Weird jolt/jerk when coming to a stop or accelerating from a stop

07 Crewmax 5.7

Hey all. Whenever I'm braking into a stop, right before I come to a complete stop I feel the car make a slight jerk like something is shifting into place. When I remove my foot of the brake and the car moves a bit or when I tap the gas, I feel the same thing. Even when I shift into sport mode to manually shift it occurs so I am guessing its not the effect of the gears actually shifting. Shifting from P to R also feels clunky.

The truck used to do this a few years ago then went away after I cleaned the MAF and throttle body. It magically reappeared after taking the car for an alignment a month ago. Not sure if any of these things are related. I recleaned the MAF and scrubbed the throttle body and it didn't fix it this time.

Anyone know what the culprit might be? I only know how to do very basic maintenance so I have no idea where to start checking for issues. TCM? Suspension? Wheel/Brakes? Trans mount? U joint? Torque Converter?

Cheers

 

If it started after the alignment, they probably didn’t torque the alignment bolts. And if that’s the case you probably need another alignment.

 

thanks for the suggestion, I'll lift it up and check if everything is torqued right

 

Check your u joints and center carrier bearing, check your brake calipers and make sure they are not loose as well. Could be a broken shock banging around too. Many possibilities.

 

If the above suggestions don't work, might I also suggest adding a possible maintenance item: greasing your driveshaft/zerks. You didn't mention whether or not you performed this, so it could possibly be a culprit.

Back in the day when I had an '08 Tundra, I would experience this jolt at stop lights. It started occurring right around 120k miles on the odometer. I didn't know shit from shinola back then but after later researching it (after I traded that truck in), I came to the conclusion this was the cause of it. So, I can't confirm if this is what you're experiencing but couldn't hurt to try.

Please update on what the fix was so that I can feel better about myself and feel redeemed, lol.

 

The driveshaft spline inside the boot might need grease. Mine had very little factory grease when it only had 20k on the clock. PM me if you need to find a new boot.

 

I have never done this and I am 99% sure the previous owner also did not do this. I'll look into this thanks. I will let you know if this fixes the issue haha

 

I don't understand how you ruled out the transmission, if you are in Sport mode it may seem like a manual shift but everything still shifts electronically. If you rule out mechanical issues and haven't solved the issue then I'd be checking that the ATF level isn't slightly low (actually I'd be checking the level first because I like to start by ruling out stuff that's simple to check).

 

Oh okay thats good to know, thanks for the help. I'll check the fluid levels

 

Your description of the clunk when you come to a stop and then when you let go of the brake and go sounds a lot like axle wrap. The 1st gen Tacomas were known for axle wrap (I have a 03 Tacoma) when their fairly soft leaf springs break in and become even more soft. They let the axle twist a bit at stop. When you let off the brake and go, the axle unwraps and and the slip yoke slides a bit and you get that "bump". Hard to say for sure, but the symptoms match almost exactly what I had on my Tacoma. Most solutions start with lubing the slip yoke. That helped on my Tacoma, but didn't fix it and I wound up getting traction bars. Some people replaced their leaf springs. Here is a thread on TacomaWorld. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/axle-wrap.334763/ In his first paragraph he says "....... try and figure out why in the world my truck was making this awful "thump" or "clunk" when stopping or accelerating.". The thread offers some cheap ways to eliminate it.

 

Definitely lube your driveshaft. I had an 02' Sequoia that used to have a thunk at stop and starts that went away after lubing the driveshaft.