Harsh driveline vibration, clunk when stopping

As the title says, I get a bad vibration throughout the whole vehicle when I'm coasting or decelerating, and I hear a few clunks now at the end of stops.

A quick look under the vehicle showed at least my sway bar bushings are shot which to me could explain the clunks, but what are the most likely causes of vibration this bad besides that?

 

What year car? What engine? What Transmission? 4x4? Does it vibrate in neutral?

 

Sorry, I should add all that to my profile.

1999 4Runner Limited, RWD, automatic. Only vibrates when coasting over like 20mph or decelerating/braking, not accelerating or standing still.

 

Could be a U-joint. Have you gone underneath and tried wiggling the driveshaft?

 

Check list:
Tie rods
control arm bushings
brake disc

 

So, if you go 30MPH and shift the transmission to neutral...it still vibrates?

If you've disengaged the transmission and it vibrates while coasting, I think it's the drive shaft or rear end.

Check U-Joints.

 

Sorta...glanced...at it lol. I'm gonna jack it up tonight and try to go over anything that moves. Just thought I'd post the question now so I could target specific areas later.

This thing is at 285k miles and the previous guy had no maintenance history so I've got my hands full, I know that much.

 

Just did front brakes so check that off. To add to that, wheel bearings have a tiny bit of play, but should be ok for now..

How do I check tie rods for integrity? I've only ever swapped them as a result of bad steering rack.

Same with control arm bushings. Do I try to move it with a crow bar?

No, I need to do that I suppose.

 

I think you have the right idea. Vibration under deceleration sounds like driveshaft or rear end to me. But, I'm a novice mechanic at best.

 

So front wheel bearings on these are beasts...you may want to look again to see if they are really going bad. Even if they are going bad...they usually cause a whine or noise and not vibration.

 

"Do I try to move it with a crow bar?"
You got this man, I believe in you lol

 

The play I felt might have been one of the things mentioned here, in retrospect; it was left-right though, not up-down.

 

Gentlemen,
I come bearing pics.

Please see if you agree with my verdicts.

Driver Front - LCA
Seems fine, boot intact, no play


Driver Front - UCA
Seems fine, boot intact, no play


Driver Front - Top End Link
Bushings worn, but not cracked


Driver Front - Bottom End Link
Seems fine, boot intact


Driver Front - Stabilizer Bar Bushing
Could use replacement, but not cracked


Driver Front - Steering Rack Bushing
Natural seam drooping, likely cracked internally - Replace


Driver Front - Tie Rod End
Joint boot split, play unknown - Consider replacement


Passenger Front - Tie Rod End
Joint boot split, play unknown - Consider replacement


Passenger Front - Stabilizer Bar End Link
Bushings worn, but not cracked


Passenger Front - Steering Rack Bushing
Worn, but not cracked


Central Steering Rack Bushing
Obliterated - Replace


Front Passenger - LCA
Joint boot intact, no play


Front Passenger - UCA
Joint boot intact, no play


*** Skipping all rear bushing because they look fine ***
Front U-Joint
No zerk fitting...?, tiny play but it feels like its from the fork not the U-joint


Rear U-Joint
Zerk fitting, but grease wouldn't go in, no play

 

Also tranny mount looks fine and my diff needs a new seal and probably more fluid. I'll look at the engine mount when I take the skid guards off

Summary from above is that the steering rack bushings need replacement, and tie rod ends are a maybe.

Still not sure what would be causing this though. Seems unlikely the rack bushings would do this...

 

So, it's hard to tell how badly the ball joints need replacing. To me, it looks like most have leaked out a good deal of grease. Those boots may be ok, but who knows how much grease is in there? At 250k miles on my car, I simply replaced them all. The old ones all "felt" tight but for me, I felt I may as well replace them now. They don't last forever and when they go bad...you're looking at a very bad day. And with 250k miles on them...how much more life can I expect out of them?

I figured I should check the wheel bearings while I had the steering knuckles off and they indeed are huge. Mine spun with no issues at all...so I didn't go the route to replace them. A wheel bearing gives you a heads up before it goes wheel-fell-of-the-car bad. Even so, there were seals on both sides that were bad that would let dirt in and I'm glad I caught those and replaced them.

Regardless, none of that will fix the issue you have I think. Just figured I would comment since you posted all those pics.

Gotta be something in the drive line.

 

All the boots you posted are dry as a bone, i would start addressing them as soon as possible, just because it seems like the boot itself is intact does not mean they are ok, this is just my opinion.

 

I did the neutral thing today and nothing changed. :/

I think it actually might be the front shock bushings, which I forgot to take pictures of but the driver's side is definitely chewed through.

 

Ok, I'll probably go ahead and do the lower ball joints then too; they're not too expensive, and they even have greasable ones looks like!
I did UCAs on my taco where the boots were completely torn through, so I'll probably wait until I see something definitively wrong on those.

Also realized I forgot to look at the actual LCA bushings :/

 

I recommend Toyota Ball Joints. The aftermarket ones are not built the same. There's a reason why aftermarket ones are cheap.

 

$120 vs $27
Meh

 

Watch until the end, it gets really bad as I stop

 

Well, $105 if you go to an on-line Toyota dealer. I know it's hard to swallow the price difference, but I just can't see a $27 part like that getting any sort of decent QA. $ per mile is usually better for the OEM part.

 

We'll see where this gets me. Will be swapping my Tacoma's front OME/Bilstein combo over soon as well.

 

Do you get a vibration in the brake pedal?

That video makes me suspect the braking system.

Non oem rotors can vibrate. And when you brake, they vibrate like mad.

 

No, it seems to be the body doing all the vibrating. Light braking sometimes calms it. The rotors look freshly machined though, unknown if OEM.

 

I went ahead and ordered new U-joints as well.

 

Update:

Got everything installed and greased except for the steering rack bushings which I forgot you have to press out (and I didn't want a power steering fluid flush rn). Also replaced rear shocks, still waiting on front. Everything feels so much tighter, which is great! There's still a bit of shaking on the highway, which I'm going to attribute to uneven treads (there's like 3 brands of tires on this thing) and camber issues, and perhaps the totally shot front shock bushings. I'll be getting an alignment done after the front suspension and rear coils are done.

With that I guess I'll close this thread until something else pops up later. Once I greased the new LBJs there was a noticeable improvement in driving, especially over humps. Hard to say if the u-joints were the root cause of the shaking or not. All I know is I had to cut them out with an angle grinder and then spot weld one set of the new caps due to me removing too much material when sanding, and they were a bit more stiff than the old ones.

 

OK, my recently acquired '00 4runner with 240k miles has developed a new vibration issue. at low speed, under 30, it almost feels like a dead miss, smooths out between 30 and 55 or so, then comes back worse between 55 and up. But anytime its vibrating, if i let off the gas it stops, and its in the seat, not the steering wheel (so no front end suspension/tire prob, I think) and not in the brake pedal (so no brake probs either). No clunk when shifting into drive from park, but a bit of one when shifting from drive to reverse. The check engine light has been on for years (evap cannister, yeah, I know, on my list to get fixed, lol), but when this is happening the ck engine light starts flashing on and off. I helped maintain the vehicle for the last 10 yrs, as in offered advice when probs cropped up, and took to shop for probs when requested. I don't know that rear end lube level ever checked (at least I never specifically told the shop to do it, may have been ck'd as some regular inspection). Getting codes pulled this afternoon. Looking for options, opinions and best guesses. I'm betting drive shaft or rear end.

 

oh yeah, my '00 4runner is 2x4 v6 auto.