I had a very distinct rattle anytime I hit a small bump for months. I have been sorting my FJ since I bought it a couple months ago. I knew it wasnt maintained by the most careful folks but was a little surprised by this find. The one thing the PO said he had done was the front brakes so I hadnt really looked very close at that since so many other things were rattling.
A big rattle was the skid plate against the exhaust cross over tube. At idle while warm it would make a small hum. I spaced it out with washers and got that sorted right away. Another was the winch and the cover on the front bumper which had several bolts that had come loose. Again - not too hard to find and resolve with some new bolts and a few strategically placed pieces of old bike tire rubber.
The big one was the front brakes. The PO or his mechanic had replaced only the pads. Nothing else. So it turns out that the rotors were beyond spec and the little hardware springs were all bent up. So what was happening was the brake pads were loose between the caliper and rotor. Loose enough to rattle like a banshee at times on one in particular. The fix was to replace the rotors, pads and brake hardware. While I had it out, I made sure the pistons werent sticking by creating some space in there with some old pads I had off another car and had someone press the brakes enough to verify the pistons came out and retracted properly - No more ratlle
I now have possibly the quietest FJ around since I found all kinds of little rattles while trying to figure this one out.
A big rattle was the skid plate against the exhaust cross over tube. At idle while warm it would make a small hum. I spaced it out with washers and got that sorted right away. Another was the winch and the cover on the front bumper which had several bolts that had come loose. Again - not too hard to find and resolve with some new bolts and a few strategically placed pieces of old bike tire rubber.
The big one was the front brakes. The PO or his mechanic had replaced only the pads. Nothing else. So it turns out that the rotors were beyond spec and the little hardware springs were all bent up. So what was happening was the brake pads were loose between the caliper and rotor. Loose enough to rattle like a banshee at times on one in particular. The fix was to replace the rotors, pads and brake hardware. While I had it out, I made sure the pistons werent sticking by creating some space in there with some old pads I had off another car and had someone press the brakes enough to verify the pistons came out and retracted properly - No more ratlle
I now have possibly the quietest FJ around since I found all kinds of little rattles while trying to figure this one out.