Rear Diff Fluid aint so hot...

[JBakerFX4]

Checked my rear diff fluid today as part of my oil change check list items. Pulled the fill plug which is magnetic.... First thing I see is a HUGE 1" piece of metal!!! Along with lots of the usual fine wear particles. The fluid itself looks pretty sorry... kinda dark and old looking. For only having 16.5k miles, wow. That can't be good having a 1" piece of metal come out of the diff.

[Cory S]

doesnt sound good did you pull the cover

[20stroker02]

sounds like a chipped tooth on your ring gear, the teeth are deep enough to let the pinion gear still rotate, I would get that fixed asap, not a very safe situation especially when running at freeway speeds

[JBakerFX4]

that's what it looked like.... chipped tooth. No I didn't pull the cover off. WTF man... I'm tired of taking this truck to the dealer. I haven't even towed anything yet!

[20stroker02]

sorry bout the luck, I feel for ya bud, sometimes those LSD's have issues when put the skinny peddle to the floor, best of luck

[JBakerFX4]

I don't even drive it hard..... I drive like gramps. Uh. At least it was a "thin & skinny" 1" piece. I just got my truck back yesterday from the dealer, after having them look into the 45-50mph vibe that they didn't touch. They just analyzed it with a NVH and it was in spec. OMG... Well I wanted to do the '08 Diff cover... good time. At least the front fluid looked brand-new.

[20stroker02]

is the vibration in the steering wheel or in the seat?

[JBakerFX4]

seat. I already had the TSB done. They mounted a damper on the rear trailer hitch. It helped some. It's the rear of the truck starts hoping between 45-50. Many folks have this issue....

[20stroker02]

I would almost bet that these problems are related, if your r & p is shimmed wrong it could cause many issues. Tearing up ujoints, carrier bearing, fracturing gears and cause a shimmy in the entire rearend, I would talk to the dealer about replacing the entire rearend or go through the lemon law process

[JBakerFX4]

First I'm going to pull the rear cover see what it looks like and go from there. The lemon law won't apply... yet. I'm working on days in shop/yr. Really don't want to go thru that BS anyway. And my Driveline angles are good. Pinion angle is good. all the geometry works. I've checked the angles 101 times.

OH, and while I was undernieth the truck today doing my check list... noticed fluid leaking on the back/rear of engine. Looked like Oil.... I can't win. and my P/S fluid was low again.