How big of a job is the diff mount and bushings? I can't imagine the parts themselves would be expensive, but how many banana job is it, especially on a 21 year old vehicle when it hasn't been replaced yet?
The OFFICIAL clunk/thunk driveshaft thread (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Kigiin
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Not bad. Depending on the corrosion, the front”puck” could be a little more time consuming to punch out. I used a small air chisel and it came out in about five minutes but mine had no corrosion. Installing the new one was smooth too.
The other two, I bought both of mounts with the bushings already pressed as I didn’t want to bother with trying to remove the olds ones and get the new ones in. They simply bolted on easily enough
I have one for you all curious on your thoughts. I have a 2001 JDM LC 100 VX (1HD-FTE) that I would experience driveline clunking (mainly from front differential) when I let off the throttle suddenly or accelerate. I followed all of the advice in this thread, inspected and greased the U-joints, the slip yoke, the differential bushings are fine with no play. Greasing the slip yoke would help, but only for about 500 km and then come back.
The center differential lock (CDL) actuator motor never worked on this vehicle when I received it. After checking the sensors, switch, relay, it was finally diagnosed as a bad motor. I purchased a new motor and installed it a couple of weeks ago. Installation requires everything to be in the locked position and I had to rotate the front driveshaft slightly to turn the internal gear by hand. There was slight movement towards the unlock position (I believe counter-clockwise), and then I turned it to full lock. Since the installation, my clunk has disappeared completely. Absolutely nothing when accelerating and decelerating; it shifts and the driveline is as smooth as a new purchase. Could the locking rods in my transfer case been slightly in the locked position, but not enough to set off the position switch? I ask because there was the slight movement towards full unlock when turning by hand. I'm pleased that the clunk has disappeared but a bit dumfounded by this one. I'm adding this to the thread for those who may be driving around without a working CDL and a clunk.
The center differential lock (CDL) actuator motor never worked on this vehicle when I received it. After checking the sensors, switch, relay, it was finally diagnosed as a bad motor. I purchased a new motor and installed it a couple of weeks ago. Installation requires everything to be in the locked position and I had to rotate the front driveshaft slightly to turn the internal gear by hand. There was slight movement towards the unlock position (I believe counter-clockwise), and then I turned it to full lock. Since the installation, my clunk has disappeared completely. Absolutely nothing when accelerating and decelerating; it shifts and the driveline is as smooth as a new purchase. Could the locking rods in my transfer case been slightly in the locked position, but not enough to set off the position switch? I ask because there was the slight movement towards full unlock when turning by hand. I'm pleased that the clunk has disappeared but a bit dumfounded by this one. I'm adding this to the thread for those who may be driving around without a working CDL and a clunk.
Question for those of you who remedy this by greasing the slip yokes: How many kms/miles do you get in between the services? I have noitced that I am only getting around 3-5000 km/3000 miles before the clunking is really consistent again?
I have replaced all three of the front diff bushings, just recently had the transmission fluid changed and have checked the cv splines (no play, nice and tight) and just got back from road trip where I had greased them just before I left and now after 4300ish highway km later, the clunking is back. THe clunk never fully disappears but is greatly abated each time.
It is not a big deal to do it but just wanted to get an idea of what others are doing?
I looked at the bushings on rear control arms a couple weeks ago when I was greasing everythign and they look like they might be a little cracked and dry rot so maybe that is compounding it too. Tried flexing the motor mounts and transmission mount with a long pry bar and didnt seem to move much but that could be somehting too. Who knows...
I have replaced all three of the front diff bushings, just recently had the transmission fluid changed and have checked the cv splines (no play, nice and tight) and just got back from road trip where I had greased them just before I left and now after 4300ish highway km later, the clunking is back. THe clunk never fully disappears but is greatly abated each time.
It is not a big deal to do it but just wanted to get an idea of what others are doing?
I looked at the bushings on rear control arms a couple weeks ago when I was greasing everythign and they look like they might be a little cracked and dry rot so maybe that is compounding it too. Tried flexing the motor mounts and transmission mount with a long pry bar and didnt seem to move much but that could be somehting too. Who knows...
Jack90210
SILVER Star
I get at least 5000 miles before it starts to come back, but I pump grease until I see it coming past the seal.
A while ago I talked to an old indy mechanic that had a land cruiser and he told me that to fix his clunk, he took off the driveshaft, slid out the slip yokes and wire wheeled them to get them back down to shiny metal. He explained that rust formed just on the edges of its usual travel stroke and it would bind at those spots. The solution for him was to smooth it all back and then grease it. Does that make any sense? I filled mine with grease until the yokes started extending but the clunk is still very much there and I can feel it and hear it from the center/rear of the vehicle.
Africaster
SILVER Star
Have you confirmed the flange isn’t a contributor? There are a couple of videos out there on how to check … 30s exercise. Good luck
I squirt a couple pumps when I'm under there, either changing oil or getting some time off from the wife and kids by lying under the car and pretending I'm doing something really important. I'd say 2-3k miles. To access the front one you need to remove skids, so every oil change.
There are very long debates on the Ford forums (awful forums, always discussing bs and never getting to any resolution) regarding the type of grease needed for the clunk to go away, mentioning some magic blue grease and others. I believe their 5.4L is gone before the grease on the DS, that's why they never get to a solution on any issue. IH8mud Rocks!
I quit using black grease on the slip joint mostly BC it didn't flow well through the seal, using whatever red is in the gun that day. Sometimes it clunks, sometimes it's smooth. Very weird behavior, just got used to it.
Regarding rear control arms, believe me, you'll feel it if they go bad. Your steering will be all over the place under acceleration/deceleration. It'll feel like your rear end has a mind of it's own.
Just replaced mine w 285k miles on them bc they were squeaking, but the rubber wasn't That bad.. could have gone another 100K.. expensive repair to get rid of q squeak, thanks Toyota!
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Good to know about the rear control arms and the affected steering.
merbesfield
SILVER Star
My truck does the exact same thing after replacing literally almost every component I can think of with brand new Toyota parts. Please let me know if you come up with a solution.
OMG, I am almost crying tears of joy here. This is the cocktail that finally got me 99% of the way there:
You might notice that the above doesn’t add up to 100%. To be honest I still don’t think it is fully “fixed.” The P/D/R clunk is pretty much 99% gone. But the throttle reapplication clunk still comes once in a blue moon. Given the comments in this thread, and also given I have a resonance around 50mph, I’m thinking I could probably try a new rear drive shaft. Maybe during the next 25% off sale.
BUT even if a new rear driveshaft didn’t fix anything, I think it is finally good enough to call it a day as is. It is SO much nicer with this ~99% gone. I didn’t realize how much the clunk was impacting the fun factor of driving, because I subconsciously didn’t want to get on the gas because it was bothering me so much. Now with this mostly fixed I find that I like to get “on it” way more often. lol
New Splines looking good
Much better than the old
- Front Diff Bushing(s) - Fixed about 20% - This was just the normal change that everyone does here. I ended up doing all three, but I think you really only just need the front one.
- Motor and Trans Mounts - Surprisingly fixed about 15% - I know this one doesn’t get much play on this thread, but I changed mine out when putting in a new exhaust manifold. Mine looked “fine” but were hard as rocks, and I was very surprised at how it helped with vibrations AND with the clunk
- Front Drive Flanges - Fixed about 20% - I did this separate from the new CVs just due to the sequencing of jobs. This helped some, but my splines on the old CVs were clearly a problem because….
- New OEM CVs - Fixed the last ~40% - This was the big one. When I put on the new flanges with the old CVs the play didn’t seem that big. (It wasn't near as big as the OTRAMM video for example) But apparently it was. When I put on the new CVs the play still didn’t seem that much better, but MAN! This was def the missing link. Once I got it buttoned up and on the road it was SOOO much better. OMG it made me so happy.
You might notice that the above doesn’t add up to 100%. To be honest I still don’t think it is fully “fixed.” The P/D/R clunk is pretty much 99% gone. But the throttle reapplication clunk still comes once in a blue moon. Given the comments in this thread, and also given I have a resonance around 50mph, I’m thinking I could probably try a new rear drive shaft. Maybe during the next 25% off sale.
BUT even if a new rear driveshaft didn’t fix anything, I think it is finally good enough to call it a day as is. It is SO much nicer with this ~99% gone. I didn’t realize how much the clunk was impacting the fun factor of driving, because I subconsciously didn’t want to get on the gas because it was bothering me so much. Now with this mostly fixed I find that I like to get “on it” way more often. lol
New Splines looking good
Much better than the old
Thanks for all that info. I'm going to be trying to address the clunking on my 04 LX 470. I'm replacing the CVs and flanges and greasing the slip yokes. Got a cross country trip coming up after that is done so I should get a good idea of the results.
Biggest thing on my radar for the future are the engine/transmission/transfer/differential mounts and bushings. Are there any aftermarket options out there that are considered improvements to OEM?
Nope, just good ole OEM. Trans mount is easy. Engine mounts take a bit more work, but not too bad. The front mount on the front diff was easy for me to swap, but I've read that a few have run into challenges.
Ever since I moved up to 35x12R18 I’ve been hearing a clunk when I do a full lock u-turn left or right coming from a complete stop and (P) parked. I inspected all related parts, bolts & nuts with the steering (tie rods, upper and lower ball joints, upper and lower arm bushings, all diff bushings but all were tight). Until and came about the two securing bolts of the rack and pinion, retightened it, drove it and try to recreate the clunk, and it never came back again. Culprit: 2x Rack and Pinion bolts - make sure to retighten them.
94SRUNNER
GOLD Star
In the last year I have done 2 of the 3 front diff bushings, new OEM CVs flanges, etc…, trans drain and fill, which all help reduce the clunk. However what I found to be the biggest improvement was more grease in the driveshafts. I think previously I would only do 2-3 pumps, this last time I did 6 pumps. Big improvement. I’ll probably start greasing them every 3-4 months versus every oil change which is about every 8-11 months.
Jack90210
SILVER Star
I pump until I see grease coming past the seals, which some advocate against but I've had zero problems in over 100K miles of doing this.
The truck lets me know when it's time to grease again, usually in around 5K miles.
Could make sense for some people. In the Jeep Liberty world, they would lather the splines in never-cease and it fixed the problem on those for many, many miles.
Going to grease my u-joint and slip yokes this weekend due to the clunking. I don't have access to a jack or jackstands so just going to do with the car on the ground. The question is since it is not lifted do I still pump the slip yokes until it extends a little or can I pump until grease comes out?
Since 65K (now at 260k) I chased clunks (etc.) by driveshaft greasing and pumping (for years) while doing all (I mean ALL) the bushings and mounts as well as the Toyota CV and flanges. No joy.
I Replaced both driveshafts (F&R) with toyota replacements a few weeks ago and all the issues went away.
Issues: clunks in D to R and vice versa as well as gritty drive line vibrations at 63mph+
That's what solved my issues.
I Replaced both driveshafts (F&R) with toyota replacements a few weeks ago and all the issues went away.
Issues: clunks in D to R and vice versa as well as gritty drive line vibrations at 63mph+
That's what solved my issues.
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