What is this odd, temporary "popping" from the chassis after a hard freeze?

Interestingly, the day after I start a thread about driving in the snow, I have a related question..

We are finally getting our taste of this USA Winter Weather Storm down here in AL, so we got a *little* bit of snow and ice yesterday. It looked like everything melted from the sun yesterday, however I don't think the temps ever went above freezing. This morning there was some ice on the 4Runner, but nothing more than I've seen in the past with my other vehicles. I had to pull a little harder on the door to break the "ice seal", etc. But then...

As soon as I started moving, I started hearing pops from all over. It sounded like the suspension or chassis was "poping" over every little bump I hit.. the whole way down the road. As I braked, lightly accelerated, and turned.. it was really making some unnerving popping. I immediately thought.. ice?.. but it was really weird, and I've never heard this before on any other vehicle!

What is that? Is it the rubber bushings or ice on the actual chassis / frame? Why on the 4Runner but never on a Mazda, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, or BMW car.. EVER!?

Thanks!

 

were you in 4WD? on dry pavement it will make noises cause it doesn't like that, around corners, etc...

 

Nope just regular ol' 2WD. Other than the few snowflakes I could see that were still frozen to the vehicles, there was no snow or ice on the ground. A few small frozen puddles here and there, maybe. Definitely 2WD territory!

 

Carthritus

 

Probably just the ice cracking from movement no biggie just take it slow for the first few miles to warm things up a little then balls out (no don't do that)

 

^ carthritis.. LOL

My best guess is that ice was formed between the frame and body? I know very little about body-on-frame construction and haven't inspected it as much as I'd like to yet. I could see how that could make the noise. Odd, though! At least to me. I'm surprised no one else (that's read this so far) has experienced this.. but I guess if you get to park in a garage, it probably wouldn't happen. I think it was ice, so I'm not worried about it.. more curious than anything!

 

Also remember that the ice on the body will Crack and pop and sound loud as you roll

 

Right on, thanks! I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb in CO with my winter driving noob-ness lmao..

 

I test drove two exact same 4runners at a dealer before I bought mine. Both were parked right next to each other, in single digit weather, and both had a good amount of ice on them.

Both made the exact same popping sound that came from the passenger footwell area, that only happened if I turned slightly to the right. Very odd that both were so identical in how the popping happened.

Now that things have warmed up slightly, the one i ended up buying is no longer popping.

 

Tire rubbing on icy wheel well (my guess)

 

Probably something like that. And i bet it was a teeny tiny piece of ice making that racket.

 

Don’t use the parking brake if it was wet roads and freezing temps, the shoes get locked up. Not a huge problem but it takes a bit to get it to break free in the winter.

 

Great tip! First learned it from a truck driver.

 

Really??

So since I don't know much about automatic transmissions, how strong are they and is it really OK to rest the weight of the truck on it? In cars I've always been a firm believer of never resting the vehicle weight on the transmission.. I always engage the parking brake first, allow the vehicle to settle on it, THEN remove my foot from the brake pedal, THEN shift into park.

 

While it is not wise to abuse a parking pin there are instances when relying on it makes sense. The afore mentioned being one of them. imo

 

Just wanted to update this a little by pointing out that I oddly had none of this behavior while on a trip to Colorado. Despite over a foot of snow falling, and below freezing temps, the popping noise never happened. My only guess is that this is a one time thing? lol, or maybe ice was in "just the right spot" that one time, or maybe the freeze that we had here in AL was really that bad so that the ice was harder than it would have been in Colorado? Odd.

 

When i had the weird popping sounds, yes you could argue the ice was harder. The ice I had was from probably from a dealer carwash, not dried, and probably immediately thrown outside in sub 0 degree F temps. You could see the water had frozen crystal clear, no bubbles. It was a midwestern species of ice lol