Hey All-

I know this is somewhat petty, but I'm down to a few things left to knock out on my '06 LR3 (w/126k miles): exhaust leak, propshaft center bearing, and little dinky noise from the suspension.

The sound is somewhat faint and sounds like it could be coming from anywhere under the truck. And maybe multiple places. It sounds like a loose washer on a bolt that's backed off. Not loud at all, and maybe it's been there all along but the bad front bearing or something else was always covering it up. Seems like I hear it the most on rough roads at slow speeds. I _think_ I've heard it when manually pushing down the suspension when stopped but not sure. I've crawled underneath and banged on everything with a rubber mallet and can't reproduce. Everything seems sorted underneath with no loose control arms, struts, etc. with the exception of the propshaft center bearing rubber which is completely separated. But don't think it would make a sound like that.

Anyone know what makes or could make this noise? It'll "go away" during winter when the windows are rolled up but I'd love to find it and knock it out.

 

Two things to maybe check, the front and rear sway bar links. The fronts tend to not last super long, the rears last longer. Also the front and rear swap bar bushings are something you should be replacing right about now. I have also found that the steering shaft u-joint can wear and make noise, but probably more of a clunking than what you describe. For the front way bar links, removing the bottom nut to free them up and work by hand is best but if you have someone to help, you can usually put your hand on them as someone bounces the truck (dont crush your arm in the wheel well). I cant think of anything besides an actual bolts that is loose that would cause the noise.

 

In addition to what DokotaTravler lists, the center prop shaft can cause a noise at low speeds as well (mine did). Also, heat shields that are a bit looks can make a tremendous racket; maybe check the shields if you have not already.

 

The propshaft rubber is completely shot, meaning I guess the bearing isn't even spinning. To be honest, I'm surprised I'm not really feeling that in the drive train at all. I have the skid plates and a bunch (but probably not all) of the heat shields off right now and I need to get them back on so tomorrow I'll try to poke around some more, including spinning that bearing. I was stripping stuff off to figure out the grinding noise that turned out to be the driver's side front wheel bearing, but it could be helpful for this as well.

Thanks for the input.

 

The center bearing makes all kinds of weird and hard to pinpoint noises. The Rescue Rover made the strangest sounds on the drive home, I was conjuring all manner of broken pieces in my mind, and then it was the center bearing floundering around in the hoop. I made an attempt to repair the center bearing with some fuel line and it's worked for about 60 miles...and back to bumping again.

 

Chain rattling (clanky) sounds are often the sway bar end links or a worn+dry ball joint. If you can move them with a pry bar by hand they are usually bad. Has any work been done recently? Alignment? If so, things may not have been properly torqued down.

I had similar issues with new hardware and fixed it with a half turn to the sway bar end link. I also had a rattle appear on the rear after an alignment that turned out to be a loose rear tie bar, the end with the big washer that attaches to the rear wheel hub near the exhaust pipe.

 

thanks for the input! As it happens I just crawled under there earlier today and buttoned everything up again: heat shields and skid plates. Banged on some rear suspension parts with my hands but found nothing. Also tried to get a better idea on what’s happening with the prop shaft bearing. Next time I’m down that way I’ll take a closer look but it’s such a small issue compared to what I’ve knocked out over the last 18+ months it’s barely worth addressing. My thinking on stuff like this is that it’ll get louder if it gets worse, and it’ll be easier to find at that point. It would be great to get it uber quiet but I need to manage my own expectations….