off, gotta cut it. The book labor to do the job is about 8 hours, and they used every bit of that and more.

I could have probably saved a little money and used an independent mechanic, but they likely wouldn't use OEM parts unless I provided them, wouldn't have OEM tools for any specialty things (I don't know if there were any in this case), and they wouldn't have provided a free loaner car. I'm happy to do most simple jobs myself but this was not one I could do over a weekend in the driveway, I couldn't take off work if something went wrong, and I had a long road trip scheduled the week after. I hit the easy button.
 
It’s identical to the tundra bearing and they are getting replaced periodically on the trucks.

Mine are going/gone too, but I’m waiting for warmer weather to address.
 
I'm a third owner, what I can verify from owner #2 was he drove it a lot for several years in TX, in the oil business. To me that means lots of non paved, but probably not too gnarly roads. He was some sort of engineer type.
Owner number one used it mainly as a kid mobile, and it saw much malling. Owner number one was wife of owner number 2 buddy.
I can infer mileage from the Lexus service records, but it is essentially 25K per year. Apparently LX570 owners in TX drive a lot.
 
Unfortunately the 200 didn't get the full floater that the 80 had. Semi-floating axles have a bearing retainer that needs to be cut off, then the bearing's inner race may need to be cut off as well. A press is almost essential for the installation of the bearing and retainer.

From a Tundra video I watched, it appears there's some additional work of separating the bearing assembly from the backing plate, but I couldn't tell due to the poor lighting of the video.
 
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