Gen 1 Sequoia shakes in 4wd

Hello, I'm hoping maybe you all can help me diagnose an issue I have with my 2005 Gen 1 Sequoia. It is an SR5 with the 4.7, so pretty darn near identical.

History: I am the second owner and it now has 280,000 miles. I have had it since ~235,000 and have not had to do much to it. I knew the previous owner and he took reasonably good care of it - records are missing, he was the kind of guy that just took it to local Toyota specialist and handed them the keys every couple of months and didn't track it, just did whatever they told him to do. Generally, it has been a daily driver. He never went off-road at all and I only ever use it on gravel forest service roads - so mild off pavement. But it is a Colorado car and makes a lot of runs up into the mountains in snow and our roads are generally pretty rough.

Problem(s):

1) In late winter I was skiing and climbing a mountain pass and I suddenly heard a crunching noise and suddenly had a bad wobble in the front end. I was in 4hi at the time this happened. I was probably going 40mph in heavy snow/ice conditions. When I lowered the speed to below 30 the wobble stopped but returns as soon as I go above 30mph. In 2wd there is no wobble at and speed. The 4wd appears to still work, just that it has this problem at speed.

- I have inspected the CV's on both sides and they seem to be OK
-- they would probably give me a wobble at all speeds if it was them - or some other symptom
-- I have new re-mans to install since these are quite old and I suspect they are near EOL anyhow

-I have inspected the drive shafts - they both are in desperate need of some lubrication which they are about to get but otherwise seem fine
-- the Sequoia does not have a carrier bearing the same way the Tundra does so its not that
--the front shaft spins easily but otherwise shows no signs of play when I push/pull/etc

2) loud droning noise at 30-45 MPH drops off around 45
--tried to get it on video but you can't really tell - seems to be from the front
--I suspect this is one of the front wheel bearing but neither wheel exhibits signs when up on a jack and trying to find play
-- could be the front driver's side differential bearing? so I have on ECGS bushing coming to put in as long as the CV's are getting swapped and I will be right in there with it all apart
--I can get wheel bearings and swap them - again these are probably ancient so it won't bother me to do it as long as everything is about to be torn apart - looking at OEM, Koyo. SKF, of Timken - I can't tell if any of those non-OEM brands are better/worse - opinions welcome - these are not cheap ones. I'm inclined to go OEM for ~125 each
-- do hubs usually survive OK or should I replace those along with the bearings?

Anyone have any suggestions or thoughts on how to troubleshoot these down further?

This one is about to get a whole bunch of love over the coming months as I prep it for another ski season.

Looking forward to the conversation.

 

Bueller?

 

If you mean a dealership by "Toyota specialist" then you can register your vehicle on toyota owners, and see all dealership performed services/maintenance items.

I don't know much about the 4wd system on any of these trucks. So I'm not much help.

Sorry about that.​

I'm hopeful that someone with more knowledge than me will chime in soon to help guide you.

Congrats on the Sequoia by the way! Pics of it?

 

Yeah, I'd do the wheel bearings anyways. The hub itself is usually fine. I bought the hub/bearing kit off RA, and it's doing fine, but I drive > 3k miles a year. It's a bit of a pain, but completely doable if you have access to a press. May as well do upper/lower ball joints since you'll have the whole spindle off. If they look bad. You can do that fairly easy in a day and see if it fixes it. If not, it's peace of mind that you got some new stuff under there.

 

I had a bad bearing on my rear drivers side for about 6 years (wha woo woo wha wah sound). Never made the truck wobble.

Sounds like maybe you have some worn out bushings/components upfront. I have my front end rebuilt by a garage. Made everything tight again! Like new. If you rebuild the front, go ahead and have the front bearings replaced as it will be cost effective ‘while in there’.

 

Yeah, "while I'm in there" is becoming a pretty big re-build! As of now the list is pretty substantial. Thanks to a pot hole that almost swallowed the truck the other day in the Home Depot parking lot I now have a broken sway arm link ... so here we go:

1. CV's
2. ECGS Busing install
3. Front wheel bearings
4. Pretty much all the steering components: sway arm links, inner/outer tie rods, upper lower ball joints
5. New rotors and pads front and rear
6. Rebuild calipers - these seem to be in good shape and the kits are only ~$25 - easy enough
7. diff and transfer case fluid change

fingers crossed the noise is from the front bearings

The best I can guess is the wobble when in 4wd might be a u-joint on the front driveshaft. I am going to have to get that bugger out and have a look.

 

Stainless brake hoses!

 

Yeah, seems like a good idea.

When you all do this do you do the front only with SS or do you also upgrade the rear lines as well?

 

Rears are hard piped into the cylinders.

 

We have drums on our trucks rears and we have only one flex hose above the diff gear in the rear. The hard line splits there and goes to the wheels on the axle.


Yes. I upgraded that single hose in the rear as well.

 

OK, since this is a Sequoia lurking in the Tundra area I'll have to have a look with my own eyes as to what I have - but it does have rear discs. I ordered a set for the front. I'm obviously flushing the entire system and will upgrade to Bosch 5.1 fluid while I am at it.

 

El Suprémõ

 

Duh, I forgot that. I'd do it if you find a set for both.

 

Get some DOT3 (cheap) and do a sacrificial flush before the supremo goes in. Let the new DOT3 push all the gookies out and then add the Bosch DOT5.1 loveliness into her cleaned lines.

 

Yep, doing this with some Valvoline 3/4 Synthetic (it claims it goes to 480F dry so it's like a hybrid of some sort on steroids) I picked up the other day - figured I was going to probably find a lot of nastiness in the lines and Advance Auto was running a buy one get one half off promo so picked up 2 quarts of it.

Just had a quick look under and the rear lines are only about 6" long - going to wait until I get in there to do the job and measure and order the right length. If they don't get here in time I will leave the Valvoline 3/4 Synthetic in there until the rear lines arrive and then flush the entire thing. Probably wise to drive the cheap stuff around for a week anyway and then do a second flush.

 

Yeah. Good call. You should only need exactly one entire Bosch Can if you do the sacrificial with the cheapy stuff first. You’ll get good practice with the cheapy first.

IIRC, it takes about 25 pumps on the pass rear. 25 pumps on the driver rear. 10-15 pumps on the LSBPV. 20 pumps on the pass front and 10 pumps on the driver front. Do it in that order. Put a block under the brake pedal to keep from pushing to far.

The second go around you’ll see more gookies come out of the LSBPV. Some cavities up in there. A strange device.

Once you do the Bosch Fluid, you’ll know when its bleeding out as it has a medium greenish tint versus the clear yellow DOT3.

 

Sounds like your front drive shaft may have a bad ujoint.

 

Thanks for the tips, they will come in handy! The Sequoia doesn't have the LSBPV since it is disc all the way around. But I was wondering how I would tell the Bosch fluid was coming through.

That is the leading suspect as of now. And honestly, the one I am hoping for as it is manageable cost-wise. I will report back once I have had a chance to inspect.

Thanks for letting my Sequoia hang out with the cool kids. It wants to be a Tundra when it grows up. I keep telling it that if it makes it to 500k it will turn into one!

 

The Sequoia is better than a Tundra for those that like rear caps.

The Tundra is better if you don’t like a cap.

I remember freaking out on how expensive the new Sequoia was compared to the new Tundra which was plus $15k at the time for rear seats and air conditioning?

Now, you can get one dirt cheap way less than the Tundra. Actually, since the wuflu nothing good is for sale. Prior there were tons of Sequoias.

 

I am now the proud owner of a sequoia and a tundra! Love them both and they fit their purposes very well.

I used to be a replace everything just in case kind of guy, but I've realized I've spent a lot of unnecessary money that way and have now become a replace if it's needed. Check the u-joint and if that's your issue I wouldn't do anything to the wheel bearings or the cv axles. They usually give you lots of warning before they are going out so you'll have time to replace them. I'd spend your time and money on brakes and fluids.

 

Yeah, one CV is definitely on life support. Brakes are right a the limits. The 4wd shimmy is the mystery guest at the table. And the roaring noise. The loose plan is to systematically go through and replace things that need it and then troubleshoot after that.