I have a 97 T100 2WD that is almost mint, it has been taken care of very well. I have a noise that seems to be comming from the backend of the truck. Here is a list of things that have been done to try to find this noise.
1. both rear tires removed from the wheels to check for problems, nothing there.
2. Brakes checked, nothing wrong there.
3. Rearend drained and filtered to check for metal deposits in the gear oil, it was very clean, nothing there.
4. Some type of machine was used to listen to each part of the rearend, there was not any sounds from the axle bearings, or 3rd member.
5. The transmission was listened too, very quit, nothing there
6. There does not "seem" to be any problems with the UJoints or HangerBearing.
7. there has been three Toyota techs that have looked at this problem, none of them have been able to tell me what the problem is caused by.

Do you think the Ujoints might be the problem?
Do you think the Hanger Bearing might be the problem?

I'm not very happy with this truck, it has never been abused, never seen a dirt road, always been serviced at first sign of a problem, most important it has very low miles. It's a Yota, I should not have this problem.

 

I know it's tough to describe, but what does it sound like? Any way you can record it on MP3 or something and post it?

 

Stealership techs?

Find an independent mechanic and get a fourth opinion. Seriously. If it has few enough miles it may still be under warranty. IIRC, there was a 10 yr/100k warranty on the drivetrain and 6/60 on the engine. Been a while since I turned both of those, though. Toyota's not going to be able to find anything wrong until it goes a mile out of warranty, especially since a truck getting light use can easily go two years on a worn out bearing. Doesn't make it advisable to do that, of course, but it just might hold out that long.

Strange rear noises are usually the product of a bearing, ujoint or blown ring and pinion. I don't know of anyone who's had a bad R&P with a T100, but plenty have gone through rear end bearings and u joints by now. Remember mileage is not 1:1 with age. Just because it may not have all that many miles, it's still 8 years old, even if it was well cared for.

As Monte posted, more decription of the noise - and its behavior - might help. Is it all the time, come and go with acceleration, grow louder or softer depending what your doing, etc? Trying to diagnose a noise over the web - or even over the counter - isn't all that reliable, so the more info the closer we can guess.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the replys, any information helps. The noise does not increase or decrease with acceleration like the sound you get with a R&P. I think I will replace the Ujoints, it seems to me the sound is in the area of where the Ujoints are at. Should I replace the hanger bearing also? I have little to time to work on the truck, only about a 1/2 day to try to get things repaired, I would have to special order the hanger bearing in advance.

I looked at a couple of american made trucks yesterday, it might sound crazy, but I like my ol-Toyota better.

 

Rear wheel bearing.
I had a hard time trying to locate a strange sound as well
and found it be the wheel bearing at 160,000.
The sound could only be heard under a load at slow speeds.
$80.00 in parts and a couple of homemade specialty tools
did the trick. The dealer wanted $1500.
The truck now has 180,000 and is doing well.
Good luck.

Btw: there is a detailed link on how do do this repair,
don't mushroom the splines trying to get the bearing removed from the axle

 

I can do wheel bearings, if that is the problem. I have never had a truck give me a problem that knowone can find. I hate to start replacing part until the noise stops.

Where can you buy a complete 3rd member (total package just drop it in)?

I guess I do not have a choice, either fix the truck or take a big loss on selling it.

 

My driver's side rear axle-shaft bearing was the culprit for a hard-to-diagnose sound also. Try to get an idea of which side it is coming from and replace that bearing. I was skeptical but at 160K miles I thought it wouldn't hurt to replace that bearing anyway... sure enough my noise went away though.

A good way to diagnose which side is to drive next to the highway barriers with your window down... sound from your vehicle bounces right off the wall (and the wall shelters you from some of the other road noise) so you can clearly listen. It sounds crazy but it works well.

I knew the noise was from my driver's side, but I wasn't sure if it was front or back (I was 75% sure it was the rear, but the front is a much easier task). I repacked the front bearings and replaced one that looked like it may need it... that didn't fix the noise. So I did the rear bearing and the noise went away. I'll put a down that this is your problem.

Joel

 

I tell you what, I just replaced my axle bearings because of a rumble-like sound and vibrations that felt like they were coming from the front of the truck. When I pulled the axles, I could spin the backing plate around on driver's side axle and it made a nice grinding noise. Compare that with the other side which was totally silent. It's not too much work to pull the axles and listen to the bearings.....