If you have funny noise coming from your diff check your NEEDLE BEARING!

Hello!
Normally lurking over on Tacomaworld but I need yall's opinion. Coworker bought a 2010 Crewmax with 146000 miles on it, during the test drive he noticed a grinding noise that was indicative of a failing wheel bearing. The dealer he bought from warrantied it and replaced all four but the noise is still there, below is the text message he received IMHO sounds like the dealer no longer wants to do work on the truck and could easily be incorrect back lash on the front diff.

I've done all the work on my Tacoma including replacing the clutch so I'm no stranger to turning wrenches on Toyota trucks but this one is stumping me. Anyone have a similar experience with this?

 

You're in my neck of the woods! Who replaced the bearings? (Name the dealer if possible) It's a total PITA to do and if this wasn't a Toyota dealership, it may not have been done at all. NOBODY would just arbitrarily replace all four wheel bearings, so I would call 100% bullshit on that. It sounds like your buddy will have to do his own diagnosis.

To figure out if it's a wheel bearing, you'd need to back axle on jack stands, all the stability controls off, then you can immobilize one wheel and let the other spin freely in the back to see if the noise goes away with one wheel not moving. The fronts are easier to do, you can usually just lift the wheel off the ground and spin it hard to see if it makes much noise.

 

All four wheel bearings were replaced Monday(12/21) by Toyota of Marysville WA. See screenshot above.

 

This is extremely fishy. A competent tech would figure out which wheel bearing was making the noise, then replace that one. I don't suppose your coworker asked for the old parts back?

I would quietly take the car to a different Toyota dealership and have them diagnose what's going wrong. I had Michael's in Bellevue look mine over so I could be 100% certain it was a rear wheel bearing (a Greg's Japanese location said it was just tire vibration, so don't go there!).

 

Issue is the dealer he bought the truck from is warranting the truck not Toyota which is why he has it there. Just trying to help out. Really curios if anyone has had noise coming from the diffs of transfer case that mimics a failing wheel bearing? Tried the search function but no results.

 

Have him drive straight and switch it to 4hi and see if the noise goes away.

 

Tundras can have bad drivers side needle bearings just like the tacos. Ecgs sells the bushing and tool. If noise goes away in 4hi then thats where I would start.

 

Upon further inspection its the needle bearings failing. Thanks for the lackluster help!

 

I have the puller down here if you want to borrow it. When I brought that up at the dealership, they said the slop was normal :/

 

Yep, dealer was useless took me about five minutes under his truck to diagnose it; same problem as my Tacoma.

 

It did go away which means needle bearing is bad.

 

I found that this tool was a good fit for driving in the ECGS bushing to replace the needle bearing:
https://www.motosport.com/product/?...nt=badger&variant=[MOP00BD]=MOP00BD-X001-Y001

 

Does it still look that nice after you used it?

 

It definitely shows a little more wear than it did before, but it's perfectly usable still.

If I had let the bushing spend the night in the freezer, it would likely look even better.

 

A tech at a nearby dealer (to the ones mentioned above) said mine was the wheel bearing but wasn't' loud enough to tell which one. I took it back 1,000 miles later (it had gotten louder) and a different tech pointed me at the needle bearing. Saved a lot of money not having to swap transaxle thanks to the help on this forum and EGCS. I had bought a Zurich Warranty with my truck but they were not going to cover it and said it was a "wear item"... so I returned the 'very good' warranty. That was the first and last car warranty I will buy besides a Certified Toyota or New Vehicle warranty. Glad @SargeBSA figured it out.

 

Edited title for better clarification.

 

How many miles are you all at? My 08 has 160k and just now having the needle bearing issue. Should I just replace the needle bearing or have the diff rebuilt? Not sure if anything else would be wore out at this point.

 

Replace the needle bearing with an ECGS bushing. I did last weekend and I've been listening to mine growl for 70k miles. It's quiet now, I love it. My 2007 has 256k miles.

 

No worries about shavings tearing up other parts inside there?

 

If you're talking about the ECGS bushing, no. They've got a fairly long track record with no negatives as far as I've seen. I wanna say ECGS claim 500k mile life expectancy.

 

No, I was worried that shavings from the old needle bearing might get inside and cause damage.

 

If anything you could pop out your drain plug and wipe off any metallic residue. I think you'll find metallic powder rather than chunks or shavings.

 

Ah, sorry I misunderstood. In my case, my needle bearing was immaculate looking when I pulled it. Kinda surprised me bc I've seen them with missing needles, etc. It was definitely faulty bc my truck always sounded like it had mud tires on it coming to a stop. It's now silent at all times.

At any rate, I don't forsee any damage coming from the faulty needle bearing. I don't think the needles are any match for the hardened gears of that differential even if they did dislodge and fall inside the differential itself. I combo'd my bearing replacement with a front diff fluid change as well.

Here's my old needle bearing

 

That was 70k of listening to that?!? Mine started maybe 5k ago. I guess not much to worry about then. It is close to time to change the diff fluid, so this is the perfect time fo me to change the bearing and seal. Any tips on installing the new bearing and seal? I’ve done similar projects, as you know every project has its own little quirks.

 

Yeah, bought it @ 188k miles in 2017 & just now changed it. I'm not proud of that fact but several factors played in.

As far as tips go, I was led astray a bit by a write-up on another Tundra site. It had me removing things that didnt need to be removed.

The axle nut (39mm) and lower ball joint (22mm) bolts along with the brake caliper (17mm) & brake line bracket (12mm)is the only things I removed to accomplish the install. Also unclipped the ABS sensor wiring with a pocket screwdriver. There are plenty of install videos on YouTube for Tacomas, 4Runners, etc. They're very similar to our Tundras.

 

Trident, thank you for all the help and advice. That was something I have been looking for the past week or so.

 

You're very welcome