Baffled at what this is

So i drove home from work, which is about 22 miles of highway, park truck in garage. Jump back in it an hour later to take daughter to bball practice and while leaving the neighborhood i hear a weird grinding noise under the truck when i am turning slightly left at 20 mph. Immediately goes away when I straighten wheels. It does the same thing 2 minutes later on another slightly left turn at 35 mph. After i drop kid off i drove all over the place making uturns and circles and i cant repeat it.

i get the truck home look over everything i can think of and don’t find anything. Just had new tires put on that morning so i pull all wheels off and dont find anything except all center caps are loose. Put everything back on re-torque and make same left turn in neighborhood aggressively and hear it for a second and then never hear it again.

this morning leave for work same bend dont hear a thing. I’m thinking its all good…..wrong. Get home from work truck sits for an hour and then i leave to pick kid up from practice. Hit that same left turn in neighborhood and its back…wtf. Go down the road some more another left turn hear it again. Start driving all over the damn place and the more i drove it the harder it was to make the noise appear. Hit the same turn in neighborhood after driving it for 20 minutes and it won’t do it now.

my gut is telling me it is the right front cv joint but why no consistency? No boots are ripped and no grease leaking. Its headed to shop tomorrow (not under warranty) and wanted more solid information to give to the tech because I’m afraid they are gonna drive it and not hear it. Any ideas?

2015 CM/68,000 miles, leveled and 34” tires

 

No new tires or alignment or anything done to the truck recently before you noticed this? Just started randomly?

 

So thats the kicker about this whole thing. I changed the front/rear diff last week and had new tires put on yesterday and noticed it last night. However, i have been driving with the windows up for awhile because of the heat and you wouldn’t hear it with the windows up. So I’m thinking having the tires put on is just a coincidence to be honest.

i just let the truck sit for an hour and drove it and its doing it but drive it for 20 minutes and its gone. I did notice that you have to turn sharper and more aggressive to get it to do it the more you drive it until the point that it wont do it anymore.

 

Check your skid plate and sway bar. My guess is you're rubbing when leaning into turns. Check inside of tires too.

 

Can you describe the noise better? Grinding, growling, metal scraping?

 

Its not the tires rubbing anything. If that was the case it would do it all of the time and i’ve been running the same size tire for a long time. Breaks are all with in a year of being replaced so haven’t messed with them at all recently.

What got me scratching my head is if the truck sits all night and then drive it, no noise. Park it after driving it for awhile and get back in it an hour later it does it but you will only get the noise for about ten minutes of driving before it is gone. If something like tire or break was the problem one would think it would be very consistent

 

Sounds like metal rubbing metal

 

Maybe the rotor backing plate is bent slightly.

 

Maybe the brake backing plate got bent when changing the tires and it's rubbing the rotor only during a slight left turn.

 

I did check that but didn’t find anything. Good idea though. Again if it was something like that one would think it would rub constantly.

 

recent brake rotor replacement? what your describing sounds like the typical rear rotor inner drum slightly rubbing the backing plate when turning.

 

It’s not the VSC kicking in, is it? The ABS / VSC modulator pump makes a pretty good grinding noise.

 

Rotors have been on for about 8 months

 

I’ve heard the vsc modulator pump working and that’s definitely not what I’m hearing

 

I typically don't believe in coincidences, more than likely it has something to do with the work that was done on it.

 

Torque lug nuts?

 

the same thing happened on my tacoma. it turned out to be the left front diff needle bearing going out. the dealer wouldn't replace just the bearing, they wanted to replace the entire front diff at $3k.

many guys use the ECGS bushings that replace the needle bearing:
TOYOTA 9" REVERSE CLAMSHELL CV AXLE BUSHING (eastcoastgearsupply.com)

here is a discussion about the bearing on tacoma world:
Front Diff Vibes ECGS bushing fix. | Tacoma World

the labor to replace the bearing is way cheaper than the front diff replacement.

 

If it only happens for a short time after being parked, the first thing I'd check is the parking brake. perhaps you have a sticky cable or something causing the brake to hang for a bit?

 

Truck is at the shop now, we will see whats up. Thank you for all the responses.

 

Looks like it was the backing plate hitting the rear rotor. Will see after i drive it.

 

Didn't see anyone mention wheel bearing...could that possibly be it?

Edit: OP's reply came in while I was typing. My backing plate hits the rotor too. I can only hear it when I drive by a building or a wall for the sound to bounce off and come back to me. It annoys the crap out of me but I just leave it alone.

 

Something similar happened to me and turned out to be my Driver’s side cv axle. Put your truck in 4HI and you’ll find out immediately.