Drive shaft blues

my 80K Tundra is new to me. Unknown history on the car.
I have been experiencing a whistling sound from the drive train
while deceleration. If I add power, the sound goes away. I crawled under
the car and found nothing. No visual problems.

I still felt that there was something wrong. I sent the truck to my local
guy for closer inspection. Drive shaft was removed and sent to driveline
shop. The report came back as in sad shape. Bent,out of balance, center support
unit failing, U joints bad.
Anyway, I was very surprised that this low mileage truck needed a driveshaft overhaul.
Either way, truck drives like new.

 

That is surprising. Maybe it's been in deep water in the past and previous owner didn't grease as needed?

Or maybe that driveline shop just wanted to make some money?

Either way glad you got it sorted out. These are great trucks and can be problem free with proper maintenance.

 

Even if only at 80k, it's still 15 years old. If it was never greased I can beleive it. Still unfortunate though. Hopefully the shop doesn't charge you a fortune. I only paid around $120 to have my drive shaft rebalanced and they said my u joints were fine.

 

My Dad has a 2006 DC.
His is 4 wheel drive, mine is 2 wheel drive.
Surprisingly, only the 4 wheel drive Tundras have driveshaft
Grease zerks! My rebuilt driveshaft has zerks now.
My XSP is from Louisiana and prolly got dunked under the
water more than once. I don’t have any watercraft so prolly good to go.

 

Just an FYI for anyone who hasn't done it, U joints only cost about $20-50 for the parts and you can replace them yourself at home in about half an hour if you have or rent the tools, which mostly just means having a big bench vice.

 

The only time greaseable joints are better is if they're actually greased. The average person isn't going to grease them as often as necessary. Which reminds me that I need to grease mine.

A quality sealed joint IMO is preferable for a DD. It's not unusual for a sealed factory joint to go 150-200k.

 

I am surprised that the shaft was bent, everything else makes sense if it wasn't maintained.

 

Mine are over 300k.

 

My 1997 T100's (4WD) are at 263,000 and doing great. Get greased regularly.