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2005 220K right front ticking sound-wheel bearing, axle or transmission?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by mlsimmons, Sep 6, 2020.

  1. mlsimmons

    mlsimmons Junior Member

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    When exiting the freeway today after a 10 mile trip, I started to hear a light ticking sound from the right front side when decelerating. as I drove to my destination about 2 miles more the ticking became a bit more pronounced, again only when decelerating. As I drove home, the sound continued to be more pronounced and by the time I got home had added a slight grinding sound. Again only when decelerating. Going around corners didn't really affect the sound and accelerating the car (even just slightly) and the sound goes away. If this was a conventional car I might suspect differential carrier bearing, but with regenerative breaking, the Prius may behave differently. I have read the posts here on CV axle problems and those symptoms do appear to get worse when turning. Also the wheel bearing symptoms in the posts appear to be speed related. I couldn't find any similar issues to mine in the transmission posts. I will be jacking it up tomorrow to see if I can find anything obvious underneith. It is curious that the sound only appears when decelerating and goes quiet when adding power. No codes are displayed. Any thoughts out there as to what it is?
     
    #1 mlsimmons, Sep 6, 2020
  2. fotomoto

    fotomoto Senior Member

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    Pretty hard to guess on sounds one can't hear but here goes. Since this is a gen2 Prius, heavy odds are it's the wheel bearing starting to go out. A distant second is the axle since it is not making noise in tight turns and lastly the transmission.

    Another source of clicking type noises while the car moves is something hard has stuck in the tire but that usually fixes itself (throws object) or tire goes flat.
     
    #2 fotomoto, Sep 6, 2020
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Had a wheel bearing go bad on mine never a tick just vibration and as it got worse a whoop whoop sound that started at a particular speed. And was much worse in a turn in. In your case it will much worse on a hard left turn.

    Bad bearings don't tick they have a tremendous amount of weight on them.

    Ticking is CV joint. Take it to your tire place for a free estimate.or if your handy jack it up grab the inner then outer and try to move it as hard as you can see how loose it is.
    See if the boots are bad or missing see if its an inner shaft and if its beating up the trans seal where it enters the trans and now you have
    a trans fluid leak.

    At your mileage could be anything. Ever replace the trans fluid?
     
    #3 edthefox5, Sep 6, 2020
  4. mlsimmons

    mlsimmons Junior Member

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    I got under the car yesterday - there is a bit more fore/aft and up/down movement at the CV end of the passenger side half shaft by the transmission end than the one on the drivers side - (Possibly due to the longer shaft??). No obvious boot leakage. I am he second owner and the first had most of the service done at the dealer- I will check the records to see if there was a transmission oil change in the cars past. In the meantime I will drive it locally to see if the symptoms start pointing more definitively to the culprit. It is still curious to me that the sound only occurs during deceleration. If it is the halfshaft, I will surely do the transmission oil change when replacing it. One additional comment, the Bently service manual for this car sucks regarding the replacement of the halfshaft, it just says "replace it" whereas the much less expensive Haynes manual is fairly complete in its instructions
     
    #4 mlsimmons, Sep 7, 2020
  5. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    There's alot of cv joint replacement posts.

    Use the search forums up top and search

    cv joint

    Seen many posts with unhappy after market replacements but the good toyota oems are very expensive.
     
    #5 edthefox5, Sep 7, 2020
  6. mlsimmons

    mlsimmons Junior Member

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    I checked the Toyota service records on the car - it looks like the transmission fluid was changed at 150K and 190K miles at the dealership. I have put a few more miles on the car - Assuming that it isn't the transmission, I still can't tell if it is the wheel bearing or the CV joint as the noise (now more of a whirring/grinding type of sound) still only occurs when unloaded during deceleration and goes away when loaded or when braking. Does anyone have a feel for how much fore/aft and up/down movement is typical for a good CV joint on the passenger's side?
     
    #6 mlsimmons, Sep 9, 2020
  7. lunacyworks

    lunacyworks Member

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    Any wheel bearing brands recommened? Any idea of pricing we should be expecting for them?
     
    #7 lunacyworks, Nov 13, 2020
  8. oldtechaa

    oldtechaa Active Member

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    Hubs/bearings are a very difficult or controversial topic. You can buy something like a Detroit Axle hub for $35 and have it be good enough, or you can buy something for $90 or more like a Timken or SKF and possibly? have better lifetime. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information and some people seem to think that pretty much all bearings made today are bad. The OEM bearings are Koyo, I believe, if that helps at all.
     
    #8 oldtechaa, Nov 13, 2020
  9. lunacyworks

    lunacyworks Member

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    I guess I was figuring that with the cars getting older that there would be a time period when the better units become more apparent. Reading the forum post and based on other Prius I have worked on Timken was the go-to unit but never saw much difference between SKF and NSK and Timken over 100k of miles. Most of the premature failures were due to bad brake calipers which resulted in the brake dragging and the overheating pads cause the bearing to fail prematurely. So not so sure that the bearing is the main issue every time.
     
    #9 lunacyworks, Nov 13, 2020
  10. ClassyRuski

    ClassyRuski Junior Member

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    My 2006 Prius has 190k miles and has been continuously serviced for oil and whatnot. It started making a ticking noise when pressing the gas. Ticking goes away when braking. Wheel bearing was replaced and it does not make the noise on turns. nothing in tire tread. Any ideas?
     

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    #10 ClassyRuski, Dec 22, 2022
  11. oldtechaa

    oldtechaa Active Member

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    I believe that's often a drive shaft joint.
     
    #11 oldtechaa, Dec 29, 2022
  12. Riza

    Riza New Member

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    I have the same problem. Did you figure it out the problem?
    Thanks!
     
    #12 Riza, Jan 6, 2024
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