Grumble when Decelerating / Driveshaft U-Joint? (1 Viewer)

[Snow Wagon]

Hello Forum,
This started a little over 300 miles ago, right after a 1500 mile trip from Pittsburgh to Denver with a small (5' x 8') U-Haul trailer behind.

2003 LX470 w/ 118k miles.
Tons of work done 2k miles ago (more or less baselined...), prior to the 1500 mile trip.
- Driveshafts lubed:
- Slip Joints with Valvoline SynPower Moly-Fortified Synthetic Grease #2
- U-Joints with Mobil 1 Synthetic Grease #2
- No noticeable noise prior to greasing...
- Repacked Both Front Wheel Bearings
- New (Rebuilt) Front Brake Calipers and Pads
- All Fluids Changed (Axles, Transfer Case, Transmission, Power Steering, etc.)
- Bunch of other stuff...

Initially, it was very faint grumble, primarily when going up or down hill and taking my foot off the gas, not hitting the brakes, between 30 and 40 MPH.
It I'd give it gas or hit the brakes, the grumble would go away.

Now I can hear the grumble, a little louder, between 20 and 40 MPH, also when slowing down.
I think I can now hear it a little even when I've got the brakes slightly on.
Give it some gas and it goes away.

I believe it only happens once it's been driven some miles (i.e. after things warm up).

What do you think?
Driveshaft U-Joint?

I'm in Denver now, without most of my tools, so I'll probably have to take it somewhere to be checked out / worked on.
If the consensus is U-Joint(s), can anyone in / near Denver recommend a shop to install the new U-Joints and balance the shaft.
I'd probably start with the rear.

Any help / advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Tom

P.S. I've spent 2+ hours looking thru the Forum and haven't found anything that exactly matches my issue. Maybe I just wasn't searching the right words?

 

[Snow Wagon]

Hello Forum,
Any thoughts?
Feedback is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Tom

 

[gregnash]

Can you feel it if you put your hand on the shifter? Could be bearings, could be transfer case, could be u-joints, could be a lot of things. When was the last time you checked the fluid on the tranny?

 

[Snow Wagon]

All fluids were changed, then checked, right before I left on the trip.
So about 1800 miles ago.
About 200 miles ago Slee did a transmission fluid exchange.
The grumble started maybe 100 miles before the transmission fluid exchange and Slee wasn't able to recreate the grumble at the time.
I can now easily recreate it...
Unfortunately I don't know if I can feel it when my hand is on the shifter, and I'm not in Denver at the moment.
I'm hoping to order / bring the parts with me on my next trip to Denver in 3 weeks.

 

[tellurado]

My experience with rumble/vibrations is they can be hard to pin point. Throwing parts at it can be expensive and inconclusive at times. I would recommend only using factory parts as aftermarket parts have thrown me thru a loop on diagnostics. If you can replicate the vibration easily, take it to a good tech who knows LC's and let them hear it and diagnosis it. Wheel bearings, especially the front can make all kinds of weird symptoms. Very well could be u-joints or the actual slip joints on the driveshafts could be bad. Could be worn cv's... Hard sayin' not knowin' Good luck!

 

[hondarepairman]

Never seen it on a 100 but that kinda sounds like a pinion bearing issue. Maybe pull a prop shaft and lock the center diff then take it for a spin. Good time to give the ujoints a good feel too. Have fun.

 

[atnolan94]

Yes this is possible, mine was doing it. Swapping u joints is really not expensive and can’t hurt. Mine were trashed at 257k. I still need to do my front DS. Doing the rear fixed all my accel and decel vibes from the rear.

 

[Mike NXP]

Would you be able to pop it into neutral while the noise is happening? Maybe it will help narrow down where it's coming from.

 

[Couvi]

Just had a similar thing happen on my wife's 2005 sequoia (2wd). Had a bad vibration starting at around 35-40 mph, felt like front left wheel bearing. My shop thought it might be tires as all bearings looked good, then it started getting louder and moved to 50-65 mph, vibrated the whole truck – felt like we were in a twin-engine prop plane. It ended up being the rear u joint, was rusted out. Riding smooth now at 140k.

 

[atnolan94]

Just had a similar thing happen on my wife's 2005 sequoia (2wd). Had a bad vibration starting at around 35-40 mph, felt like front left wheel bearing. My shop thought it might be tires as all bearings looked good, then it started getting louder and moved to 50-65 mph, vibrated the whole truck – felt like we were in a twin-engine prop plane. It ended up being the rear u joint, was rusted out. Riding smooth now at 140k.

Ditto this is exactly how I would characterize it. Mine started abruptly after this summer’s wheeling trip.

 

[abuck99]

At your mileage ujoints should be ok- unless something (worn or broken bushes and mounts) was very much misaligned for a while.

Anyway- read through this post to help you narrow in on the area of concern.

Pulsing/droning vibration at highway speeds

This diff bushing won't cure driveline vibes. Even brand new the bushing flex's quite a bit. Replacing that may help cure a portion of the D-N-R clunk but thats about it. Driveline vibes are hard to isolate with out removing prop shafts one at a time and test driving with CDL locked. Once you...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Snow Wagon]

Thank you all for the replies.
I'm hopeful that it's a driveshaft u-joint.
I'll update the post once I've tried 1 or more fixes.
Tom

 

[shiretowndown]

Thank you all for the replies.
I'm hopeful that it's a driveshaft u-joint.
I'll update the post once I've tried 1 or more fixes.
Tom

Any update?