LX450 Noise

[Subic]

Gentlemen,

I have a bit of a nasty noise that just popped up. The sound comes from under the front half of the car. It is a short rattly buzz noise, and I can feel vibrations from it through the floorboards. It is very intermittent, happening once every 10 minutes or so during city driving. It seems to occur when easing my foot off the throttle or coasting. The u-joints feel tight, and everything is lubed up.

Here is a short dashcam video of the noise:




Has anyone experienced something similar, and what ended up being the culprit? It is always a pain in the butt tracking something like this down.

Vehicle: 197 LX450 with 2.5" OME lift and 285 tires.

 

[inkpot]

Put some grease in the joints anyway.

 

[Subic]

Put some grease in the joints anyway.

I already did that a few days back! It resulted in zero change to the noise.

 

[rolliges]

Idler pulley (under alternator) is my guess.

Remove and tension belts.

You can replace it but it is not critical.

 

[FJROSS]

Exhaust shield???

 

[Rusty Marlin]

That sounds like a dry bearing to me.

 

[SteveL]

EGR Valve?

 

[Tools R Us]

Do the knuckles have moly grease? Should be 1/2-3/4 full.

 

[koifish]

Got the same issue. Only happened twice in last 2 years so I haven't looked deeper into it. I did grease knuckles and joints though just in case. I remember reading on here that @beno and others saying its one or both of the transfer case output bearings.

What are the symptoms of a U-Joint going bad?
80 series grinding in transmission/transfer case
Yet Another Driveline Noise Thread! - Help!

 

[Subic]

Gentlemen, I found the cause and got it repaired. It was a worn spindle bushing in the front end. Got both swapped out, and it is good to go!