First Oil Change - Major Rattle - Very Annoyed

[Bahnstoermer]

I'm new to this truck so bear with me. Pristine truck bought with 42k, dealer did first oil change after that, then I just did one at about 52k. Pulled both skids not seeing the second had a slot for oil drain (ain't working on your back in the garage grand?), reassemble everything, and there's a rattle under heavy acceleration at higher rpms in several gears.

My first thought is that I didn't get a skid plate tightended down, as it's not a totally "tin tin tin" rattle, a wee bit deeper, like you know maybe a barely loose skid plate, something between an exhaust shield rattle and engine knock in tone but similar in frequency to both...

Tighten all the skid bolts (and snap one, but that's just a bonus tip for giggles... drill it out, replace... ain't working on your back in the garage grand?). Still rattles under heavy acceleration, most audible in 3rd gear but heard in others, seems to be a heavy vibration related thing.

Check oil level on a hair brained overfill theory (crank smacking oil level?) ...who'd a guessed 5 quarts would still be low, add a 6th quart to bring up to to full today. Inserted a foad pad between the rear skid (the one between the a arms that is) to take out any vibs, still rattles. Take off rear skid completely, test drive, still rattles. Take off front skid, test drive, still rattles. I note that there's a rubber mount thing that looks almost like a motor mount that got oily during the change right below the oil filter, hose it down with some brake cleaner and take a short test drive... still seems to be a rattling.

That's where I'm at... I don't know what the heck is going on, and need my truck annoyance free again LOL.

I'm starting to wonder if this was totally random and something else is up. I'm not convinced at this point it couldn't be something like a timing belt tensioner or a serpentine belt tensioner? I've come up with all kinds of wild theories when I didn't immediately see "oh, you left a bolt out of the skid plate" kind of mistake.

Anyone have a similar experience or input? I drove my old truck for years putting up with problems, this cannot happen on the new one LOL, it's driving me nuts!

Thanks!

 

[jstutz101]

You might want to check all those tin heat shields. Seems like since I hit 100,000 miles those things keep falling off. When the large one over the muffler fell off it sat on top of the muffler and rattled. Sounded like the rear end was going to explode! I was happy when I just pulled it off and all was well.

Ive got a rattle now that only seems to happen when the truck is idiling in gear or the AC turns on and puts a load on the engine. Drives me nuts, but I havent had time to search it out.

 

[SureShot516]

what has happened to me on 2 occasions was a rock on top of the heat shield. check for pebbles or rocks

 

[SureShot516]

sorry just noticed you totally removed the skid plates

 

[Sungod]

Probably not the cause of your rattle, but you should check your manual for the proper oil amount to add.

My guess would be skid plates are the source of your rattle since that is what you took off. They don't always seat very easily. I would remove the skid plates to see if the rattle goes away. That way you would know for sure.

 

[Bahnstoermer]

Oil added and as noted, skid plates were fully removed for a test with no positive results. I'll post back if I get a conslusive resolution.

 

[Bahnstoermer]

Well, this is confirmed to be engine knock. Took it to my uber-mechanic pal and did a bunch of testing. It mostly does this on downshifts, but does it during light load after then downshift as well. We were debating some torque converter audibility, but once it was duplicable after the shift that was ruled out. It was also noticeable that the ECU was likely dialing out the knock after the initial second or two.

To confirm nothing was amiss completely, we took the 2007 V8 4Runner he just got on a test loop ! LOL

It did EXACTLY the same thing at the same points.

So I don't know if I got some bad gas and that made it extra noticeable and now it's back to "normal" levels and I just hear it or what. Maybe we've got some crappy winter gas here in Central Ohio still, maybe it's too much ethanol, we speculated all around on this part. I'll probably run some Chevron w/ Techron just for good measure to clean out the fuel system, but I'll document this here for anyone else who runs into this noise in the future.

(All this listening did show I have a small exhaust leak to track down though LOL, and we know that's not normal)

 

[jwyshrek]

Kinda sounds like gas with a octane rating that was too low...If you and your friend gas'd up at the same place, I would call your local authorities to have the station checked out.