It's possible that some old grease got pushed out of the joints and when you drove, it got flung off onto the exhaust. It's happened to others here before.

Yea, that was my first thought. I just wanted some input. Looks like the smell has gone away and the white smoke from the exhaust.

I finallly got around to doing the driveshafts myself.

Only found 3 zerks and for the 1st zerk I got the nipple stuck...nothing that a quick internet search didn't resolve (....angle the crap out of the fitting/nipple and it will snap off )

Now i need to find the other 3.

So when they say forward and rear shaft...I assume i only hit the rear shaft...and there is another shaft entirely that has the other 3 zerks?


AHHHHH REREAD the 1st post...okay so I did all 3 of the rear (major pain being a 6\2 guy and no ramps...it was not fun).

Will do the front shaft tomorrow morning

Tip: Park it in 2wd. You'll be able to spin the front driveshaft by hand to get the fitting in just the right place

She's in 2Hi all summer long so no problemo! Thanks for the tip though. I need to lose some weight or stick my 5 year old underneath to do the rear shaft next time ! (JK!)

I performed this service and, as cautious as I was, it was pretty easy.

I picked up my grease gun at autozone with the flexible hose. Once the fitting was pushed onto the zerk, I didn't have to hold it anymore. It held on its own.

I applied the following # pumps

Rear Shaft
20 to the slide yoke at the transfer case
4 to the u joint
10 to the rear at the axle

Front Shaft
10 to the slide yoke at the transfer case
2 to the u joint before grease started coming out
3 to the front at the tranny before the grease started coming out

I never heard any noises or saw any movement with the slide yokes or at the very rear.

I began hearing the old grease expressing at all of the u joints and had to wipe the excess off.

Thanks for all of the info! I love this place!!

NOTE: This is the first time I have performed this "operation". Ive had the car since 50k and its about to turn 75. The grease coming out was nasty!

The rear axle is a snap.

The front was a royal PITA!

Hey all,

Just a quick thanks - the pictures and directions in this topic made lubricating the driveshafts on my car very easy. 57k on the car and I don't think it has ever been done I just purchased the car 10 days ago and am working to get everything up to speed.

After lubricating with some Mobil-1 pink grease, a quick 5 mile test drive has shown the driveline clunks to be almost gone. I'll give it a week or so then shoot some more grease in there.

Glad it worked and welcome!

Don't overfill the rear driveshafts' slip-joint. IMHO just add 2-3 pumps max. If you severely overfill the slip-joint there's no place for the rear driveshaft to go when the rear suspension extends.

Do you pump until you see the pink (Mobile1) or stop once you see the nasty stuff?

Thanks so much! Greased all the Zerks today with Mobil One and the clunk is GONE and she's running smoother than ever. I'll probably hit up the slip joint zerks along with every oil change to keep that clunk away. Thanks away!

Same here. Changed the oil this weekend and hit all the fittings with Mobil1 "pink" grease. Ta-Da...clunk is gone! Thanks T4R forum!

I envy you guys who have been able to get rid of the clunk just by hitting the zerks. I have gone so far as to pull the shaft apart to clean and grease the splines but the clunk is still there. I have heard some guys have had luck hitting the splines with some emory cloth to smooth things out so that may be the next step.....or I may just learn to deal with it. Great truck but man the clunk is frustrating.

I wish this situation was clearer, with consistent advice and results. I greased all my zerks with Mobil 1 a few thousand miles after purchase, and the clunk started up after another 20,000 miles or so. Recent re-greasing with the same grease has mostly fixed the problem but not eliminated it.

I gave only a few pumps to the slip joints, maybe 6-8. I am a bit concerned about overfilling them, and there seems to be no definitive advice from Toyota or others about what to do.

Some advise unbolting and dropping the shafts, to take them apart to clean them and apply grease where it really matters. I'd sure hate to have to do that frequently.

Worked like a charm, got a new nozzle from AutoZone, and filled em all up. the rear was essentially empty, put about 80% of a tube of Mobile1 in there and the front was essentially full. I would like to share that as you fill them up, you'll notice that there is a rice crispy like crackling sound as the joint reaches full capacity. Then the grease starts oozing out. I did it in parking garage so it was nice and quiet and I could really hear that crackling sound right before the grease oozed out.