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Mystery Engine Noise, HELP! (UPDATE: SOLVED)

Discussion in '2.5 Gen Tundras (2014-2021)' started by jaconrad15, Sep 25, 2020.

  1. Sep 25, 2020 at 7:17 AM
    #1
    jaconrad15

    jaconrad15 [OP] New Member

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    My 2016 5.7 Flex Fuel engine (64K miles) started making this sound recently. It runs perfectly fine, the noise doesn't seem to effect anything (except it is bugging me LOL).

    Anyone know what it could be? Seems to be a bit louder on the passenger side of the engine bay.

    The sound starts about 8 seconds in to the video.

     
  2. Sep 25, 2020 at 2:45 PM
    #2
    jaconrad15

    jaconrad15 [OP] New Member

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    Bump. Anyone know? I might just be going crazy :crazy:
     
  3. Sep 25, 2020 at 2:53 PM
    #3
    tttrdpro

    tttrdpro Former Naval Person

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    I’d have the dealership look at it. Can’t tell you what it is, I’m no mechanic. To me it sounds like something with the timing belt tensioner on the passenger side maybe. Again, I’d take it to whatever dealership you use, you should still be under your Powertrain warranty.
     
  4. Sep 25, 2020 at 2:55 PM
    #4
    ezdog

    ezdog New Member

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    I honestly can not hear too much in your clip?
    I too had a noise mostly seeming to be on the passenger side and sometimes it was minimal but others it was loud and annoying and it seemed to get louder as days went by.

    Mine turned out to be a bad alternator or at least a noisy one and replacement solved my problem entirely.
    It is also tough to pinpoint I think as it is way down by the road in back of the passenger front tire,we turned the wheel hard right,stuck ou heads in there and tried to localize it and then got a loooong screwdriver and stuck it against the noisy alternator and we could effect the noise right away so we decided that this was the problem.

    YMMV as they say.

    Good Luck.
     
  5. Sep 25, 2020 at 3:13 PM
    #5
    TundraMcGov.

    TundraMcGov. Your friend. Your foe. Not yo Ho.

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    Get a mechanics stethoscope and start listening around in there. Or you can go the old fashioned (read: cheap bastage) way and use a looooong screw driver, tip on the engine area, and the handle (needs to be the hard plastic kind) to your ear with your hand forming a cup.

    Here's an example >>>
     
  6. Apr 14, 2021 at 3:36 PM
    #6
    jaconrad15

    jaconrad15 [OP] New Member

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    Finally figured out what it was making the sound... the alternator! I had it tested and my local auto parts store and they said it failed the charging test. Picked up a new Denso alternator from my local Yoda dealer ($376 + tax, ouch) and had a local repair shop install it ($315) since I didn’t have the time to do it. Pretty sure it would have taken me a whole day, AllDataDIY shows 4.8 hours to replace. They don’t make it easy.

    None the noise has completely gone away, and she is purring like a kitten. 72K on the clock.

    I chalk it up to the corroded battery terminals and dead battery when I bought it at the Nissan dealership with 28K miles. I’ve heard bad batteries can prematurely wear out alternators.
     
    Dwarven1 likes this.
  7. Apr 14, 2021 at 4:05 PM
    #7
    ezdog

    ezdog New Member

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    Same as mine,congratulations!
     
  8. Apr 16, 2021 at 7:39 AM
    #8
    jaconrad15

    jaconrad15 [OP] New Member

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    how many miles on your truck when your alternator pooped out?
     
  9. Apr 16, 2021 at 7:58 AM
    #9
    ezdog

    ezdog New Member

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    40 K or less
    I bought it at that and it was doing it at that time
     
  10. Apr 16, 2021 at 7:59 AM
    #10
    jaconrad15

    jaconrad15 [OP] New Member

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    How many miles now? No issues I hope?
     
  11. Apr 16, 2021 at 8:38 AM
    #11
    ezdog

    ezdog New Member

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    57K and no issues and none expected!
    Not my first Toyota by a long shit.
    I had 4 different Previa’ that all made it to over 300K almost without trouble between them.
     

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