Mysterious noise.... care to take a guess?

[Copenhagen1]

georges.... I hope you get this figured out and I hope it is not in your transmission. When I was studying my noise on this forum, I did read about transmissions having a low pitched groaning type sound just before they failed.

Mine turned out to be a front wheel bearing. I am not sure I ever tried shifting into neutral at speed. The fact that yours goes away when you shift into neutral kind of points to trans/tc type issues. I sure hope that is not the case, but even if it is, it is repairable.

Good luck brother. Hope you find it because I know how mine drove me crazy.

Kerry

 

[bamachem]

I'll throw in my two cents. I had two bearings replaced last week (front passenger). Felt like a new truck leaving the dealership, but I developed a grinding sound and vibration on the way home . Took it back to the dealer, they retightened the bearings, I drove about 900 miles over the weekend. Everything was good. I don't know why there was a problem in the first place, but it was one of the master techs doing the work.

this is what you heard... https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/545145-im-back-4.html#post7502567

Now...... for the rest of the story.

I had time today to take my front driver side hub apart and put in new bearings. I've only driven about 5 miles but it is enough to know its fixed, at least for now.

So far it has new inner and outer bearings and races, new seal, new lock washer, new flange gasket, and new grease. I have a new boot kit to put on as well but I am ordering pfran's clamps before I do the boots.

I also did Landcruiserphil's spindle bushing greasing method demonstrated here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series...te-front-axle-shaft-bushings.html#post6740921

So I am not sure if the new bearings with correct preload did it or greasing the spindle bearing. Either way it is fixed. Thanks to everybody that contributed.

Awesome news!

 

[georges]

I have send for test drive. The mechanic told me that the sound comes from my front differential.

Any ideas?

 

[GregLCA]

I have send for test drive. The mechanic told me that the sound comes from my front differential.

Any ideas?

I've got a 2001 with the EXACT same diagnosis from the dealer (front diff issue). They claim to have had the truck up on the lift and were listening to everything with a stethoscope and the noise was originating from the diff itself.

I'm not convinced that they have the diagnosis correct.

From the posts in this thread, it sounds like I may actually have bad wheel bearings / spindle bearing. The noise is steady and does NOT disappear when I put the transmission in Neutral at speed. The dealer says my front diff fluid level is perfect and there aren't any worn suspension components (UCAs , etc), the tires were freshly balanced and the alignment was recently confirmed as within spec also.

My suspicion is that the wheel bearing noise my just be coupling into the front diff housing which makes it easy to hear from there (kind of like a megaphone for the sound). I already purchased a complete front wheel bearing kit, including those small needle bearings that go way in the back... so I think I'll do the service on those first and see where that puts me.

A new front diff is around $1500 (plus labor)... so I'm not going to pay that kind of money to solve the noise issue until/unless I'm convinced that every other possible component has been checked and verified.


-G

 

[GregLCA]

I've got a 2001 with the EXACT same diagnosis from the dealer (front diff issue). They claim to have had the truck up on the lift and were listening to everything with a stethoscope and the noise was originating from the diff itself.

I'm not convinced that they have the diagnosis correct.

From the posts in this thread, it sounds like I may actually have bad wheel bearings / spindle bearing. The noise is steady and does NOT disappear when I put the transmission in Neutral at speed. The dealer says my front diff fluid level is perfect and there aren't any worn suspension components (UCAs , etc), the tires were freshly balanced and the alignment was recently confirmed as within spec also.

My suspicion is that the wheel bearing noise my just be coupling into the front diff housing which makes it easy to hear from there (kind of like a megaphone for the sound). I already purchased a complete front wheel bearing kit, including those small needle bearings that go way in the back... so I think I'll do the service on those first and see where that puts me.

A new front diff is around $1500 (plus labor)... so I'm not going to pay that kind of money to solve the noise issue until/unless I'm convinced that every other possible component has been checked and verified.


-G

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!

My mechanic was adamant that the noise was the front differential, but I insisted that he do a complete service on the front wheel bearings anyway so that we could eliminate those as a possible contributor.

I gave him a boatload of new OEM parts (inner/outer bearings, those caged needle bearings and all the seals, etc.) He said is was a major pain to replace those caged needle bearings because he had to pull the entire assembly apart (including the upper control arm) to get access to press them out and replace them.

In the end, it all proved to be worth it. The "tire humming" noise is GONE!!!!

I made sure to get the old parts back so that I could inspect them for wear, or bluing, or damage. One of the caged needle bearings would not spin freely and one of the small tapered roller bearings appears to have been replaced by an off-brand bearing and seemed quite a bit looser and sloppier than the rest of them. I was also noted that the previous mechanic tried to use some kind of RTV to seal up the drive flanges instead of the Toyota gaskets, which may explain why I was having problems with water intrusion / lack of grease in the past.

All tolled, between parts and dealer labor it probably cost me around $850 to solve, but the fact that my Cruiser is now in 100% perfect mechanical shape gives me peace-of-mind that is far more valuable than that!!!


-G