"CLUNK" on '04 SR-5

[Fred Ritchie]

Had my 04 SR-5 (used) going on two years, LOVE IT! Installed new rotors and pads all around when I bought it. In passed several weeks I have experienced a "clunk", sounds like from rear left but I'm not certain. Sounds like an emergency brake hanging and then releasing with a hard hit but I never set brake. Sometimes it is just slight drag for a second and then release. For first time the in past 10 days, for first time the vehicle wouldn't move when put into gear. Slipped shift to park and to reverse, took foot off brake, heard loud clunk and felt release, drove away as normal. Most strange, couple of days ago while sitting at light, with foot on brake, I felt heard and felt gentle clunk, still holding brake pedal. When light changed I drove away as normal.
Best suggestions as to where to start? Brake cylinder?, transmission?, etc. Any direction would be appreciated.

Just FYI, trans was wiped and re-programmed by Toyota to deal with hard down-shift problem some months ago but this "clunk" & release is relatively new and intermittent.

 

[T101]

Are you pulling to one side? Heat from wheel after driving? Both would be a symptom of a brake issue.


Could be your driveshafts need greasing.
Symptoms are hearing the clunk on take-off from stop and when slowing down.
Search for it here on how to, relatively easy to do. That's a common cause of 'clunking' in our trucks, but without hearing/seeing yours specifically it's hard to say what exactly the cause is.

 

[fdbyrne]

I agree. Before getting worried that it's something serious, grease all of the zerks on the drive shaft real good and inspect the calipers to see if any of them are stuck. I'd do it in that order too.

 

[CruzadoBlanco]

first thing to do is to grease all your U-joints and the driveshafts slip yokes. its a very common problem for our driveshafts to clunk and make noise when they go dry.

 

[SluiceboxSlim]

It's more of a "bump", yes?

These guys are all pointing you in the right direction. It's happened on all the 4Runners I've owned or been around. After greasing the driveline points (6 total?), there's not much else you can do. I noticed it going away for a bit when having loosened the rear swaybar, and re-tightening as the truck set compressed, but it wasn't as permanent as the driveline greasings. You'll have to do a search, but I think you hit 2 zerks on ea u-joint, and 1 on each slip yoke. Search for the specs on each, as the u joints get injected until you hear/see the crackling grease coming out, but the slip yokes can apparently be over-greased. I do this with each oil change.


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[4Running335i]

This may be a stupid question, but is there a specific grease to use?

 

[fdbyrne]

Toyota calls for lithium grease at the u-joints and moly for the slip yoke so that's what I use. Other people just use lithium for everything and say it's fine.

If you haven't greased your slip yoke in a long time, you're going to be surprised how much grease it'll take. A few squeezes won't be enough. Keep pumping it in until you can just start to see the slip yoke expanding from the force of the incoming grease. It could be up to 40 or 50 squeezes.