indycole
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More Cruise Moab — The Chicken Corners Ladies' Run along with the unfortunate demise of my engine.
@mcgaskins @Mendocino
@mcgaskins @Mendocino
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WOW, awesome photos Cole!!!There's no final conclusion on the CV yet but I'll say it's been a bit of an ordeal. I think it's straightened out now but I'm holding my breath until the work is done. On the plus side, the seat belt tensioner recall work was done on my truck while it was at the dealer.
I've also finally gotten around to pulling Cruise Moab photos off my devices as well as some photos from LCDC.
I'll start with a few from the Four Corners area before CM.
Monument Valley, Ouray in May, and Shiprock
I've gathered newfound respect for the strength of the CV on our trucks. I alluded to some CV problems in recent posts and now have enough information worth sharing to help prevent future problems.
Prior to LCDC, I visited the local Toyota dealer for a maintenance interval and asked them to look into a reproducible steering noise. They pretty quickly concluded that the UCA bushings needed replaced and we ended up getting Jason's UCAs overnighted so the truck would be ready in time to leave for Colorado.
Our first day offroad in CO I noticed significant popping/clicking from the frontend on the drivers side when the axle was under load. I didn't notice any play in the axle or leaking boots so I simply kept my eye on it. I also took it very easy on the front end while on other trails during the trip. By the end I just felt paranoid because there was no visible issue with the axle at all... for all I knew the tire was rubbing in a way that was hard to see while driving. I did notice the noise get worse throughout the week.
2500 mile round trip later and I heard the noise in on pavement after making a very tight turn. We took the truck back to Toyota last Monday after unloading our gear from the Ouray trip. At this point I just thought I'd damaged the CV in Ouray but was convinced that there was a problem with the axle. It took nearly a week of debate, swapping service advisors, and a ride-a-long with the shop foreman for the dealer service center to even be willing to inspect the axle. The original paperwork mid-week indicated that the noise is normal.
It took chatting with @TRAIL TAILOR to connect the dots between the UCA swap and the noise. The noise came up the day after the UCA swap but I'd simply forgotten that correlation. I blame the San Juans and lots of beer within those two weeks.
I brought up the theory that something went amiss during the UCA install with my regular service advisor (who had returned from vacation... could have used him last week) and he worked his magic to validate whether the shop had made a mistake. Sure enough, upon removing the axle they found that it wasn't seated into the diff perfectly AND that some combination of the ball bearings and clip weren't in place which indicated either the hub was dropped forcefully or they were using too much leverage off the hub when doing the suspension work. The axle is hosed and at this point we're not sure if the front diff needs an inspection as well.
Anyway, just wanted to go back to the fact that I'm still impressed with the CV surviving six days of moderate trails in the San Juans despite who knows what was going on in the joints. I don't have photos I can share, yet, but there was a ton of abnormal wear, burrs, etc. around the race and cage due to the bearings not being in the correct position.
The funny thing is that it's going to take like 2 weeks to get the parts so I'm picking the truck up tonight to at least have it to drive around until they're ready for it.
I've gathered newfound respect for the strength of the CV on our trucks. I alluded to some CV problems in recent posts and now have enough information worth sharing to help prevent future problems.
Prior to LCDC, I visited the local Toyota dealer for a maintenance interval and asked them to look into a reproducible steering noise. They pretty quickly concluded that the UCA bushings needed replaced and we ended up getting Jason's UCAs overnighted so the truck would be ready in time to leave for Colorado.
Our first day offroad in CO I noticed significant popping/clicking from the frontend on the drivers side when the axle was under load. I didn't notice any play in the axle or leaking boots so I simply kept my eye on it. I also took it very easy on the front end while on other trails during the trip. By the end I just felt paranoid because there was no visible issue with the axle at all... for all I knew the tire was rubbing in a way that was hard to see while driving. I did notice the noise get worse throughout the week.
2500 mile round trip later and I heard the noise in on pavement after making a very tight turn. We took the truck back to Toyota last Monday after unloading our gear from the Ouray trip. At this point I just thought I'd damaged the CV in Ouray but was convinced that there was a problem with the axle. It took nearly a week of debate, swapping service advisors, and a ride-a-long with the shop foreman for the dealer service center to even be willing to inspect the axle. The original paperwork mid-week indicated that the noise is normal.
It took chatting with @TRAIL TAILOR to connect the dots between the UCA swap and the noise. The noise came up the day after the UCA swap but I'd simply forgotten that correlation. I blame the San Juans and lots of beer within those two weeks.
I brought up the theory that something went amiss during the UCA install with my regular service advisor (who had returned from vacation... could have used him last week) and he worked his magic to validate whether the shop had made a mistake. Sure enough, upon removing the axle they found that it wasn't seated into the diff perfectly AND that some combination of the ball bearings and clip weren't in place which indicated either the hub was dropped forcefully or they were using too much leverage off the hub when doing the suspension work. The axle is hosed and at this point we're not sure if the front diff needs an inspection as well.
Anyway, just wanted to go back to the fact that I'm still impressed with the CV surviving six days of moderate trails in the San Juans despite who knows what was going on in the joints. I don't have photos I can share, yet, but there was a ton of abnormal wear, burrs, etc. around the race and cage due to the bearings not being in the correct position.
The funny thing is that it's going to take like 2 weeks to get the parts so I'm picking the truck up tonight to at least have it to drive around until they're ready for it.
I brought up the theory that something went amiss during the UCA install with my regular service advisor (who had returned from vacation... could have used him last week) and he worked his magic to validate whether the shop had made a mistake. Sure enough, upon removing the axle they found that it wasn't seated into the diff perfectly AND that some combination of the ball bearings and clip weren't in place which indicated either the hub was dropped forcefully or they were using too much leverage off the hub when doing the suspension work. The axle is hosed and at this point we're not sure if the front diff needs an inspection as well.
Yeah, I've yet to hear of a 200 series CV failure. Unlike FJs and Tacomas. Those tend to fail more frequently. So much so, I use to carry a spare CV (and tie rods) in my FJ, but I've never felt the need in the 200.
Just a little after work project. 2m x 1250mm Eezi Awn K9 rack.
View attachment 2057771
View attachment 2057772
City life...Nice!
But... That workspace.... !
...that lighting...!
View attachment 2057771
Looks like a a scene from Aliens... or those notorious boiler room scenes...with some scary thing around the next corner...
Is that the rack you already had under your tent?
Just a little after work project. 2m x 1250mm Eezi Awn K9 rack.
Is that the rack you already had under your tent?
Is that on the 65mm feet?
The truck is back now with a fresh CV. Unfortunately, while the clicking noise is gone I'm still getting a popping noise that deserves attention. Toyota offered to keep looking into it but I elected to take the truck back and investigate further on my own.
Lo and behold, a couple miles after leaving the dealer I got a brand new noise.... ugh.
It definitely sounds like something in the hub area wasn't re-assembled correctly (read further below for a recording). I'm going to check out the dust shield, calipers, and brake pads as soon as I can. Heck, maybe even the brake lines or sensors? This is definitely getting frustrating. We were planning on some camping this weekend but now that's not happening.
Let's review the timeline for the past few months. Prior to Cruise Moab the truck had zero known issues.
May
June
- Cruise Moab: Fins, Dome Plateau, ToTW, Chicken Corners
- Hydrolocked engine plus rod thrown through oil pan
- Truck lived at Glenwood Springs Toyota for all of May
July
- Picked up the truck in early June from Glenwood. No issues aside from a wicked pull to the right.
- Had the undercarriage steam-cleaned to take care of the Moab mud.
- Alignment at a local specialty shop... results were "okay" but was still getting a pull to the right.
- Picked up the XV3 trailer and moved a fair amount of weight to the trailer.
- Still no major issues at this point aside from the pull to the right. No driveline, suspension, or brake noises.
August
- Snorkel install and pretty standard round of maintenance at Valley Hybrids (front, rear, and t-case service, grease drive shafts, adjust parking brake)
- 55k service at Toyota including a full alignment, replacement of the UCAs, and investigation into a couple noises. The SPC UCA bushings and boots were worn out which resulted in excess play and the beginning of some noticeable noise. I verified and heard the noise before replacing. I couldn't get replacement SPCs (or rebuild kits) in time so I took the opportunity to try out Jason's UCAs which would be available the next day. Toyota completed the install and the new alignment was really dialed-in.
- The truck felt great after picking it up. I did notice the whistling/chirping noise a day or two later but wasn't too surprised since they said they couldn't reproduce that.
- We did the 1500 mile drive to Ouray with no issues. The first time we were on a trail with the center diff locked, though, we heard the clicking/popping noise at mid-turn that prompted the most recent round of work with Toyota upon our return.
Now, we have 3 noises:
- We didn't notice any performance issues with the truck in Ouray despite the clicking/popping noise. I also don't recall hearing the whistling noise while we were in Colorado.
- The truck has been in and out of the dealer since our return from Ouray. At this point we have a new CV but that part replacement didn't seem to correct whatever the underlying culprit is.
Whistling/Chirping: The whistling/chirping noise that we've had for a while. The dust shields, calipers, and brake pads have been inspected three times but now I guess I'll take another look now that we have the new metallic groan.
Metallic Groaning: This is the brand new one.
Front-End Popping: I'll update with a video of this one in a bit. It sounds quite a bit like a tire rubbing on components but that's definitely not happening because we've been able to hear the noise while observing the tire rotate freely. It's worth noting that the noise is much more pronounced once the truck is warmed up.
Perhaps all of these noises are related. Perhaps none of them are. Perhaps two of them are and the other is completely separate? I'm expecting to find something obvious regarding the new metallic groaning and will focus the debugging on the concerning frontend noise.
Thoughts on potential causes:
- Botched CV Axle Install => I really, really doubt Toyota messed up an axle swap that was done under warranty. We all thought the CV replacement would completely address the issue and from what I could observe have no concerns here.
- Wheel Bearings => seems unlikely, but I'm going to inspect what I can as part of looking at the dust shields, brakes, calipers again
- U-Joints => Again, seems unlikely since they've been inspected a couple times, but I'll take a closer look.
- Front Diff => The problem may be here. Perhaps the damaged CV damaged the diff? Maybe the diff caused the problem to begin with? I'll see what I learn by removing the front propeller shaft.
- UCAs / Suspension => It would be pretty strange for the problem to be here as the problem only arises with the transfer case locked. That said, I'm going to do some more careful parking lot testing with the center diff open to see if I can pick up any noises at all.
- Transfer Case => Let's see what's up with the front diff first.
Anything else worth looking into?