All bolts are tight but when I hit this area you can clearly hear contact. I hear it when going over decent bumps... and is driving me crazy.

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another view.....

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Is that the V8 or V6? I haven't heard anything on my 2006 V6...

It's an 06 V-8..........

Other than this freaking clank I love this car.

Coming from a guy that has driven a 91 4.0l ohc explorer, a 98 5.0l v8 explore (was my favorite of explorers), a 2000 explorer with the 4.0l sohc engine. Once ford put their irs in there I knew I would not be buying one again.

So far I could not be happier with this suv other than the fact I can't get an lt 265-65-17 tire with the snowfake/ mountain symbol....

Maybe you can try Nokians. Here is a link to their website. They have 265/65/17s in both snow tires and an "all-weather" tire, which is a four-season tire with the snowflake/mountain rating. It is the "WR" model.

I have been using Nokians for the last several years on vehicles other than my 4Runner, and I am extremely happy with their performance and treadwear.

I will probably give the WRs a try when I need tires for the 4Runner. The WRs are "XL" load rated, which I understand is somewhere in between a "P" rated tire and an "LT" rated tire. From what I can find, it looks like the LTs are available only in 265/70/17s.

Nokian Tires

TiresbyWeb

Take the skid plate off and see if you still hear the clunk. There are four bolts that hold it on and when they are off the plate will hang by the two flanges in the front. There is nothing wrong with driving without the skid plate on unless you plan on driving over unimproved roads where the center of the vehicle may bottom out.

The only thing I could think of is the plate is not snugged tightly. There is a large circular metal support in the center rear of the plate that rests on a frame cross support (terminology may be wrong so don't go slap bad crazy on me). If it is not snugged down that might be contacting the frame cross member intermitently and driving you crazy.

Try driving with the skid plate off for a while and get back with us here in the forum.

jb

That is what is contacts the the frame cross member. However all bolts are GNT.

I will run out and take it off in a little bit and let you know....

Just by the off chance. Can you or anyone run out and hit the area in the skid plate I posted in the pics? see if you can get any noise out of theirs even though you don't hear it when you drive.

It looks like someone else has had a similar concern on yota tech

http://www.yotatech.com/showthread.p...suspension+TSB


I don't know if he ever figured it out though.

Anyone have the details of the tsb.......

There is no TSB for the noise you are having, but I do believe you have found the offending problem. You have four choices:

1. Go to the dealership and, if you can convince the service writer to crawl under the vehicle with you, reproduce it for them and have them fix the damn thing, don't forget to say, "damn thing!"

2. Take it off and glue a thin but durable o-ring with a similar diameter to the metal that touches the frame crossmember. Reinstall it and see if that makes an appreciable difference.

3. Take it off and put it in the garage. This solves two problems. One is the clunk noise. The other is that you won't have to remove it to do an oil change, if you do that kind of thing.

4. See option #3 and place it into a brown box for shipping and sell it to me. I bent mine all to hell on the Big Bend trip and refuse to pay the stealership price for a new one. :yesyes:

Good luck.

Mr. Lambdebois,
From your other thread regarding the tire rub, I believe this issue is related to the recent oil change. The last person who changed the oil bent the skidplate when removing the filter or possibly let it hang by a few bolts to gain access thus causing the plate to distort and not mount flush. You may need to experiment a little to get the noise to stop, but I'd bring it in to the dealer first.

Mine is bent in that area. It dont make any noise any more

Yes the last person did not unbolt the oil pan at all apparently. When I asked them how they got to the oil filter they showed me and it was clear their arm slightly bent down the side of the skid plate and made it rub. After checking the bolts I just gave it a slight bend back. No more rub....

I still don't think that bending the far side of the skid on the outside of the bolts where it was hitting the tire on right turns, would cause a distortion in the very middle of the skid if it was bolted down tight when the oil was changed. The other thing is I had noticed this noise before the oil change.

Either way.... I am going to run it up to the dealer today and see what they say first.

Thanks again for all your advice guys. I really do appreaciate it.

Where did you have your oil changed?

I know a lot of people here freak out at people who get their trucks serviced at the dealership, but I figure the dealership knows Toyota vehicles inside & out & they would not do something like bending the skidplate to get to the oil drain.

Of course it was not a toyota tech who did that. Leave it to the googan's at (gasp) jiffy lube to blame for bending the skidplate to get the oil filter out.

Normally I would never go there but I did not have access to my tools at the time it needed an oil change and did not want to wait a half a day at the dealorship for a 10 minute oil change while the paperwork had to be passed around from tech to service advisor to receptionist.

Looks like I am paying for my decision with more time later to save myself a few minutes of time at the moment.

Sorry, I didn't mean for my post to be an "I told you so" kind of thing. I apologize if you took it that way. I can sympathize with what you are going through though. I am pretty anal when it comes to stuff like this. My reaction would probably be to replace the piece altogether....but that is just me & my anal way of thinking.

And half a day for an oil change at the dealership?? I get my oil changed at the dealer every 3,000 miles (I have zero desire to do it myself), and unless I am having them do any work other than the oil change itself, my truck is usually done & ready in under 30 minutes. In fact, most dealerships have "Express Lube Service" where they guarantee it will be done in under 30 minutes. Most of the time I just roam the new car lot & check out what the new rides look like.

I couldn't even bend mine back standing on the sucka with 200 lbs.

Did the Jiff who bent your skid plate look like this fella?

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