2005 Tundra Limited Shudder

I have read several posts about trans shudder however I haven't seen any with the issue I am having. I just purchased this truck with 215,000 on it. The seller said it was his brothers and told all that was done to it. I have put about 700 miles on it with no problems until I was cruising at 55mph when the truck started to shudder coming from the rear. The shudder was so bad the truck felt as if the wheel weights fell off. I pulled over to head limp home. When I started back up the road the shudder was gone. I ventured out again and the shudder happened again within 2 miles from home. I came to a complete stop never took it out of gear and started back up the road, no shudder. This happened 3 times in about 12 miles. My local mechanic has never seen this before. He found a leaking rear axle seal, replaced but did not fix the shudder. Again this is not a constant shudder but is bad enough when it happened the truck shakes real bad. Is it a bad Transmission, torque converter or could it be bad trans fluid?

 

Possible bad U-joint? If 4WD, I'd also look at NGLI2 lube on all the zerks of the drivetrain.

Let me ask some questions because I don't see the answer in your truck description, nor here in the post.

Stock suspension or aftermarket?
2WD or 4WD drivetrain?
Is it lifted, or leveled, or stock height?

 

4WD Limited and as far as I can tell the suspension is stock. Mechanic checked U-joints and said all looked good.

 

Check the carrier bearing?

 

Sorry, I did have my mechanic change that. He said there was a small amount of play but didn't feel it needed to be changed. That is all I have had done, axle seal and carrier bearing.

 

Pretty sure ive read an ungreased driveshaft can vibrate, and when i changed my carrier bearing i didnt mark the orientation, so i think i used this pic (or one like it) to align the shaft according to the zerk fittings.

 

I stop trusting any mechanic who throws parts and labor at something and it doesn't fix the problem, and that attitude has served me well over the years. I'm not sure if I would trust your mechanic, honestly, unless they refunded you on the labor and the part wasn't too expensive.

If your mechanic didn't specifically grease the entire driveline (including prop shaft/slip yoke) with NLGI 2 per Toyota spec, at the points shown here, I highly, highly recommend you do it. It's a no-brainer super cheap thing that should be done every 5k-10k miles anyway. When was the last time you had it done?

It's something often neglected, and has caused me and other members considerable frustration. I'm not saying it's your problem, but greasing this is a almost-zero-cost measure that may solve common vibration and clunk issues other forum members like me have experienced in my Limited '06 4WD.

I prefer Valvoline's product number VV985 in tube format. Some of these zerks can be a bitch to get grease into. You may need a slip-on fitting for your grease gun like this:



And here's the image in case you didn't click the link above.

 

Thanks, I will grease everything, I am not sure what has been done since I have only owned this truck since October and only put about 750 miles on it. As for the mechanic, the rear axle seal was leaking so it needed to be repaired. As for the carrier bearing he didn’t think it needed to be changed but I told him to do it.

 

Awesome on the mechanic notes, sorry I doubted them.

I was in a similar place, I also was fighting with strange sensations in the driveline, I posted about those over here. I got my truck used, right after a 2nd owner had it for a few thousand miles and traded it in. A banker owned it before, used it as his "work truck", and seemed to prefer Jiffy-Lube-type shops to do his routine maintenance.

Within the 1st thousand miles I put on it, after having the alternator fry and almost burn the truck to the ground, I started noticing a "CLUNK" when accelerating from a stop. I think it was probably always there, but the first month or two I had the truck I was mostly doing highway miles.

Long story short, the advice to grease the driveline zerks from @SouthWestGA and @FirstGenVol saved my ass and a boatload of headaches. Not only did it totally get rid of the 'clunk' I was feeling when accelerating from a stop, but I had far less vibration while driving down the interstate.

I do still have intermittent lumpy feelings in the truck on the open road, at-speed, but I'm fairly certain it's due to cupping of my tires. Lubing fixed all the other issues and I've added it as a regular-maintenance item now.

 

How familiar is your mechanic with Toyota axle seals? If the seals were leaking it could've gotten into your bearings. Replacing those and the retainers at the same times as the seals in usually recommended, and takes a very specific depth to press everything back on.

 

How well did he check the U joints? I had a shudder like that which came and went and it turned out to be dry, seizing U joints. Took me awhile to find it since the old "grab the U-joint and check it for any movement' didn't work as it wasn't loose, it was seized so it 'felt' solid until I took the whole driveline off and actually checked them for movement.

 

I had very similar not long after getting my 1st vehicle, an '85 GMC s15 manual 4cyl. Same symptoms too, I'll never forget it. Random shuddering, usually for a couple minutes at a time. Only reason I mentioned it at first. My dad knew exactly what the problem was, and since I couldn't guess it, he made me pay for the part and then made me install it. That was his deal: If you guessed the part right, he'd pay for it. But either way, I got stuck installing the damn part.

 

@vamatullos just linking this picture here, I forgot I had this. Check it out: https://media.spicerparts.com/cfs/files/media/aqpsgAR84mMM4S8Tw/CVSP-J1140-Vibration

I dunno, I think the issue is a U-joint or never-greased drive line, but maybe those diags help.

 

Greased all of the fittings on the drive shaft today. At about 50-55 mph it started shaking came to a stop keeping it in drive shake went away. 60-65 mph on to the way home 1 mile, no shake until I let off the gas. Went for another drive even when it started to shake I would hit the gas let off and shake would be worse.

 

That really sounds like a bad U-joint to me, but maybe I'm nuts. U-joints are one of those 'better safe than sorry' things that are cheap and easy to replace. I was 16 when I replaced my first one in my GMC S15, I don't think it took me more than 20 minutes with Dad explaining to me how to do it. The most difficult part for me was hammering it in/out after finagling off the clips, I remember being really worried about a cap popping off the replacement and needle bearings going everywhere. Scared the daylights out of my poor ass

 

I am going to try the least expensive and work my way up. Thanks for the advice, I will keep everyone updated.

 

if it gets worse when you let off the throttle, you can be pretty confident it's not a torque converter shudder. You'd feel that under load, usually light, at lock up (40-50mph).