Driveshaft clunk?

https://streamable.com/gcrq2x

Hearing a clunk when going into Drive but only when shifting from Reverse. Driveshaft greased about 2K miles ago but that was 6mo also.

In the video i have the parking brake on and i shift from N to R (clunk) then D (clunk) then back to N. I then disengage parking brake and only have my foot on the brake pedal. I repeat the same flow as above two times and you only hear the clunk when shifting to D. Could this be a grease issue?

 

Very doubtful it's the driveshaft. If it was that, then you would have a vibration coming from it that you would feel through the driver seat. The clunking is possibly the parking brake or failing/failed suspension bushings. Likely the upper or lower control arms on the rear axle.

 

I don't think that's your drive shaft.

Go inspect all of your suspension components for a missing bolt, look way up under there for the rear upper control arm bolts.

It's hard to say what to look for, look for something that doesn't look right under there!

One thing that like to do is to crawl up under there while a friend is rocking the 4r, if you can duplicate the noise by rocking it or jumping on the suspension then it should make this pretty quick to sort out.

 

Also potentially a failed/failing transmission mount or motor mount.

 

What gen and how many miles on your vehicle?

It doesn't take much wear to create 'backlash' in the gears of a rear diff., which *might* be what you're experiencing here, it could also be due to wear in the splines (if your driveshaft is of the telescoping type)...maybe a combination of both. My 3rd gen developed this 'clunk' but only after 200,000 miles or so...typical wear n tear slowly eating away at the rear diff gears, I can grab the driveshaft and turn it maybe +/- 1º.

So again, how many miles on your vehicle?

 

ok so i did that but i noticed this while inspecting the driveshaft. Possibly a missing bolt? I wasn’t able to find anything loose but this does seem to feel like something threads into it. This is the front driveshaft

 

this has 225K on it and i will say i did just replace the driver side axle a few weeks back. I did the job myself.

 

Unless you are in 4WD, the front driveshaft wouldn't cause this issue.

 

Unused bolt hole, not missing. Ignore that.

 

yup was about to say ignore that, no bolt there. Now i checked my rear and front suspension but nothing out of the ordinary so far. Will need to spend more time looking. I will say that going directly from R to D gives that loud clunk sound. However, if i go from R to N (stay for a few sec) then into D i hear no clunk sound. I repeated this multiple times and each time was the same. Went into 4Lo and same situation though it does seem to be louder when in 4Lo

 

Check your Nuts! I went to Moab and heard a clunk similarly when putting it in gear and park (and rough parts of the trails). When we got to camp after a fun day on the trails I decided to check the 4runners' nuts and bolts. I found out that the nut on my Camber bolt had vibrated off and the clunk was my lower control arm moving forward and back when shifting to drive/park. Could have been a catastrophe if that bolt wiggled out! The next day we replaced the bolt and nut, then made it to the end of the Top of the World trail!

 

I’ll need to try this with a friend because yea im not entirely sure if the sound is coming from the driveshaft. It definitely is coming from the front part of the vehicle though.

 

interesting you say this because i just noticed the bolt for my skid plate (on the driver side, bottom) was barely hanging on. Was able to hand tighten it but i didn’t think that could cause such a sound. Though now i wonder if maybe something else is loose from when i changed out my cv axle. Strange that the bolt loosened up so much and was basically dangling. Swore i tightened that up with my ratchet.

 

I have a thunk when going from park to drive or reverse to drive, etc. someone mentioned possibility of the input shaft being the culprit. I haven’t investigated further since posting though.

 

**UPDATE** Well after much investigation and even taking it to a shop to help diagnose, i finally figured out the culprit. It was a loose axle nut from when i changed the cv a month prior. Retightened that nut and drove it around with harsh stops, shifted gears and no more click/clunk sound.