2026 OT Front clunking noise. (2 Viewers)

[CantComplain]

Hope y’all figure this out, as it’s unnerving. Our ‘23 Sequoia had a pop that turned out was the TRD skid plate torqued wrong. The guy who figured it out I was a Toyota service manager that goes to my church. Saw him recently & we were talking about LC & GX being close in many things & generalizing he said that they see LC w/ 2 common areas causing undercarriage noises -
1 - Aftermarket parts. He said skid plates, puck levels (especially) & bolt on rails cause the most headaches. His way of testing for them is to go up on a lift to get full extension of suspension, then very slowly come down with several techs around vehicle (1 in drivers seat/ vehicle running), & apply ever-more weight slowly back to the suspension while turning the steering wheel back & forth. Insulators on skid plate are a must in his opinion. Proper torque on step rails, and he said they see pucks miss-installed all the time on Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner & occasionally on LC.
2 - Sway bars. They add grease to the sway bar brackets & retorque as a first step if it’s a bone-stock unit. He also added they have found wheel lugs will pop if the locking nuts aren’t torqued smoothly in the criss cross pattern. Said some places tighten 5 lugs w/ impact & then hand torque the locking nuts & that causes rim to talk back to you. Said aftermarket wheels without the need for hubcentric lugs are known for noises.

I went home & greased my sway bar brackets.

Some good areas to look, thanks. I would have said I am bone stock at this point (still at <2500 and haven't gotten around to my oil change yet), but I did swap my running boards for rock rails with another forum member while I was on my buy-n-fly pickup trip, so maybe at 100 miles. But also, I recall feeling the clunk driving off the lot, so that's probably not it. But definitely worth a wiggle while I'm under there. But no pucks, even no wheels/skid plates off yet.

You say you greased your sway bar brackets--were you encountering issues and if so did that fix it?

 

[Hoffy1337]

Good news, I picked up my vehicle yesterday after being there since Monday. I don’t have all the details yet but I know they were working with technical assistance daily for a resolution and I could tell by the app they took my GX for several test drives each day over the 5 days. By the paperwork it appears that both front stabilizer link assembly’s were replaced. I drove it 15 or so miles afterwards and the front suspension now feels tight with no clunking. I have seen where others have had the same parts changed and it corrected the problem for them as well. I will report back once I get some miles on it to see if anything changes.

Hats off to the Master Mechanic Craig at Lexus of Peoria for all of his efforts. Thank you for going way above and beyond to find a resolution


Parts installed shown in photo

 

[Earth]

Good news, I picked up my vehicle yesterday after being there since Monday. I don’t have all the details yet but I know they were working with technical assistance daily for a resolution and I could tell by the app they took my GX for several test drives each day over the 5 days. By the paperwork it appears that both front stabilizer link assembly’s were replaced. I drove it 15 or so miles afterwards and the front suspension now feels tight with no clunking. I have seen where others have had the same parts changed and it corrected the problem for them as well. I will report back once I get some miles on it to see if anything changes.

Hats off to the Master Mechanic Craig at Lexus of Peoria for all of his efforts. Thank you for going way above and beyond to find a resolution

That’s great news for you and great insight for all of us!

I don’t have the problem myself yet but good to know. Can you get more details like the part number that was swapped? I think that would be super useful to know.

 

[CantComplain]

Good news, I picked up my vehicle yesterday after being there since Monday. I don’t have all the details yet but I know they were working with technical assistance daily for a resolution and I could tell by the app they took my GX for several test drives each day over the 5 days. By the paperwork it appears that both front stabilizer link assembly’s were replaced. I drove it 15 or so miles afterwards and the front suspension now feels tight with no clunking. I have seen where others have had the same parts changed and it corrected the problem for them as well. I will report back once I get some miles on it to see if anything changes.

Hats off to the Master Mechanic Craig at Lexus of Peoria for all of his efforts. Thank you for going way above and beyond to find a resolution


Parts installed shown in photo

That is fantastic to hear, congratulations! Can you link where you’ve seen this resolve it for others? And can you post a pic of your repair order (obviously with any personal data blocked out) if you’re comfortable with that?

I’m on a trip right now in a fairly remote area with poor paved roads. And on top of that, I did about 25 miles on a service road which was pretty rutted. Both of these really draw out the issue, at least for me. Getting more and more frustrated with it, but still less than 3k, so another couple months at least before I get it to the dealer. Almost tempted to throw $160 at it and swap it out myself. Seems pretty straightforward.

 

[SR20DE1]

I recently traded in my atomic silver 2026 OT + for one with a black roof. The first truck had noticeable clunking in the front end, especially going fairly slow over small bumps. I thought it was just due to the ekdss but the clunking in front end/ steering wheel is nonexistent in the new truck. First truck had it since new and traded with about 2k miles.

New truck is at 1k mi and drives completely different. 0 clunking

 

[CantComplain]

took my truck in today to get the clunk looked at. Guess what? No clunk. They sent me a video of the suspension inspection (which I knew wouldn't show anything) and said a test drive didn't present anything either. We had to drive 90 minutes to get there and didn't experience it on the highway, not sure if that warmed things up but it hadn't in the past. Roads in town (Reno) are actually very good and not going to cause any trouble but I took the shop foreman for a 20 minute drive and dropped a wheel onto grassy/gravely/inconsistent roads and could not reproduce it. They were great about it, so no issues there. I just don't know why it retreated right now. SM confirmed the coverage for it was 4 years / 50k miles so I'm not going to sweat it. If it comes back I'll try to get it on video. Or at the 5 or 10k service. Will update if anything changes.

 

[rocksallday]

Not sure it's related, but I've had an occasional clunk when steering full lock (obviously at slow speed, like parking, U turns, etc). Never thought much of it since it's not something I do frequently.
I've had suspension work done recently (upgraded to MT64) and removed all the skid plates.
Clunk is still there, maybe even louder, but only at full lock. Very easy to reproduce for me.
Since I've done suspension work, I'm going to the same place (specializes in lifted yotas) and have them look. If these are the swaybar links, I'll probably order the King sway links for the overtrail. I'd rather not use King as I'm not a big fan of their design, but they seem to be a bit slimmer and a bit sturdier.
Either way I'll have them stress test the swaybar links.
Only other thing I can think of for my specific case are the steering limiters or maybe kdss.
Appointment is this Friday, I'll keep you posted.

 

[coffeecigars]

took my truck in today to get the clunk looked at. Guess what? No clunk. They sent me a video of the suspension inspection (which I knew wouldn't show anything) and said a test drive didn't present anything either. We had to drive 90 minutes to get there and didn't experience it on the highway, not sure if that warmed things up but it hadn't in the past. Roads in town (Reno) are actually very good and not going to cause any trouble but I took the shop foreman for a 20 minute drive and dropped a wheel onto grassy/gravely/inconsistent roads and could not reproduce it. They were great about it, so no issues there. I just don't know why it retreated right now. SM confirmed the coverage for it was 4 years / 50k miles so I'm not going to sweat it. If it comes back I'll try to get it on video. Or at the 5 or 10k service. Will update if anything changes.

Same here took it in could not re produce and its true it doesn't happen all the time maybe they can hook up to the suspension computer look for error codes. like sometimes EKDSS engages and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe there was an over the air update we don't even know about that fix it
is it wet weather? hmmmmm

 

[cesar]

I just had mine looked at today, and same thing, they couldn't get it to clunk. Interestingly though, I noticed the clunk disappeared when the weather here (Canada) warmed up. We were experiencing cool rainy weather up until last week and ever since we started getting over 23c, the clunk has almost entirely disappeared. Of course, I made the appointment when the weather was cool and the clunking was frequent and prominent. I will have them look at it again in the fall when the weather is cool again, if the problem is still there.

 

[rocksallday]

Not sure it's related, but I've had an occasional clunk when steering full lock (obviously at slow speed, like parking, U turns, etc). Never thought much of it since it's not something I do frequently.
I've had suspension work done recently (upgraded to MT64) and removed all the skid plates.
Clunk is still there, maybe even louder, but only at full lock. Very easy to reproduce for me.
Since I've done suspension work, I'm going to the same place (specializes in lifted yotas) and have them look. If these are the swaybar links, I'll probably order the King sway links for the overtrail. I'd rather not use King as I'm not a big fan of their design, but they seem to be a bit slimmer and a bit sturdier.
Either way I'll have them stress test the swaybar links.
Only other thing I can think of for my specific case are the steering limiters or maybe kdss.
Appointment is this Friday, I'll keep you posted.

So at least in my case it's 'most likely' the steering limiter.
It only happens when I'm at full lock and only while there's some suspension travel (like climbing a curb at slow speed to get into a driveway with steering fully turned). There's also a pretty clear shiny mark on the limiter.
Shop put a crowbar around all suspension components and there was no free play anywhere. If any of you suspect anything, like swaybar links, just stick a crowbar between the link and the frame and see if there's any play. You can also try a light mallet touch to the swaybar itself, see if it produces any noise.
It's a good idea in general to crawl under the car and look for any shiny metal parts that would normally be painted. Especially around joints, bushings, whatnot.

 

[CantComplain]

So at least in my case it's 'most likely' the steering limiter.
It only happens when I'm at full lock and only while there's some suspension travel (like climbing a curb at slow speed to get into a driveway with steering fully turned). There's also a pretty clear shiny mark on the limiter.
Shop put a crowbar around all suspension components and there was no free play anywhere. If any of you suspect anything, like swaybar links, just stick a crowbar between the link and the frame and see if there's any play. You can also try a light mallet touch to the swaybar itself, see if it produces any noise.
It's a good idea in general to crawl under the car and look for any shiny metal parts that would normally be painted. Especially around joints, bushings, whatnot.

It's funny, I've said here a few times that my '24 didn't have any issues with the suspension but I forgot I had this same issue that you describe as well. two or 3 times I had a loud knock in exactly the same situation. Once was making a turn on a street with shallow curbs and I ran out of flat with the wheel cranked and there was a loud almost bang. Had a few people in the car and we were all asking what that was. Had them look into it at the 5 or 10k service and they couldn't find anything. Very different than the issue I'm encountering on my '26 though, which is more subtle but more constant over rough roads.

It did all but stop when I took it in though, and I'm thinking it may have been the drive (90 minutes/miles) and/or the heat at the dealer. It's generally been warmer here finally (I live in the mountains) and it's definitely lessened. If it never returns, great, but otherwise I'll deal with it in the fall.