My front end has deteriorated can you help me name the usual suspects. (2 Viewers)

[yz125]

120k 2014 GX460 all stock.

Over the last 20k miles I have developed what I personally know as "Toyota truck s***ty front end syndrome".

I don't know if there really is a universal syndrome, but I do know that I have observed similar symptoms on various 4runners, Tacomas, and now my GX. It spans many generations from the 2000's to at least the 2015's, and it is a multifaceted syndrome that is rarely cured by treating one cause.

Given my experience with the syndrome, I would like to take a multidisciplinary approach treating brakes, shocks, bushings, control arms, and god dangit the steering rack too if we have to, in an effort but not a hope to completely nail it down.

Symptoms: Pulsating brakes at low speed, braking vibration at high speed, non-braking vibration at high speed almost like the front tires are fighting each other and oscillating between toe in and toe out, and several knocking noises one of which is in the steering column and the other is in I would guess the control rods.

To start I know I will go after:

New shocks
New lower control arms with ball joints and bushings pre-installed
Wheel Balance and Alignment
Control rod ends
New brake pads and rotors

But what else can I add to the list? I assume there is an upper part I am not too familiar yet but an upper control arm?

On the steering rack, what is known to go bad there is it more likely to be steering rack mounts and/or mount bushings, or is the steering rack itself a likely culprit?

Are the sway bars often implicated too?

 

[r2m]

120k 2014 GX460 all stock.

Over the last 20k miles I have developed what I personally know as "Toyota truck s***ty front end syndrome".

I don't know if there really is a universal syndrome, but I do know that I have observed similar symptoms on various 4runners, Tacomas, and now my GX. It spans many generations from the 2000's to at least the 2015's, and it is a multifaceted syndrome that is rarely cured by treating one cause.

Given my experience with the syndrome, I would like to take a multidisciplinary approach treating brakes, shocks, bushings, control arms, and god dangit the steering rack too if we have to, in an effort but not a hope to completely nail it down.

Symptoms: Pulsating brakes at low speed, braking vibration at high speed, non-braking vibration at high speed almost like the front tires are fighting each other and oscillating between toe in and toe out, and several knocking noises one of which is in the steering column and the other is in I would guess the control rods.

To start I know I will go after:

New shocks
New lower control arms with ball joints and bushings pre-installed
Wheel Balance and Alignment
Control rod ends
New brake pads and rotors

But what else can I add to the list? I assume there is an upper part I am not too familiar yet but an upper control arm?

On the steering rack, what is known to go bad there is it more likely to be steering rack mounts and/or mount bushings, or is the steering rack itself a likely culprit?

Are the sway bars often implicated too?

I had the "pulsing" brakes also. They would sometimes be kind of smooth and but then pulse at various speeds all the way down to a slow stop. It also affected panic stops. I'd hit the brakes, but not enough to lock them and they would lock unexpectedly.
Had them trued and surfaced, haven't had an issue since.
Rather than spend a bunch of $$ on rotors and pads, unless of course they're too worn down for truing, I'd just have your rotors turned and resurfaced.
Start there, should only cost about $100.00 for all four corners and can be done in a day.
It's cheap and a good place to start narrowing down issues.

Another item you didn't mention were your ball joints and wheel bearings?
Take it to a "good" 5 star () on Yelp alignment shop and have them look at it.

 

[SteadfastRocky]

How are your tires wearing, is there abnormal wear?

How does your PS fluid look, is the fluid low?

Get it on some jack stands or a lift and start wiggling things.

How do the rubber bushings look, a little cracking is expected, but chunked, or missing is the starting point?

Have any witness marked bolts moved, especially on the cam tabs?

Go through and nut and bolt with a torque wrench.

How is your front drive shaft lube situation? Is there abnormal play in the U joints.

What condition are the CV boots in?

Get your break rotors turned, easy and a good place to start. Is the break feedback mostly through the wheel or is it in the pedal as well? (like Richard said)

If everything above looks ok, I would get an alignment.

I would avoid throwing parts at it until you get these baselines taken care of.

The intermediate shaft on Toyotas is notorious for creating a knocking noise.

 

[re_guderian]

...Another item you didn't mention were your ball joints and wheel bearings?...

^^^ This. Though 120K is pretty low for both. I had 2 100-series cruisers simultaneously. One being a soccer-mom rig rode fabulously over bumps, just soaking them up. The other rode like crap, despite steering rack bushings, shocks, shock bushings, UCA (with bushings), different torsion bars, you name it. Still sucked. New lower ball joints fixed the teeth-jarring rattle going over expansion joints in a normal road. I didn't realize the impact they were having until they started screeching while turning, they were that far gone. I have had a front wheel bearing go out on my GX 460 at about 170K. Bad bearings can cause some of the symptoms you list, as well as what sounds like mud tire tread noise while turning, but only in one direction. Good luck chasing this down. When everything is "tight", these trucks ride amazing. It sucks when it isn't, though.

 

[Rednexus]

Totally agree on wheel bearings, they are usually toast by 100-150K. My GX is at 173K and is on it's second set. They are both cheap and easy to replace (<1 hr per side to DIY).

Regarding the steering rack, my bushings were shot around 160K. If you park the rig and have someone site inside and turn the wheel side-to-side, you can watch for movement in the rack. Mine had a good inch of side-to-side play which caused all sorts of issues. All of it was due to the bushings. I just put in a Cardone reman rack (<$300) which has been totally fine for around 1.5 years now.

For your other questions - I replaced the entire front suspension on my GX at ~145K (shocks, LCAs, UCAs, tie rod ends, sway bar end links, sway bar bushings). My OEM parts, when I pulled them off, were a bit "loose" but not shot. However it is certainly not a bad idea to do a full suspension refresh on a higher-mileage GX - but at that point I'd suggest also putting on a lift or other aftermarket shock upgrade as it's honestly cheaper than OEM replacement shocks. If you are staying stock height, I'd start with the wheel bearings and steering rack and push the suspension refresh off if those two ideas end up being the problem.

 

[yz125]

Thank you guys.

I will examine the wheel bearings. Ball joints I thought would be a given as part of the LCA. But maybe I need to get more familiar.

That intermediate shaft sounds like exactly what part of my knock is coming from and I'll look into that. It really bugs me even when the rest of the symptoms weren't present.

@Rednexus Did you put a replacement rack in because the bushings are integral or something, or could I possibly just need bushings?

 

[SteadfastRocky]

Thank you guys.

I will examine the wheel bearings. Ball joints I thought would be a given as part of the LCA. But maybe I need to get more familiar.

That intermediate shaft sounds like exactly what part of my knock is coming from and I'll look into that. It really bugs me even when the rest of the symptoms weren't present.

@Rednexus Did you put a replacement rack in because the bushings are integral or something, or could I possibly just need bushings?

The intermediate shafts (there are 2 are pretty easy to check and diagnose.

Also, the LCA ball joint is kind of its own piece. there are 2 bolts that hold it onto the the LCA.

 

[re_guderian]

I've not heard of many steering rack issues on the 460. The 100 series, especially '98-'02, had a horrific design. Not sure if the design of the GX 470 that @Rednexus has is more similar to later model 100 series than 460's? And yes, if you buy lca with ball joint, problem solved. I'm not a "throw tons of new parts at it" kind of guy unless I have to.

 

[yz125]

Reading over some steering rack reports I have a feeling this is going to be the primary culprit. It explains how completely s***ty it's acting. I've encountered little things with little symptoms than can be isolated and this isn't that. It's broad general looseness and steering rack bushings would explain it.

vibration - steering rack loose?

We have had our 2014 GX460 for several years now (90k miles) and the front end vibration at speed has become progressively worse over time. Reading threads, most of the time it is wheels, so just had them road force balanced and rotated, with no perceived change. I haD @kc_chevota jump...

forum.ih8mud.com

The first significant problem I had with this GX was the valley leak. So makes sense that the second one would also be a gigantic PITA repair.

 

[r2m]

I've not heard of many steering rack issues on the 460. The 100 series, especially '98-'02, had a horrific design. Not sure if the design of the GX 470 that @Rednexus has is more similar to later model 100 series than 460's? And yes, if you buy lca with ball joint, problem solved. I'm not a "throw tons of new parts at it" kind of guy unless I have to.

We also had two 100 series hundy's, my wife's and my own. My was set up of off roading and hers was stock. My rode like poo-poo and hers just fine.
Although I think my front end geometry was not set right after I lifted it and you're right, I also had to replace the steering rack.
BTY, traded her hundy (at 185k miles) for a red crew cab Taco 4x4 which she loves! And I traded mine (at 165k) for the GX.

 

[Rednexus]

Thank you guys.

I will examine the wheel bearings. Ball joints I thought would be a given as part of the LCA. But maybe I need to get more familiar.

That intermediate shaft sounds like exactly what part of my knock is coming from and I'll look into that. It really bugs me even when the rest of the symptoms weren't present.

@Rednexus Did you put a replacement rack in because the bushings are integral or something, or could I possibly just need bushings?

It's significantly more effort to R&R the bushings than to put in a reman rack that also has fresh seals and other components. You get to skip the step of pressing out the old bushings and pressing in new ones. My OEM rack also had metal shavings in the fluid, so it was not long for this world. The 460 and 470 racks are very similar, FYI. Both have the same type of bushing in the same places.

 

[yz125]

I went ahead and jumped the gun and ordered some superpro rack bushings.

I've thrown wrong parts at problems before so I'm aware of the pitfalls. But I'm confident no matter what the outcome I'll enjoy having a stiffer rack.

Hopefully at the expense of time and frustration with a hacksaw and presses I can swap them out without having to disconnect the PS hoses or move any A/C but I will see.

 

[Rednexus]

Just FYI, I had the rack out in my 470 in ~2.5 hours. It's not a huge job, and disconnecting the PS hoses isn't a big deal either. Not sure on moving the AC compressor on a 1UR....for my 470 I just had to pull the oil filter. I think it would be a very difficult task to try to tackle bushing removal with the rack still in the vehicle. Again I have a 470 vs. 460 but the design is very, very similar. My GX is also likely rustier than yours, and I had to spend some extra time disconnecting the intermediate steering shaft from the rack. It would be easier on a rust free vehicle.

The "trick" to doing this was removing the inner tie rod ends from both the old and new rack during the R&R. There is much more room to slide it out with the tie rods out. If you do that there is some chance you'll rip the boots, which can be had for ~$25 or so at most auto parts stores. You'll likely need an alignment afterwards if you pull the tie rods.

 

[ericm979]

The lexus parts sites list the bushings as not available because it's too difficult to replace them. I don't know how hard it is to replace them with aftermarket parts.

Does your GX shake the steering column on washboard dirt roads? Mine does that more than any other truck I can remember. It's got the pulsing on braking which I feel is a "warped" rotor. I have replacement rotors and pads for as soon as I get the time to do it. I can sometimes feel a slight looseness in the front end but when jacked up I can't find anything loose.

 

[BigSwede]

New lower ball joints fixed the teeth-jarring rattle going over expansion joints in a normal road.

Hmmm, I may have to look at this. I recently have been noticing the suspension impacts are more jarring over joints and such. I'm only at 93k, but with 35s and greater offset wheels I'm sure that kind of wear is accelerated.

 

[yz125]

Does your GX shake the steering column on washboard dirt roads?

I don't drive on any of those. But it shakes the steering column on regular pavement without any brake application.

 

[Banandalorian]

The low hanging fruit is brakes, wheel balancing, and alignment. I would start there. Also while you are doing brakes that is a good time to check everything else for visual damage or play.

 

[iwashmycar]

May have missed it in here but check that you dont have any seized up caliper pistons - these are super common on these type of calipers and can really give some bad feelings during driving. My FJC had felt like it was fighting itself all the time, then went offroading and got them good and seized and that gave some decent vibrations.

 

[yz125]

I'm quite sure that I have an excessive movement somewhere, in a ball joint or a control arm or some bushings or a rod end, etc. And probably in multiple of the above.

The experience is like a rattling, not a little rattle but a rattling motion of major weight bearing components.

Alignment, balance, and brakes are an exacerbating factor, and maybe if those were perfect the underlying problem would be asymptomatic, but I am sure that it's not just any or all of those three.

 

[r2m]

I'm quite sure that I have an excessive movement somewhere, in a ball joint or a control arm or some bushings or a rod end, etc. And probably in multiple of the above.

The experience is like a rattling, not a little rattle but a rattling motion of major weight bearing components.

Alignment, balance, and brakes are an exacerbating factor, and maybe if those were perfect the underlying problem would be asymptomatic, but I am sure that it's not just any or all of those three.

I've had that feeling when the UCA bushings wore out.