Squeaky Wheel after Pothole
 

Hello all,

I recently developed a squeaky wheel noise, perhaps linked to hitting a massive pothole. I don't know if they are related, but here are the symptoms.

+Seems to be coming from the left side, and seems to be coming from the front, but I need to double-check to figure that out. It very may well be coming from the back.
+Noise corresponds to the wheel rotation (not a squeaky belt)
+Noise occurs on acceleration at lower speeds, particularly under load.
+Noise goes away at higher speeds.

Any idea on where to begin looking to diagnosis the issue. I checked the wheels and didn't find anything grossly wrong. Ideally, I could fix it myself, but if I need to take it into a shop, I would like to know how much trouble I am in. I just moved cross country so I don't have a mechanic I trust quite yet.

Thanks!

check the brakes and the ball joints.

Jack up the front end and start spinning tires. If it's bearings you'll hear the noise. You can also jack up the rear end and if you're feeling lucky start the engine and put it in drive... but personally I don't think I'd do that. Have a buddy drive the 4Runner and roll down all the windows and drive around while you hop around from seat to seat and pinpoint the noise. Wife did that for me when I had a noisy suspension and found the rear shock was making a ton of noise.

I just had the ball joints and shocks replaced a couple of thousand miles ago, so I hope it's not that. I was thinking it may be the U-Joint, and I went out and got a grease gun and everything. Turns out the 2WD does have fittings to grease the drivetrain. My fault for not checking under the car first.

I will jack up the car and spin the tires when I get a chance, but I think it may be something drivetrain related. The noise only occurs at low speed under load, so I don't know how much I will learn from jacking up the car. I would assume that the car will not make the noise if there is no load (Ie free turning tires), but who knows (I clearly don't).

Is it safe to use the jack which comes with the vehicle or will I need to purchase a jack?

You can use the OEM jack for the fronts but the rear wheels turn together so you'll need to use jackstands to raise both tires off the ground. If buying jackstands and a floor jack isn't in the cards right now and you think it's a rotating part that's making the noise, you can cut to the chase and see if it's the most common offender the rear driveshaft. I'm assuming you have 4WD, so you can unbolt the driveshaft from vehicle and drive in 4WD just using the front wheels. Just use a sharpie or whiteout and mark the position of the driveshaft on both flanges before removal. You'll know if that was the culprit. Finding clunks and vibrations is often just a process of elimination.

I have the 2WD, hence why I was upset when I went and bought the grease gun just to crawl under and realize the u joints of the 2wd is non greaseable.

I assume I can jack under the crossmember in the front?

My current plan of action is to, have a friend drive the car while I listen outside to pinpoint the location of the noise, and know what kind of trouble I am in.

I am probably just going to end up taking it to the mechanic. Sadly my living situation right now doesn't allow me the time, location or tools to do it myself.

Ah, gotcha. Well that does eliminate a lot of possible parts that could be causing the noise, since you don't have them. Yes on using the crossmember to jack up the vehicle. There's a few other spots you can use in the owner's manual. I've also seen in the center rear skid plate there's a hole in the center where the bottle jack can fit. Not sure if that's intentional as a jack point or just a coincidence. That's where I use my floor jack when I'm raising the vehicle, it lifts both tires off the ground at the same time in the front but since the floor jack is larger I have to remove the skid plate. May not have to with the bottle jack.

To provide an alternative, these rigs do make noises as they age. I've just learned to live with some of them and this could be one you just get used to.

Upon further inspection, the noise is definitely coming from the front left wheel. Hopefully it's not something more major that sounds left sided like the transmission or drive train or something. I will jack it up and take off the wheel and see what I can see.

The noise is more of a "somethings gone bad" noise, with a bit of a shake, than a "I occasionally squeak like a mouse noise"

Since the wheel doesn't have any drive train component directly powering it, I am guessing is must be a wheel bearing, bent something, or maybe the break pad rubbing.

I don't think any of that will be terrible expensive to fix hopefully.

I took the wheel off, everything looked alright. I pushed on the dust plate a bit and then put the wheel back on. I also sprayed the outside if the front u joint with some lithium grease for good measure.

The noise went away. It was probably just the rotor touching the dust plate for some reason.

Thank you for your advice.