Noise from front end

No Trd skid plate and truck is 4x4


Skid plate actually off right now

 

Check the torque on LCA cam bolts. If you stop slowly, then reverse and press the brakes does it make the noise too?

 

Lca are torqued. They were a little loose after alignment (180lbs)

I torqued to 205 but didn’t help noise

I’ll check the Noise in reverse later today

 

Really appreciate the help and don’t mind doing cv axles if that fixes problem. Anyway to confirm before I order parts and swap out?

 

I too have a low speed front end noise on my ‘11 Rock Warrior, 77k miles. I had the same noise under the same conditions on my ‘07 2wd, 117k miles. It goes away at speed but pulling straight out the garage and turning onto the street you can hear it. Feels like there is something loose around the the area of firewall or behind the dash. It’s weird it was on both trucks. Any thoughts?

 

Your problem is most likely the intermediate steering shaft. Had mine replaced under warranty at about 25000 miles.

 

Do you know if your upper or lower shaft was replaced?

 

sounds similar. I might hear my noise 30/40 times driving down a mile long street. It is coming with almost any movement in steering (which is flexing suspension)

 

Jeffro,
I was referring to the person of the quote that is in my reply. I think his problem is the shaft.

I think your problem may be one of two things. Either the cam shaft bolts/bushings or the axles.

A buddy of mine has a Tacoma. With same symptoms as you. I checked everything underneath in the suspension and everything was tight. It drove me crazy. Finally I grabbed a creeper and had him drag me around my court while he was moving doing the things that made the sound while I was somewhat underneath the truck. Very stupid I know. But while doing it i could see the cam shaft bolt shifting and clunking even though i knew they were torqued to specs. I do not recommend this process, i certainly wont do it again.......buttttt it seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

From my experience, when the intermediate steering shaft goes bad its not a lot of noise but a very clear knocking feedback in the steering wheel.

 

Wow. Man That’s pretty brave of you.

Are you talking about the cam bolts on lca’s?

 

Brave.....more like stupid. Yes the lca bolts and bushings. His were the rear bolts the ones used to make alignment adjustments. Well just the driver side rear the others were fine......or atleast not making noise.

 

I definitely won’t be getting under the truck while going down the road -any other way to confirm ?

if it is bushings I assume the entire lower control arm would need to be swapped out? Considering the Lowe ball joints have a lot of miles might not be a bad thing.

One thing I forgot to mention that I just thought about is after the lift and alignment the truck didn’t seem to be steering straight. When I took it back to alignment shop about a week later it was out of alignment. something had “moved”. Had to be realigned. Would have to look at specs to check what was out but not sure if that is related

 

No you can replace just bushings or just bolt if bent or both. You can also do the whole arm if you like. The arm will have to be removed to replace bushings easily. I would do front and rear bushings just beacuse your in there already. Lower ball joint too just because your in there. But it really is up to you. If I were going to pull the lca I'd do everything that i could replaced if it were all oem. And then I'd do the other side as well. But obviously you need to isolate the problem first. Hopefully others can chime in on a better way to clear or confirm it's the bushings. Unfortunately some issues have to be diagnosed with eyes on and the vehicle in motion to be sure. Otherwise your just guessing with the best info you have.

 

My buddy was having the same issue on his Jeep. He had replaced the drag link on it and it did not start popping for a thousand miles after. I would try to tighten those castle nuts that you removed to put your lift on. Sometimes that popping comes from those not seating back in properly. That's my experience any way. Good luck let us know when you get it figured out.

 

Thanks. I've been thinking something along those lines, since it seemed like something close to the steering wheel, rather than farther down in the suspension.
Barely audible, but you can definitely feel it. Even more pronounced near full lock.

 

A go-pro or any other video camera secured in place pointed at the LCA bushings should confirm or deny. Without the risk of becoming a human speed bump.

 

Definitely intermediate steering shaft. Same symptoms as mine

 

Yes this. Good idea landphil. Way better then my idea and safer ......clearly. I didnt have a go pro but now might be buying one. That should work perfectly.

 

Update. - finally figured out The noise was coming from my upper control arm bushings. I believe it was the bushing sleeves out of spec allowing the large bolt to move which in turn ruined the bushings. Just glad to finally have it figured out.

Big thanks to member SouthWestGA for all the help getting correct parts for my arms

I’ll post up some pictures and part numbers in case anyone else runs into this issue

 

@Garvin74 This is an old thread so I hope you are still around haha. I'm assuming after your replaced your intermediate steering shaft the knocking in the steering wheel went away? I've been having the same issue for about a year now. Still happens even after replacing my steering rack, upper/lower control arms and fox 2.5 coil overs. Went to Toyota asking for help and all I got was "Its because you have aftermarket suspension" .