Intermittent chirping over bumps

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Dirtrider216

New member
My car has developed an intermittent chipping that occurs over small bumps in the road if I’m going over 15 mph only in a straight line.
I’m figuring it is either my UCA’s or driveline since I haven’t done maintenance I either of them. How do I grease these and can I use the same grease for everything? If so what kind of grease?
 
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UPDATE
Ran through the car wash and had it spray wheels and rocked panels
The noise now seems to have resolved itself
Obviously there was some dust somewhere or a lack of lubrication. My question is where?
 
Start by greasing your drive line (prop shaft). It's an unlikely culprit for the noise but it needs to be done and then you can rule it out. Greasing UCA's are not a Toyota recommended service item. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it, just that I can't find any specification from Toyota about maintenance intervals (i'm happy to be proven wrong on this). For the prop shaft any EP grease will be fine. If the control arms are stock the same grease will be fine. If they are aftermarket, I can't say. I recommend using something with an NLGI rating of GC-LB. Red, green, blue, black, with moly, without... it doesn't really matter.

I run the risk of starting a holy war with that. Some people think using moly in a drive line is a crime worthy of hard labor. I come from a different school of thought.

As far as the noise... I would start by inspecting sway bars (end links and bushings in particular) and strut mounts. Just a guess, but it's where I would begin.
 
I recommend Jacking up your vehicle, and pry on all the joints and bushings. You should find one loose or you should hear one make a sound.
 
So I can hear the noise all the way up to about 60 when its just drowned out by road noise at that point. It sounds like a squeaky hamster wheel and happens going over rumble strip type bumps in the road such as cracks that were sealed several times. And it only happens if i'm going in a straight line. The slightest turn in the steering wheel and i wont hear it. I sprayed everything i can with white lithium grease and Ill pick up some green grease tonight for my drive shaft. Can I pump some of that green grease into the zerk on top of the ball joint in my JBA UCA's? If that doesn't do it I will order some new sway bar bushings and explore whether I need to try to loosen the long upper bolt on my UCAs to get some grease in there. This is my only vehicle so I unfortunately dont have the ability to tear down into it over the weekend or anything like that.
 
aside from greasing everything and checking bushings and bolts to rule out that.

I had an annoying squeak i could not figure out for the longest time. turned out to be the inner fender by the headlight on the inside rubbing when the truck would hit bumps. if you lay underneath and look up near the back of the headlight housing there is a few spots that look like a small bolt goes through but doesn't. I ran a zip tie through those holes and pulled it tight with pliers.. never heard it again and its been about 3 years.

I found it by shutting the passenger door hard one time and heard the squeak with the truck off and in park lol.

Also, check exhaust heat shields and hangers.
 
Fender liner had me going too.

Other stuff.
Corner of head light to fender, upper/out side edge rubbing.
Lower shock/strut eyes rubbing the lower control arm.
The heat shields for the exhaust can make some funny noises that are hard to track down.
Any aftermarket stuff that could be rubbing...bumpers, sliders...

I have a most annoying tap tap taping sound in the headliner front passenger area that's making me nutty. No sunroof either.
 
Thanks guys ill check all that stuff out when I get a chance. I probably won't be able to for a while since we just got hit with a snow storm so that means everything will stay wet and probably quiet until it dries out again. Im thinking ill check the bushings on my rear lower link arms and maybe get some grease on them if I can as well.
 
I finally tracked it down to the springs keeping tension on the exhaust pipe where the separate sides from each head merge. Not gonna be able to fix that right away but I can keep hi temp lithium grease on the area and have it quiet. At least now I have piece of mind that I won’t have a catastrophic failure of anything. Would never have thought to check the exhaust without the post by backoff
 
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