[Zexy Magician]

2008 4x4 crew 90k miles

Lately, I have been hearing this loud clunk from the rear of the truck under hard acceleration and heavy braking (enough to dip or raise the nose more than normal). Clunks the loudest when braking hard and sudden. It won't clunk again until I accelerate hard. It goes back and fourth, strange...

No clunking while driving normally, even on poor roads. Does NOT clunk when shifting gears.

The pop/squeak/clunk write-up led me to some unsolved mysteries, no solutions.

After searching around, seems like it could be:

Bad tie rod (front maybe? sound from the rear can be misleading)
Drum brake (something loose? a spring perhaps? not sure, they do squeak though i'm sure that fact is unrelated to the clunking)
Body mount

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[TurboAl]

check u-joints , check pinion for bad bearing

 

[Zexy Magician]

The groaning problem fixed with chassis lube and tightening running boards.

Still need to find the source of the clunk. Sounds like its coming from my rear passenger side brake drum.

 

[Tweek]

Glad you got it fixed !!!
Hate little gremlins such as this...

 

[Zexy Magician]

Well, I spoke too soon!

While the chassis lube and leaf spring cleaning/grease solved the creaking I was hearing at low speeds while turning, it did NOT solve the random clunk/pops from in between the bed and the cab.

The sound is not unlike a small metal object hitting the wall of the truck bed, as if I had something loose. All objects removed from bed and cab. In fact, I even took off the tonneau cover and bed cover with all objects removed from interior and it still made the clunk/pop/pain-in-my-ass.

Next step, remove running boards just to be sure.

Would bad u-joints cause a clunk/pop while breaking or going straight over certain bumps?

 

[DOHCtor Honda]

Check the drive shaft center support when those give out you hear a lot of clunking noise and your universal joints will not last. Also from my experience check your rear diff, open it up and check your clearances. I had my whole axle with wheel attached fly out on me while driving home. Those differentials are not that strong and will start getting worn from the spider gears and the carrier assembly bushings.

 

[Zexy Magician]

Check the drive shaft center support when those give out you hear a lot of clunking noise and your universal joints will not last.

Do you mean the carrier bearing as described HERE?

Is this found on the G80 only? I only ask because the instructions linked say that they are for the non-G80.

 

[Zexy Magician]

Wonder if this has anything to do with it. Lots of oil coating that nook of the rear diff around the plug. Looks wet-ish, so I assume it's somewhat fresh. I wonder how much oil I lost in the past 10k miles... The other sides of the diff are dry. Diff oil was changed at 80k miles earlier this year.

 

[Chaseous32]

Wonder if this has anything to do with it. Lots of oil coating that nook of the rear diff around the plug. Looks wet-ish, so I assume it's somewhat fresh. I wonder how much oil I lost in the past 10k miles... The other sides of the diff are dry. Diff oil was changed at 80k miles earlier this year.

Did you ever figure out what this was? I've got the same problem as what you're describing.


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[Zexy Magician]

Did you ever figure out what this was? I've got the same problem as what you're describing.

I might have a clue as to what it is, see the video linked:

https://youtu.be/6LmSoJVMpaM

My rear drum on the passenger side seems to have some play around the hub bolt holes. Not sure if this is normal. If I were to guess, the brake drum is shifting as I accelerate and brake, therefore causing the clunking noise I am hearing.

Keep in mind that in the video, I had not adjusted the shoes to be snug on the drum yet.

Regardless, I plan on checking the drum on the other side (where no clunking is heard) for tolerance issues. If there is an obvious difference between the two drums in terms of play, then I think that will be the root cause.

As for now, have you had any rear brake maintenance done in the past 10,000 miles?

 

[Chaseous32]

No I'm riding on stock drums at 80k miles


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[Zexy Magician]

I think I found the issue: loose brake drum, locked adjuster not functioning.

The adjuster seemed locked up and was not properly adjusting the shoes. After a few thousand miles of driving, I was still able to slide the brake drum off the shoes with minimal to no effort. The rear clunk was coming from the passenger side drum shifting back and fourth on the hub bolts (as shown in the video linked above) because the drum/shoes never adjusted/settled into place.

The brake drum on the driver side did not have this problem and, unlike the passenger side, took some adjusting to remove. No clunking from the driver side, only from the rear passenger side.

What I did was I bought all new drums and shoes (Wagner BD126266E and ACDelco 17815B). I stripped everything down and gave all parts a full cleaning/lube where necessary. The adjusters were completely disassembled, cleaned, and lubricated. I carefully reinstalled everything, lightly lubed contact points, and ensured the adjusters were working properly with minimal resistance. I put the drums back on with the shoes adjusted to just "kiss" the inside of the drums. It was as if the drums needed to be placed on perfectly straight in order to slide onto the shoes.

Pumped the brakes, pumped the e-brake, and took her out for a drive. Significant improvement for sure and no clunking or squealing. Will report back and may even write a review on these parts. So far, so good!