Stumped!???

[Ryan0186]

New to the forum. looking to be a more regular part of this online community. I have a 2005 T4R limited with 4.0 2WD. Over the past year it has developed a few issues that I can’t seem to work out. One being that the front end has a clunk noise that I can hear. The noise occurres when I backup and then hit the brakes. If I start to go forward again I hear it. The noise only happens that one time when going from reverse to forward or vise verses. I also notice that the car seems to have a slightly thump when driving. It feels almost like a tire that is out of balance or has a flat spot. Please see the list below of what has been done to try to fix the issue and still it persists.

Alignment (4 wheel)
All 4 tires balanced
Tires have good tread and no abnormal wear
Inner tie rods
Outer tie rods
Upper and lower control arm bushings
Upper and lower control arm ball joints


Only thing I was going to try next is replacing spark plugs. Was thinking the thump I am feeling could be a slight misfire possibly. Or replacing both of the U-joints on drive shaft with new greasable units. Was thinking the thump I feel while driving could be a failing joint. Thump while driving is most prevalent between 25 mph and 45 mph with light acceleration or when going up a slight incline. I can also feel it while coasting at those same speeds. Another thought that crossed my mind was that maybe the transmission needs a fluid and filter change. Local dealer wants 300 to flush and fill it. I might try that last as it is the most costly of the three possibilities. The truck currently has about 134k miles on it. Would like to get this fixed and see this puppy for all the way to 500k. Any advice is much appreciated.

 

[81runner]

New to the forum. looking to be a more regular part of this online community. I have a 2005 T4R limited with 4.0 2WD. Over the past year it has developed a few issues that I can’t seem to work out. One being that the front end has a clunk noise that I can hear. The noise occurres when I backup and then hit the brakes. If I start to go forward again I hear it. The noise only happens that one time when going from reverse to forward or vise verses. I also notice that the car seems to have a slightly thump when driving. It feels almost like a tire that is out of balance or has a flat spot. Please see the list below of what has been done to try to fix the issue and still it persists.

Alignment (4 wheel)
All 4 tires balanced
Tires have good tread and no abnormal wear
Inner tie rods
Outer tie rods
Upper and lower control arm bushings
Upper and lower control arm ball joints


Only thing I was going to try next is replacing spark plugs. Was thinking the thump I am feeling could be a slight misfire possibly. Or replacing both of the U-joints on drive shaft with new greasable units. Was thinking the thump I feel while driving could be a failing joint. Thump while driving is most prevalent between 25 mph and 45 mph with light acceleration or when going up a slight incline. I can also feel it while coasting at those same speeds. Another thought that crossed my mind was that maybe the transmission needs a fluid and filter change. Local dealer wants 300 to flush and fill it. I might try that last as it is the most costly of the three possibilities. The truck currently has about 134k miles on it. Would like to get this fixed and see this puppy for all the way to 500k. Any advice is much appreciated.

Check the torque of the lower control arm bolts, the strut tops (don't touch the nut in the middle!), inspect the motor mounts for cracking. As far as the drive shaft, my rig is 4wd but I'm pretty sure they use the same rear drive shaft, and mine has greasable u-joints and a greasable yolk. You should pump those up some before condemning them. First time I did my yolk, it took 27 pumps of grease, talk about dry!
As far as your transmission, do you have 5 speed? If so, there's a drain plug on the pan and a fill plug on the transmission casing towards the top. You can drain it Cold and measure what you get, pump fresh back in. Drive it around for a few miles, and then let it cool off for a few hours (mine sat over night). Then do it again. You do this 3 or 4 times and you have flushed your transmission. Others on the forum use different methods, you can search for them, this works for me.
What kind of tires do you have?

 

[Ryan0186]

I have the 5 SPD auto. Cooper tires from Toyota dealership that have about 30k in them. I went out and checked the u joints and do not see a zerk fitting anywhere on them for greasing. I read online that some of the 2WD TR4s didn’t have the greasable u-joints. I don’t mind doing the transmission fluid swap myself but read on another forum that for the 5spd auto trans needs to be brought to temp and Toyota plugs it into a computer or something when servicing. Could just be a bunch of BS but I’m not sure. If it’s as simple as just draining. Measuring and refilling I can def do that.

 

[Morphyne]

If you dont have one already. Buy a Haynes manual and a good torque wrench and use it to check the torque source on all of your front end components. I had a thump like this twice in 5 years and both times it was loose bolts/nuts that I missed. IF everything is tight try replacing the swaybar bushings and endlinks.

 

[Ryan0186]

I forgot to mention earlier I have also replaced both front wheel bearing assemblies. I have a torque wrench. I’ll see if I can order a Haynes manual from amazon and go thought the entire front end and re-torque everything.

 

[Ryan0186]

So ironically enough I just found a video online of someone else who had the same clunk sound on the front end of their TR4.
2011-10-25_21-57-45_260 Video by beatty_preston | Photobucket
Posted the link to the video. Looks like in the video the sway bar end links need to be torqued. I’ll try that and see if it solves the clunk noise.
Would a loose shock cause the thump that I feel at speed?

 

[TowMeOut]

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/169565-2wd-driveline.html

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/4th-gen-t4rs/72998-rumble-strip-transmission-issue.html

If you're gonna do the fluid swap go ahead and do it all. The drain/fill really only replaces about 1/4 of the fluid (most is stuck in the torque converter). There are numerous threads on changing the fluid through the cooler lines. It's pretty straightforward with some cheap tubing and a little ingenuity.

Yes, toyota has a somewhat convoluted method for doing the fluid level measurement. You can get the "proper" temperature a number of ways. I can read the transmission temp with my phone via the torque app. Some folks use an IR thermometer from harbor freight and just scan the bottom of the transmission pan. I think there are other methods.

There's a 3rd plug on the pan that has a tube extending up from the bottom. This tube ends right at what Toyota thinks is the proper fluid level so if you crack it open at the right temp it should just bare ooze/drip I guess. I added fluid, warmed the thing up and let it drain until it had mostly stopped. That seems to be close enough. I figure we were just fine with dipsticks for the last 100 years. Why did they need to make this complicated.

It looks like the fluid swap might get rid of your "rumble strip" problem. My 06 shakes thanks to mud tires that are hard to keep balanced so if I was having this issue I'm not sure I'd know.

Good luck