2007 Toyota Sienna LE AWD - undercarriage noises

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Normally I would start by investigating and trying to troubleshoot myself, then I would post here with my (incorrect) guesses and send us all down a rabbit hole. So this time I’m just going to describe the symptoms and see what you think.

I’ve had the car for 6 years and it has about 220K miles. About a month ago it started occasionally making a clunk or thunk noise. Hard to describe exactly but I will say that it reminded me of when (for no good reason) I had a 72 Jaguar XJ6 and the U-joint went bad. Now it makes more of a creaking noise and it makes it regularly when I am turning but not when going straight.

Other than the noises it still drives fine. Thoughts?

2

With that many miles, anything could be causing the noise.

One of the first places I would check are the control arm bushings.

Here’s what a worn control arm bushing looks like on a Sienna.

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Tester

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4

The noise started as a clunk/thunk, and over time progressed to a creaking noise? How long did it take for the transition to occur? When it was the clunk/thunk, did that also only occur when turning? Both directions, right & left, or just one turning direction?

5

I would check the driveshaft, looks like it has 3 u-joints, 2 center support bearings and 1 CV joint all in one driveshaft assembly…

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Can you tell if it is coming from the front, rear, left/right side or more centered??

Also we all know you are very budget minded, so with it being an AWD, have you replaced a tire on it lately?..

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Lol. It has all relatively new tires, same amount of wear.

Sound seems to be coming from center-right.

I’ll get under there and see if anything looks amiss.

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