camdenbuck

My 2001 4wd 4runner's drivetrain started squealing so I got a grease gun and greased it up. All was quiet for a week and then there was this strange but brief creaking noise when I drove in reverse. Gf said the grease needed time to work itself in but that I needed to get back under it to put more grease in the spline. I put more grease in the spline and it no longer makes noise in reverse. Now it makes a short creaking noise only when I put it in Drive or Reverse but not while driving. Gf said grease needs to be worked in, again! There is no grinding, vibrating, or squeaking like before. Think the grease job will do the trick? I have a 1200 mile trip to take...

Drove it around town today to "work in " the grease and the wet sneaker sound when going slow in Reverse is back :-(

BigAxeJack

You can try unloading the driveline prior to injecting the grease.The best way to do this is to place the truck on four jack stands with all four wheels off the ground. Then put the transmission in neutral and release the parking brake. With the torque off of the drive line, the grease will be able to penetrate all of the needle bearings in the u-joints. Hope this helps!

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

I'm not familiar with your year and model, but if you have a two piece rear driveshaft with a carrier bearing then it would likely be the bearing. I had the EXACT same symptoms in my 2005 Tundra. I grease everything, replace all the u-joints and still had the squeak. Turns out that it was my carrier bearing that was going bad.

If you trust your girlfriend (or anybody else), lay down in the driveway under the truck and have her drive back and forth over you so you can try to get a better listen on the location of the noise - don't get run over and YELL really loud when you are telling the driver what to do so that they hear you inside the truck! I typically find that squeaks are caused by rubber and creaks are cause by metal so check the things made of rubber that torque and shift when you go from forward to reverse - things like tranny mounts, engine mounts and suspension bushings. If it is coming from something rubber just shoot it with some white lithium grease to get rid of the noise for now, but if it is worn you'll want to replace it as soon as possible.

kawazx636

iTrader: (3)

There is also sometimes a rubber bushing between the drive shaft yolk and the output flange. Again, I'm not familiar with your year and model, but those can squeak too