Hard shift from 2-1 & driveshaft lube

Lewis&Clark

New member
I bought my '08 T4R last year. I did buy it from Toyota, and I plunked down a couple grand to get the longest Toyota bumper to bumper warranty I could get. It's covered for about another 10k miles, until around 93k.

I brought it in recently because I've been experiencing something weird for the last few months. When the engine is hot and the car comes to a stop, there's a very noticeable "thunk" after a brief delay. Stops -- about 2 seconds -- and then this "thunk". I know that's a highly unscientific way of explaining it, but I don't know how else to describe it. It feels like something dropping/coming into place -- feels like, because it isn't a loud noise per se, though you can definitely hear it happen.

I thought for a while it might be a hard shift from 2nd to 1st as the car comes to a total stop, as the Toyota service advisor told me the transmission won't necessarily always go down into first until after the car stops. But the couple second delay I wasn't sure about.

They spent a couple hours driving it around trying to replicate it. I was able to get them to do that, though the "thunk" was far more mild than I usually experience. But at least they recognized it and it's on the warranty service record now in case this problem continues.

Their initial thought was the hard shift too, but they ruled against that because it seems to only happen when the engine is hot, and because well, it just felt like were looking for every reason they could find to not conclude it's an expensive warranty job. They may well be right -- I'm no mechanic and I have a moderate amount of trust for these guys.

The questions for me come up with what their conclusion actually was: that the driveshaft was nearly completely dry in that lacked any grease/lube. Now I'm not the least bit mechanically inclined--my long learning curve for mod'ing my car is starting out with simple LED bulbs, a few drilled holes, etc. Vehicle mechanics are not my thing.

So my question is -- does their conclusion sound reasonable to y'all? Any other potential causes of this "thunk" that you can think of?

I asked how the driveshaft could come to be dry and in need of greasing to begin with, and the service advisor simply said that "well, the grease chips away as the car drives over time and gets thrown off the driveshaft when on rough roads".

It was a pretty thin explanation and seemed like a half-hearted solution. To be fair, they greased it up, and the problem hasn't occurred since then -- about 3 days ago. I'm keeping an eye on it.

It was covered under warranty, as was the strut replacements I needed for the tailgate, so I have no complaints. Just don't want to have to keep going back if the problem persists. And I'd like to understand in more detail how/why the driveshaft might "run out" of grease/lube.


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I think a lot of people on here experience that 'clunk'. I do from time to time and it usually ends up being when I forget to grease my drive shaft.
Most people on here seem to grease the drive shaft and the u-joints when they do their oil change as the grease does seem to disappear over time.
 
There are a ton of threads about drive shaft clunk. Do a search and you'll see its very common and the norm rather than the exception. Get a grease gun and grease the zerks on the driveshaft. Grease is like oil...it wears, breaks down and gets dirty so you need to add more to keep your driveshaft happy.

The mechanics explanation is not thin or half hearted but rather 'dead to rights' accurate. The u joints and driveshaft have grease zerks for a reason...they're meant to be serviced and maintained by the owner or mechanic.
 
I grease mine every oil change, and at first that didn't totally resolve it but minimized it mostly. However after I leveled the truck out, it is completely a non issue each time its greased. When it does come back it is very, and I mean very minor. It now serves as a reminder for another oil change...LOL. I was ready to pull the trigger on the updated drive shaft before I did the suspension but now I haven't even thought about buying it. Hope it stays that way...
 
The zerk right behind the transfer is the one that makes the clunk. Stay on top of that one and you will never have a clunk again. Had it when I first bought the runner. Been more than 5 years since I've felt the clunk. Of course I grease the other 6 but that is the main 1.
 

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