I have a 2010 on TRD springs/rear sway, oem shocks with 31k. Springs were installed about a week after I bought it new in Feb 2010. Every once in while on certain ruts(slow speeds), goin over train tracks(slow speed), or sometimes backing out of driveway when each wheel goes down off driveway to street there's a slight knock/clunk on each side of front suspension. Is this a normal thing in these cars? Nothing seems loose. I can almost feel it in the steering. Goin over broken, rough, pavement at low speed usually really makes it happen. Warranty expires in 5k

 

Buy a 0 deductible, Platinum level, ToyotaCare Extended Service Agreement before you hit 36k miles.

 

Several bolts have to be disconnected when changing springs, so remove the front wheels and make sure every fastener in there is tightened to factory spec. Also check to make sure the springs are correctly located with the bottom end of the spring positioned exactly where it's supposed to seat in the rubber gasket and cup.

 

Ya I'm gonna pop off the front wheels this weekend sometime and take a look. Doesn't seem to get worse, which made me wonder if it's a normal thing when these cars are lowered.

Ya I will look into that. Haven't had any issues with it so far, or at least any that I've addressed at the dealer. The A/C pump groans every once in a while. I ignore it, but should take it in. 5 speed tranny makes all kinds of noises. At least that's under warranty for another 30k.

 

I had that EXACT set up....

which version of the rear sway bar is it? the original? or the new one? I had one fro 08 on my 08xB and had the same noise. tighten up the nuts on the bottom of your rear shock mounts. ;)

BUT ALSO look at the welds on that TRD sway bar. mine snapped. the dealership replaced it for me with the newer style. Much better mounting..

 

I have a 2012 with a similar setup and I also have the same feeling/noise. I almost felt like a tie rod was loose from the factory but I had it inspected during my aligment and everything was in check. Think its just a characteristic of this cars steering...at least thats what I'm hoping as mine has not gotten worse either.

 

I had the same problem but found out it was the spring and needed to replace it. Take a look and see if the spring is hitting itself at some point you may notice paint scraping off of it.

 

first check ALL the nuts and bolts that were tinkered with for the spring and sway bar installation. I bet you'll find out its the lower shock bolt that is loose........

 

So I took both front wheels off and everything under there is tight. I think its just normal sounds coming from the crappy steering rack/electric power steering this car has. Either that or my stock shocks are just not holding up with the TRD springs and are starting to go. Also, with TRD springs should I stick with stock tire pressure or go higher/lower? I am on Scion 16" alloys with the RSAs.

 

I'd stick to the tire pressure recommendations provided within the driver's door frame. The springs have no influence on the recommended tire pressure.

 

Have you thought about re-packing your wheel bearings?

 

Depending on how you drive, it's entirely possible to abuse OE shocks given lowering springs. From reading, as long as you're easy on them, factory shocks should last fine, but lowering springs move them out of their normal range and this entices failure. I'm super easy on mine and so I'm not expecting any issues, but I'm generally a conservative driver (though yes, I have my moments )!

 

Well I finally got around to getting my car into the dealer for this issue today. I told the service advisor about this and also a clicking/tapping sound from steering column when turning the wheel with car stationary. Well after waiting around about an hr, the advisor came to me and said they couldn't hear the noise and I would be going on a test drive with tech. So tech let me drive and he heard it when I let the drivers side wheel go over the street lane marker/reflectors. Also he heard the steering column noise when I turned wheel sitting at a red light. He acknowledged both sounds weren't normal and he'd check it out. So about 20 mins later advisor told me that they would be replacing the driver side strut and mount, and dealer shuttle would be dropping me off at home since car would not be ready for a few hrs. So around 5:30pm the advisor called and said strut/mount took care of clunking over bumps, but the steering noise would need to be looked at by the tech foreman tomorrow morning. The tech who was working on my car has never dealt with this issue. So I picked it up and will be bringing it back in the morning. Happy to report the new strut & strut mount took care of the noise I was hearing on bumps/ruts. Front end feels tight as a drum again. Just sucks they only replace one side as the car has 34k on it, but I drove it a good distance tonight and feels great. We'll see what they come up with for the steering column noise tomorrow.

 

Sounds good, looking forward to the next update !

 

Well not long after dropping the car off this morning, the advisor called and said the steering intermediate shaft is making the noise. They will need to order the part and should be in by tomorrow. I picked up the car this afternoon and will be bringing it back on Thurs. for them to install. I've seen TSBs for Corolla and Matrix intermediate shafts going bad, but never xBs. They probably use the same part. Well we'll see if this cures it.

 

Fingers crossed !

 

Took the car in last Thurs. and they replaced the steering intermediate shaft. Picked it up and immediately noticed the noise was still there. Told Service Advisor and he called out the tech(never seen this guy up to this point). Tech sat in the car with me and heard the noise. He acknowledged that noise was not coming from intermediate shaft and he would need more time with the car to track it down. I told them I would need the car for a weekend road trip, so they told me to bring it back next week. Well this morning I finally got around to dropping it off again. Service Advisor called me around noon and said they are going to order a new steering rack and it will be in Mon/Tues. So I will be picking up the car after work today and bring it back on Tues. Haha looks like I will have all new steering components by the time they get to the bottom of this. I myself think the noise is coming from the steering column itself. Oh well we'll see.

 

So yesterday they replaced the steering rack and performed an aligment. The noise is finally gone. Supposedly they heard other noises in the rack that I never did. So much nicer on the freeway. No more constantly correcting the steering. Overall feels much more planted in front. Probably has alot to do with the alignment they did too. Last one I had was at ~600 miles when they installed the TRD springs.

 

That's crazy, I'll bet in the entire scheme of things that it was still something loose, they might've just happened to properly torque whatever was loose during the install of your replacement parts. I just can't come to believe that something was bad on your 2010 xB, but then again there are defects regardless. Glad it was all solved in the end though!

 

oh man that's a lot of trips to the dealership. glad everything worked out though. Good thing you had the TRD springs and not another aftermarket brand.