I have a 2020 rav4 with 103k miles. I’ve only had the car for about 8 months. It’s been great so far. Last week it started making a noise that sounded like somebody was beating on the underside of my car like a drum while I was decelerating to come to a stop. The noise only occurred from 15-20 mph. The noise also sound like it coincides with the slowing rotation of the moving parts. I was afraid that it was something to do with the drive shaft and didn’t want to risk causing more damage so I had it towed to the nearest Toyota dealership. They kept it for 2/3 days then concluded it was the TOW HITCH.on the invoice they only document checking tires and verbally confirmed that they checked all the axles and joints and said everything looked great. I don’t have much confidence that they actually checked all that. That’s been on my car untouched since I’ve had the car. (No recent work done on the car that would result in this)Removed the hitch drove for exactly a week with no noise. It randomly started happening again today. Same conditions same sound. But it’s not terribly consistent. I’m going to the dealership soon to take them along with me so they can hear it. But it’s already subsided? Does anybody have an idea of what it could possibly be? My axles are intact. But I can’t see the driveshaft or any of the joints because of the undercarriage cover. I don’t want to cause detrimental damage to my car but I also don’t want the dealership to rob me of everything I have just to lie to me and not thoroughly check out my car. I drive roughly 60 miles everyday and heavily depend on this car.
If your Rav4 is an Adventure or Limited AWD model, there is a customer support program/warranty extension that may apply. The repair involves replacing the front transfer case electro-magnetic clutch.
This is an expensive repair, so the condition must be verified. Be prepared to drive the vehicle for as long as necessary to be able to demonstrate the problem.
One idea, might be a backfire in the exhaust system. That’s not supposed to happen of course, but when it does it is often during decelerations. Some fault, usually with the fuel system or engine valves, allows fuel & air into the exhaust steam and it explodes in the exhaust pipe, making a ‘bang’ noise. Overly rich mixtures can cause this. Might be a good idea to get a fuel trim test. Easy job for a shop, and you can post the results here for more help if you like. There are long term and short term fuel trim results, and sometimes separate results for both exhaust banks.
Winner winner chicken dinner. It was the transfer case AND the rear diff
Good for you for getting to the bottom of it. Just curious, which of those two was causing the banging noise? Or were they both involved?
A clicking noise developed not long after the banging noise so the clicking was from the transfer case and the banging from the rear diff.
Thanks for taking the time to reply! Years ago I had a banging noise problem from a faulty rear diff on my Ford Galaxy. But the banging noise wasn’t the main issue, the car sort of waltzed down the road, swaying back and forth in fits, rather than smoothly in a straight line.
The banging noisy on your Ford was probably from a broken leaf spring.
Who paid to repair/replace transfer case and diff?
Dealer?
The link that Nevada provided shows that it’s covered by Toyota.
I never thought of that. I sold the Galaxy to the shop tech for $25, he said at the time he wasn’t sure what the problem was. A couple months later I noticed the galaxy parked in the grocery store parking lot , so I went in. I found him shopping w/his wife inside, and asked the what the problem turned out to be? He said it was the differential third member which he replaced and he & his wife were now using the car as a grocery runner.