Help with noise/knock.

[xcmtb83]

Test drove a '98 today, 4WD, 5VZ, auto, with about 164,000. Any idea what this vibration/noise would be? It felt like it was in the middle of the vehicle. U-joint maybe? There was too much snow for me to want to crawl under it and investigate anymore.

After looking at the videos more I realized that the noise follows the engine RPM, not the vehicle speed. Disregard the ETC and overdrive, it made the noise with and without it. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

YouTube

YouTube

 

[spartacus]

Test drove a '98 today, 4WD, 5VZ, auto, with about 164,000. Any idea what this vibration/noise would be? It felt like it was in the middle of the vehicle. U-joint maybe? There was too much snow for me to want to crawl under it and investigate anymore.

After looking at the videos more I realized that the noise follows the engine RPM, not the vehicle speed. Disregard the ETC and overdrive, it made the noise with and without it. Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

YouTube

YouTube

I have no experience with that noise but could be as simple as greasing the zerks in the drives shaft or worse, rear wheel bearing, flex plate, idler pulley etc. I would recommend looking at maintenance logs. Won't be a bad idea if you are really interested in the vehicle to have a good mechanic take a look at it. Couple of hundred bucks for a professional's opinion is worth it in the long run in my view.