suspension rattle that cant be diagnosed

[4RSport]

I purchased a 2006 sport with 36000 miles last May. I ran a carfax and no accidents were reported. after about a week I began to notice a rattle coming from the left rear when going over small bumps at low speeds.
I bring it into toyota and they tell me the bushings need to be replaced. I pick it up and the rattle was still there.
they check it again and they tell me the rear left shock needs to be replaced as well as the right front. after doing so the rattle is once again still there.
they then replace the end links and you guessed it...the rattle was still there.
Then they tell me "A field tech needs to come out and check it. he usually comes around the first or second week of the month. we'll call you a few days prior to his arrival"
A month passes and they tell me he was just there the day before......??????? "call back at the beginning of next month" (January)
I call and all they do is give me the runaround. "he hasnt been around and we are not sure when he will be"

that was all I needed to hear and decided on trying another dealership. so last week i bring it to another dealership and they tell me its going to cost $275 for a diagnostic check if the warranty company doesnt pick up the tab. I said I dont care i just want it fixed. so they run a check and they tell me its the pump on the frame rail thats rattling and need to order and replace the part and the warranty company is covering everything.
I made the mistake of having my girlfriend pick up my truck because I was working. she said she didnt hear a rattle so i believed it was fixed. I drive it the following day and no luck.

By the way at colder temps you hear the rattle in the front right as well. it almost sounds like someone is playing the drums in my wheel well.

at this point I have no idea what to do.....any ideas?????

 

[4RSport]

anyone at all?? a suggestion as to what I should do next? right now im leaning heavily on getting rid of the damn thing

 

[HB 4X4]

I know this sounds stupid, but have you checked the bottle jack in the back left cubby?

As for the front I would check the sway bar endlinks and make sure it's all snug, and basically check any bolts that you can reach. If all bolts are tightened, then it will narrow down a lot of things so we could get into the smaller, more unlikely things.

 

[MikesToy]

The only rattle i had upfront was my footbrake. I had the dealer tighten it up for free. :

 

[HB 4X4]

The only rattle i had upfront was my footbrake. I had the dealer tighten it up for free. :

How is that relevant to the OP?

 

[MikesToy]

How is that relevant to the OP?

awww cum on! 4RSport pretty much replaced everything the stealership could think of and he's about to give up. I'm just sayin my only rattle i had upfront was my foot brake being loose. Which means i have had no other suspension rattles. Hope this is relevant.

 

[WhiteChevelle]

anyone at all?? a suggestion as to what I should do next? right now im leaning heavily on getting rid of the damn thing

Check the upper shock mount bolt on top of thr tower in the front, on my stock xreas suspension which you have also I had a rattling sound coming from the front, and that was the culprit, the bolt was on the loose side.

As for the back I agree with what was previously mentioned or it's possible the spare tire isn't cranked tightly in the up position

 

[4RSport]

thank you guys. im going to have my mechanic take a look and see what he can gather. i was thinking it could be the top of the shock being loose we'll see what happens. keep you posted!

 

[HB 4X4]

thank you guys. im going to have my mechanic take a look and see what he can gather. i was thinking it could be the top of the shock being loose we'll see what happens. keep you posted!

Make sure you check the bottle jack and spare tire before you take it to a mechanic.

 

[004Gunner]

Have you done anything to find the rattle without driving it? Have you crawled under your vehicle? Kicked tires? Bounced a mallet off a few parts? Slammed doors?

All of these things can help find rattles and I've used everyone of them. I've even had other people drive my car while I sat in different locations to help narrow down where a noise was coming from.

 

[4RSport]

Have you done anything to find the rattle without driving it? Have you crawled under your vehicle? Kicked tires? Bounced a mallet off a few parts? Slammed doors?

All of these things can help find rattles and I've used everyone of them. I've even had other people drive my car while I sat in different locations to help narrow down where a noise was coming from.

Ive done everything i could do. I took it to my mechanic yesterday and he drve it and looked at it. unfortunately he found nothing by looking at it and said he would need time with it.

I have narrowed down the noise to the front right and rear left. I have another appointment with toyota tuesday. we'll see what what happens

 

[004Gunner]

Ive done everything i could do. I took it to my mechanic yesterday and he drve it and looked at it. unfortunately he found nothing by looking at it and said he would need time with it.

I have narrowed down the noise to the front right and rear left. I have another appointment with toyota tuesday. we'll see what what happens

That isn't something that typically fits into the purview of a mechanic. Hopefully they can find it for you though. Has anyone else described anything similar on hear?

 

[HB 4X4]

That isn't something that typically fits into the purview of a mechanic. Hopefully they can find it for you though. Has anyone else described anything similar on hear?

The rear rattle is almost always related to the spare or the bottle jack. Not sure if he has checked those yet...

If it's not either one of those, it can only be a handful of things... Anti sway bar mounts or end links, shock mounts, body mounts, making sure the coils are seated properly, etc.

Nothing back there requires a mechanic if you know where to look. It would just require a steady process of elimination. You would have better luck isolating it with someone who knows specifically about 4Runners than a general purpose mechanic since finding rattles is not their usual job. A local member from the forum would be a better choice, and usually only costs a few beers and maybe some lunch.

I know the pain. I am more OCD than anyone. I can hear rattles even over music. I have been known to pull over to shift gear in the back to fix a rattle than no one else ever heard.

 

[Will_4R]

Seriously, check the spare tire and everything in the jack compartment.

Could it be a pebble inside the frame rail or under one of the skid plates, a loose exhaust component or heat shield, loose tie rod, bad wheel bearing(s), loose break pads?

 

[Zinarac]

I have a 2004 SR5 and I have a similar rattle coming from the left rear fender area. I checked my bottle jack and tools, but can't figure out what it is either. It is worse when it is cold.

 

[4RSport]

So Toyota now tells me that when they originally replaced the front right and rear left shocks they were supposed to replace the pump as well but never did. They BELIEVE that air got into the system and that is the cause for the rattles. I'm going to pick it up shortly.....we'll see if this is the case.

 

['04-Sport]

4R-Sport. I feel your pain. My '04 Sport, V8, 4WD developed a metallic clanging noise about two years after a collision repair done by a "certified Toyota collision center." Of course, that shop is no longer in business at that location or under that name and Toyota will not do anything in my case (note: if the shop advertised itself as a Toyota of Roswell certified collision center I would have gone somewhere else - I was under the impression that, somehow, Toyota would stand behind the shop's work).

Anyway, I went several times and spent several hours at another dealership while they checked things out (always said it was the fault of the poor quality collision repair but then couldn't find out what related to that previous repair was at fault) - I had another body ship correct something that was obviously wrong but that didn't stop the noise - I then took off both skid plates and crawled under my truck to check everything with a rubber mallet and to tighten every bolt that was loose (one or two were loose) but the noise remains. The suggestions offered in this forum thread are very good but, for me, none of them has corrected the problem. Good luck to you.

 

['04-Sport]

So Toyota now tells me that when they originally replaced the front right and rear left shocks they were supposed to replace the pump as well but never did. They BELIEVE that air got into the system and that is the cause for the rattles. I'm going to pick it up shortly.....we'll see if this is the case.

So what was the outcome?

 

['04-Sport]

Another case of it's a waste of time to follow these posts - the initiator just disappears and those of us who would like to know what happened (because we have a similar problem) are left in the dark. I'm out of here.

 

[004Gunner]

Update OP?