I noticed on my recent road trip (1200+ miles) that my 4runner has develop a whooping type noise. Kinda of like a unbalance washing machine but without the chucking noise and is a low type whoop. It can be heard at acceleration and deceleration but not at idle and it's not the tires.

I have an idea what it might be but I want to see what you guys think.

 

Possible rear wheel bearing, rear diff or ujoint?

 

I had this exact same thing happen to me, but upon closer investigation I discovered that someone was sitting in my back seat saying "whoop whoop whoop." lol

 

LOL!

 

suspension possibly?

 

I've got a squeak that I am presently attributing to a worn out sway bar bushing. No proof, just a hunch (and the fact that it's halfway hanging out from where it originally was!)

 

I' leaning towards the ujoint needing to be greased.

 

Id say wheel bearing. When they are first starting to wear down they make a very low pitch slow and barely audible whooping noise. Its really subtle but its one of those noises that you hear as the owner of your vehicle because your used to how it normaly sounds.

 

The reason why I think its the ujoint is when my rear axle was swapped out. The person that did the job recommended that I grease it (where the drivershaft meets up with the 3rd member) but due to not having time to do so it wasn't done.

I'm going to get it checked out tomorrow when I take it in for some maintance work.

Thanks.

 

Check your rear axle seals. The 4runners and tacoma's are notorious for leaking rear axle seals and if they have been leaking long enough it will wipe out your axle bearing. Toyota came out with an updated rear inner seal for the tacomas. I don't know why they have it just for them because the 4runner and even the 89-95 trucks and runners use the exact same seal. We use the updated seal on everything just to make sure

 

Had it checked and the dang thing didn't make the noise when I was with the mechanic on a test drive but it's still there.

Would white grease be okay to use on the u joint?

 

As long as it's high pressure grease or moly grease meant for that sort of thing

 

I have the same problem too, started this week. did you ever figure it out?

 

i have a simalar noise but its in the motor because you can hear it at idle and it goes up and down with motor speed. my hunch is the oil pump because with 10w-30 my pressure sits at the first mark on the gauge and barely gets to half at any rpm

 

you problem is completely different. I can pretty much say with certainty that it isn't your oil pump. more than likely your tbelt idler or belts

 

I haven't had a chance yet and probable won't until Sunday.

 

If you do figure it out please let me know so I have somewhere new to look. I'm not completely sure we have the same problems but they sound VERY similar. Mine is present only when the wheels are in motion, and they seem to be consistant with the rotation (faster when moving faster) but it seems to be slower than the rotation of the wheels (if that makes sense) but this is based on looking at other cars/trucks wheels driving about as fast as mine, so it could be as fast as the revolution of the wheels.

what spins slower than the axle or wheels? Dosn't the drive shaft spin faster than the wheels.

 

so what would make my oil pressure so low? or is that normal. and when you say belts are you refering to the accesory belts or the timing belt

 

Okay, tis is probable a stupid question but oh, well.

How to do you grease the u-joint? Do I need to remove it or can I use one of those grease guns?

 

Don't you use a grease gun and the zerk connector