In need of some help chasing down this sound. I hate to say it but it sounds like it's coming from back of motor by oil pan/trans. I only hear it when the truck is in gear and given light throttle. So it's under load. I can't replicate it in Park or Neutral. Only in Drive/Reverse. It's driving me a bit crazy. I have only had the truck for about 10k miles. Serviced it very well and carefully with all Toyota fluids etc. I am praying I didn't get a lemon. Thought I scored with being 3rd owner at 72k fully Toyota Service record and it was bought Toyota Certified Pre owned by person I bought it from (Which might mean jack from what I've read on here lol.) It's not showing any issues, i.e. runs and drives smoothes, shifts smooth. No Check Engine Lights etc. No other issues. Only other noise is a whine around 1200 rpm that apparently about half of these engines have.

It's the higher pitched almost shrill, kinda bearing-y, metallic sound that sounds a bit like a bad pulley. (I did pull belt and check but It's still there when put in gear with no belt on.) You will hear it the more you listen, I got throttle position more dialed towards end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=B0JNdC6HwVTd4pwh&v=DpEIZIeTtA0&feature=youtu.be

What is that dripping? Too much to be condensate from the A/C. That is a lot of fluid. Get that fixed first. Could that be a leaky water pump? Taste just a drop of it; if it tastes sweet, it is coolant.



The squeaking does sound like a bearing to me or perhaps the water pump.

yes wtf is that dripping. The AC drain is farther up too I believe but hard to tell from that angle

I’m 99% just AC it was running for a while and it’s very hot and humid where I live. I will check it though.

It’s got an extension tube so it drips below the frame instead of on it.

He's in Humid Hawaii. It very well could be condensate from the AC. As for a noise, I'll have to listen at home on the computer.

FWIW my '19 makes a similar sound and I have not been able to chase it down. I bought it new and the sound didn't show up until about 2023 when I did a drain+fill on the transmission.

To that point, I drained and refilled with Toyota WS, got it up to the proper temperature range, and checked the fluid level (good). My *guess* is it's the TC, but again - I can't prove that and I'm not taking my junk apart until something breaks.

Hey thank you so much for replying! I think I've narrowed it down today. I had my wife adjust the throttle while it was in drive till it made the sound and then I crawled around under neath with the mechanics stethoscope. What's interesting is by ear alone I hear the sound at the lower oil pan, but I think it's being magnified by the bell housing into the oil pan. Because when I use the stetho I hear it coming from the trans. I also have a buzzy/hum that seems to come from trans too. I suspect it's a pump in the trans making the buzz but I'm also suspecting the Torque Converter or if there's a bearing in front of trans possible that is wearing out or gotten corrosion. I'm not familiar with this transmission or automatics much at all so I don't know if that's a possibility I'm going to look into it more though.

I also drained a quart of oil so I could check the new magnetic drain plug and take a look at the oil. Well there is a very small amount of metal particle on the drain plug but since it's never had a magnetic plug it doesn't seem like a lot by any means. Just a light ring around the magnet and a bit of fine silver coloring that you can only see when you wipe it off on a rag. My guess is that's pretty normal. That with the outstanding results from Blackstone labs is making me think the engine is OK. I did find some funny little particles of what appears to be grey plastic in the oil. Maybe some old silicone gasket material that's dried out from engine heat. Or a worn component. I don't know but it was small and non magnetic non metal and quite brittle.

The oil did look pretty dark for only having about 2200 miles on it. But it always looks dark when I change at 5000. I'm not sure if that's just how this motor is with oil, if it's a Toyota 0w-20 oil thing or what.

Anyway the plug is back in and I put a fresh quart of 0w-20 I had leftover in to top it off. For now I'll wait till 5k and do my next oil change.

I am considering doing a drain and fill and filter change of the transmission to see if that helps. Also going to poke around and see if any bell housing bolts are loose or Trans mount bolts for that matter. I tried to scope inside the bell housing to look at flex plate but there's really not much room and it's hard to see much.

Just hoping the trans doesn't crap out on me!

Here's the drain plug and some of the plasticky bits I found in the oil. Yes I cleaned the catch pan really well so I know it wasn't there already. Although when draining the oil I pulled the magnet (new plug) and popped in the old plug so I could inspect the new plug. In doing that I definitely brushed against the frame/diff and some rusty paint flakes made it into the oil bucket, but I couldn't find anything under there that resembled the grey plasticky flakes so I'm stumped on that one and concluded that it must be from in the engine. To be honest I have never inspected my oil this closely but I've never had a truck this nice and usually just changed the oil and kept driving it ignoring any minor noises because they were old beaters hahaha.

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