Figured it out. Hub seal(s?). See update down below

Squeal - YouTube

Not sure how to embed or I would...

Definitely seems to be coming from the hub or brake, and I did wheel bearings about 1000 miles ago. Only present at ~5mph or below.

Did I screw up installing one of the seals? Wheel bearing? The wheel and spacer are ambient temp after 20 minutes of driving, so I don’t think the bearing is bad.

I hosed the brakes out with the hose and then a bunch of brake cleaner, so I don’t think there’s some crap stuck in there, but who knows.

It sounds like a squeaky or dry seal to me. Are you confident it's coming from the hub area and not the differential? Does it continue to happen if you keep the wheel spinning in the same direction?

I've gotten good results using a piece of fuel hose from my ear to the area making a noise. The hose helps block out the ambient noise and focus on the area where you point the hose at. Good luck

Yeah that’s what it sounds like to me too, and it definitely seems like it’s coming from the hub. I noticed it this morning when I stopped at the guard shack at work, just a “squeak squeak squeak” that repeats with wheel speed up until about 5mph.

It squeals both forward and backwards and happens every time I spin the wheel with any force.

I’m gonna be so pissed if I get to do wheel bearings again because one of those seals is bad...

While I have not heard that exact squeak when working on my car, I have heard something similar. I would confirm that it wasn't your brakes or wheel first. When I had to do my rear axle seals, there was fluid that had leaked onto the rear brakes and would cause them to do some weird binding and squeaking.

I would pull the wheel and brake pads off first, then see if it still squeaks. If it went away, leave the pads off and put the wheel back on to add weight to the axle and see if it comes back.

If you think it's the brakes making the squeaking check the pads and then make sure the brake pistons haven't seized. If you have fluid on the pads they will need to be replaced.

This is probably just wishful thinking, but something to check before you really get into it.

I think it’s in the brakes now, but still not sure. I took the caliper off and hosed everything down with brake cleaner. I couldn’t replicate squeal in the video I did yesterday both with the caliper off and with everything assembled and the wheel back on, but I had compressed the pistons to get the caliper back on. It’s squealing again now that I’ve used the brakes to drive.

So, I guess maybe it’s something embedded in the brake pad? If it’s one of the hub seals, it’ll wear down the high spot eventually and if that’s the case it’ll need a new wheel bearing anyway, so I’ll just ride it until the bearing starts howling or I can’t stand the squeal anymore; whichever happens first.

Whatever. Thanks for listening to me rant haha.

I don't believe that the 4WD models have a wheel bearing on the front as traditional 2WD (with RWD) vehicles would have. You have the CV half-shafts in order to accommodate the IFS. If it was something where one of the boots was torn, you'd certainly see a bunch of grease schmoo flung everywhere. From the video and how everything is situated, I'm going to guess that we're looking at the LF (driver's side). That's also where the front drive shaft is located. Have you looked at the U-Joints? Mine started to squeak/chirp when they were going bad, then I noticed a rougher ride, then when it got real bad, the damn thing shook like it was about to come apart at freeway speed.

When you took the brakes apart, did you see anything foreign embedded in the pads? How about the two pins that the pads slide on, are those smooth and not binding up one of the pads?

I'd imagine that if the seals were dry that you'd have long smoked the shit out of them after 1,000 miles; either that or "yay for Toyota durability". The thing that I'm also considering is that it only happens at under 5-10 mph. I think that at freeway speeds, dry seals would be howling like an animal being skinned alive.

Does it make any noise if you engage either 4-Hi or 4-Lo? I'm far from any mechanic or Toyota specialist, but I'm brainstorming a few possibilities.

They do have a wheel bearing up front and it's a pain the ass to change. The bearing is pressed into the knuckle, the hub is pressed into the bearing, and the CV outer stub engages the splines on the ID of the hub. Torquing the nut on the CV outer holds the whole shebang together. There is an inner seal (rides against the CV outer) and an outer seal (rides against the inside of the hub flange) that get replaced with the bearings, and my concern is that I jacked up one of those seals when I was putting everything back together. I think you're right though, for as many miles as I've put on it since I did all that, I think an improperly installed seal would be long since worn down past the point of making noise.

I don't think it's the front DS u-joints either because I can cause the squeal by spinning the wheel manually and the driveshaft doesn't spin, although it does sound a lot like a u-joint going bad. That was actually what I was thinking it was at first until I isolated to the front left hub. They also get greased fairly regularly and seem to be in decent shape. I haven't tried 4wd, but it really seems like it's coming from the LF hub/brake, and the furthest "upstream" in the 4wd system it could be is the left side front diff seal. Its frequency is wheel RPM, and not 4.56x wheel RPM, which means it's on the wheel side of the ring and pinion.

At this point I'm leaning towards something that's just really embedded in one of the pads. I didn't see anything when I took it apart, but it might not have to be anything big. If it's still squealing after Thanksgiving I'll give it another look.

/giant wall of text about dirt in my brakes lol

Jack it up and spray some water or brake cleaner on the rotor near the pads, spin the tire and see if the sound goes away. You could also spray some water on the cv boots to see if that makes it stop. Sounds like a rubber squeaking noise.

I did put some WD40 on the CV boots when I took that video to get rid of the creaking from them, definitely not the CV boots rubbing on each other (the bellows don't touch with weight on wheels). Brake cleaner/hose did not eliminate the squeal.

dammit

You’ll notice this is the right side, not the left side as seen in the OP, which means I get to take the other side apart and check it too.

I apparently didn’t fully seat the hub seal, so it ate up the hub seal AND the seal on the CV outer stub. I have a couple spare CVs, but gotta wait on new hub seals to come in. I am really hopeful that the hub-side seals are good....

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