Help Diagnosing Noise (1 Viewer)

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Tonight, turning left and pulling into a parking spot the front end made pretty loud rubbing grinding noise. My wife thought maybe the tires were rubbing on some snow buildup. However, there was no buildup. I had her drive slowly turning sharp left then right, forward and reverse. It made noise turning both directions going forward, but no noise in reverse. There was also a bit of a pop on the right hub while turning sharp left. The truck felt a little like it was in 4WD and binding.

We were 40 miles from home. Not much else to do but head home. On the way home we stopped at Costco for a few things and of course some gas. While I was waiting for my wife I thought I'd try some more turning to get it to make the noise again. But I could not get pops or grinding. Nothing. All is fine. Id like to just figure "yay, its fixed" but that doesnt seem possible. Now what?

Oh. There's 207,000 miles on it. I repacked the front bearings about 2 years /15,000 miles ago. Have not had any issues with it. It was just preventative maintenance. Original axles.
 
We drove the rest of the way home last night. I checked again when we got home to see if I could get the noise by turning sharp both ways. Still nothing.
 
We drove the rest of the way home last night. I checked again when we got home to see if I could get the noise by turning sharp both ways. Still nothing.
I am currently up against a very similar issue . The only difference is you said grinding, mine is all popping.

If the issue is popping at full wheel lock and it's only happens sometimes due to how the weight of your rig is shifted. Your steering stopper ( on backside lower control arm ) is contacting the knuckle and when the weight of the vehicle shifts on some occasions it will slip and pop. You could try to re-create the noise in a parking lot by turning full wheel lock and tapping the brakes, it will shift the weight around and you might hear a pop.
>> You could probably get down there and check to see if you have signs of the metal wearing.

I suppose other concerns would be a possible issue with your CVs, something not torqued down properly in the control arms or steering components, loose shock, or other things along that line , but not likely.
>> Have you had any recent work done?



Relevant thread here

>> sounds like this ?



pic of steering stopper and where it contacts. Under normal conditions it sits nicely in that pocket / flat part of the metal. But when bucking around on some snow / ice / tapping brakes / etc. the weight shifts and sometimes it rolls off and pops.

1674851575088-png.3231101



This never happened to my rig until my recent steering rack replacement which is a bummer but after researching it does appear to be kind of a common thing, especially on older four runners and t100.

The fix? A dab of grease and little plastic caps on the steering stopper to soften the blow.


Diagnosis could be way off but it does sound like this could be your problem based on my recent experience.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I'll check into that for sure.

No recent work done. Last thing done up front was repacking the wheel bearings a couple years ago. I'm wondering if I need to check the C clips to make sure they are still right.
 
Thanks for the reply. I'll check into that for sure.

No recent work done. Last thing done up front was repacking the wheel bearings a couple years ago. I'm wondering if I need to check the C clips to make sure they are still right.
A visual inspection should be able to tell you if the CVs are fully seated. While your down there you can crawl under and check out the backside of the control arm to see the stopper.

If you have a second set of hands, have someone in the rig turning the wheel and gently have it go to full lock. you can see where the stopper is contacting.

Just my guess based on what you have shared so far but it could be something else.
 

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