Popping and Squeaking and stuff

So i have been noticing that just when the truck is on the ground and you try to “shake” the tire by hand it squeaks and makes a popping sound. Around 50 mph the steering wheel starts shaking and the whole truck is kinda vibrating. What would cause that? My 1st thought was bad wheel bearings. What do you think? The steering rack leaks a little and always has in my ownership but this just started and I don’t see the rack causing that noise anyway.

 

Tie rods, ball joints, wheel bearings, steering rack could all be culprits. Sway bar end links, coilovers and control arm bushings less likely but possible. The dumbest thing I could think of would be loose lug nuts. Get it off the ground and get a buddy. Grab the tire at 9 and 3 and shake back and forth. Have the other person look at the suspension and steering components one by one to look for shifting or play. Then grab at 12 and 6 and repeat. Should be able to isolate the noise and popping that way. How many miles on that stallion?

 

OK. Doesn’t have a sway bar. Coilovers are new. I will get my dad to help me. I know the rack is on its way out. I have a video but i cant figure out how to get it in the right format to upload on here. Has 185k

 

OK upon looking further doing some prying and shaking and stuff it looks as though my wheel bearings are fine and lca bushings and tie rods are bad causing some play and squeaking.

 

My 2002 was tired up until I had a 4 wheel place rebuild the front at 155k miles. She wobbled around turns like a boat. She creaked and squeaked and couldn’t be aligned.

Sounds like you are in the same boat.

 

I don't think any of my bushings were bad per se, but I did a full replacement.

My alignment cam sleeves rusted through, and I couldn't get an alignment. I drove for 16,000 miles like that. I think? Memory fuzzy.


Napa lower control arms reccomended by @empty_lord
SPC upper control arms reccomended by the lifted suspension gurus. One being @Darkness

OEM lower ball joints reccomended by EVERYONE lol

I ended up having to replace my outer tie rods also. I need to get back up in there and replace both sets of tie rods.




If YOU are going to do the work YOURSELF...
I reccomend getting some thick steel Diablo blades for a sawzall, and cutting out your old lower control arms. I wasted effectively two or three days using shitty blades...

 

Squeaking could be lower control arms bushings. Mine were squeaking badly for a while, I always thought it was upper arm but turned out to be lower arm. Sounded a bit like rubbing a ballon on your head.

The shake at 50mph could just be tires out of balance. That tends to present itself around 50-60mph and goes away somehow beyond 65mph. Try rotating your tires front to back and see if it goes away to isolate that. If that doesn't work it could be anything from steering rack, tie rods, lower arm bushings, or possibly (but unlikely) ball joints.

The speed tells me its most likely your tires out of balance or wheel not seated properly causing the problem, and maybe a worn suspension part or two exacerbating it.

 

Alright. I will rotate and possible balance tires. I think i will do lower control arms.

 

Well, hang on you say it squeaks when you wiggle the tire by hand? Is the truck off the ground when you do that? Are you grabbing at 3 and 9 o'clock when you wiggle it, or are you grabbing 12 and 6 o'clock?

 

Front. End. Rebuild.

Toyota. Lower. Control. Arms.

High. Dolla. Alignment.

Three. Keys. To. Success.

 

I had a high dolla alignment also. They adjusted everything to my specs provided. Drives great.

 

I will get the good quality alignment and Oem replacement parts. It squeaks when you wiggle at 3 and 9 by hand.

 

If your control arms arent rusted to hell you can press out the old bushings and press in new. I've done it. Those loaded toyota arms ain't cheap, neither are the bushings. It takes some prep and time so don't rush it and spray penatrating lube of some sort on several times weeks before you plan to do the work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmaZNBp1gZM

bushings in the freezer prior to install
wire wheel to clean corrosion from control arm
bottle jack
bench vice
patience
luck
sawzall with good blades if needed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErvgV4P6Fzc

 

I like to save money whenever possible like you. Its been a while since pricing out the bushings, but like you said they are expensive. Iirc, the cost of buying an all new Toy LCA (with bushings already pressed) was a no brainer.

Like you, I enjoy the work but in this case from readings the old bushing press out and new back on seemed like agony.

Just throwing this out for others.

 

I was going to say the same thing when @Hi06silver posted, but I decided I couldn't elaborate on the matter in a way that made sense.

I second new arms to save time, and frustrations.

 

I tried to do lower control arm bushings on a Tacoma i had one time by using the bottle jack method to just replace bushings but ended up getting so frustrated especially since that truck was a rust bucket, i got new arms. I think that’s what ill do again just wanted to confirm that’s what i needed.

 

I haven’t heard that you can press them out, most people I’ve seen typically burn out the old bushings with a torch to save time.

If I need a bushing pressed in (did this for a shock once) I’ll go to a local car/ truck frame shop and have them press in one for $20 on their 50-100 ton press. I can usually wait while they press out the old and press in the new.

 

Totally agree with all of the other responses. I wanted to try it and didn't want to pay the money for loaded toyota arms. Reserving that money that I didn't spend for other truck stuff.
I was pretty confident that mine would come out with that method so I tried. It worked. Probably wouldn't have if my arms were typical rust belt arms. Plus I was able to pick up 2 bushings from ebay for like 30 bucks because a new owner found them under his seat, they were from a toyo tsb campaign that never got installed. All in all ya still gotta be prepared to potentially nhave to but the arms if things don't go well.