Chirping sound

Hello all,
I have a strange chirping sound coming somewhere from my 12' V6 Tacoma. I had an earlier thread on this, but since then I've gotten a better understanding of the sound. I had the TSB 0044-14 done because I thought it is a ping, but its not. Its more of a low chirp. It starts at about 1k rpm and goes up to 3.5k rpm before cutting off all together. It sounds like now its coming from behind the engine, but im not 100% sure. Maybe driveline area? I got a video of the sound, you have to turn up your volume to hear. Its most noticeable near the end of the video. For reference, the video is taken from the back of the cab with the rear window open (access cab). What could this be?
https://youtu.be/Ve3KHBXOfzU

 

When was the last time you greased your u-joints?

 

Never.. I only bought the truck about 10k miles ago. I'm getting new tires tomorrow, I could add that into the service and see if anything changes.

 

Grease them and if it stops you know where the noise is coming from. However, If it is chirping in a universal joint it is already too late to save them. Get all of them replaced as they are all probably on the last leg. Best to do it before a catastrophic failure happens.

 

A lot of shops do it free if you ask.
However, I’ve found the majority you have to ASK.
And if they do, hope they hit the “tricky” zerk. See below for details?

I just do mine myself, mostly because it gives me a reason to inspect the underside.
It’s not too hard, the rear most joint on the front drive shaft can be tricky. But once you figure it out, it’s not too bad.

I actually made a post about it years ago. - Here - To remind myself how I did it.
Although, I have to admit. I can’t say I ever looked back on it.
As usual, I jump in and have to figure it out all over again.

Once you do it, you’ll understand.

 

Great thanks. I’ll look into that ASAP.

 

I’ll be sure to ask tomorrow at the tire shop! Or I can just get my own grease gun to re grease in the future. Thank you for the advice.

 

I guess I forgot to mention it ONLY happens when under load. I tried listening in the bay but sounds pretty good at idle/rev. How would one check the bearings?

 

Good thought.

Easy enough test would be to rev the engine in Park or Neutral.
If the sound can still be heard it’s not the U-Joint(s).

Then, remove the drive belt. Repeat above test.
No noise heard, it’s likely a pulley or idler.

Start spinning things by hand. You can usually tell by feel, sight or sound.

 

There is no throttle cable to pull.

Drive by wire for the throttle.

 

Sounds easy enough. I’ll give that a shot too.

 

Obviously, you don’t want to run the engine too long with no belt.
As the engine could over heat. But you should be fine from a cold start.
Just watch the temp gauge if you have it running long.

 

For sure. I will try this out tomorrow.

 

Did a little bit of investigating this morning before the new tires go on. I may have found the culprit. The carrier bearing has a good amount of vertical play and the driveshaft isn't sitting centered in it.
https://youtu.be/QNIlt6dIQlY

 

Was the center bearing the culprit?

 

Unfortunately no. Forgot to update this thread. The noise came back after a day of driving. I replaced the carrier bearing and the center U joint. Still need to replace the other two (couldn’t get the other two joints in time). I must have driven close to 5000 miles with this noise, nothing bad has come from it and one dealer said everything was fine. So it’s not my priority right now. Once I have time to replace those other U joints I’ll make sure to update.

 

Tension and idler pulleys

 

Sounds like creaky suspension. Try jumping up and down on the rear bumper?

 

It’s definitely drivetrain related. Only happens When I push the gas

 

This is soemthing I want to investigate soon too. I’m about to cross 150k and thinking about taking it in for a service rather than doing it myself… if I can summon the strength to let someone else touch my truck