hum or howl in 4wd

[Charlie207]

Drained the fluid today - front diff is cooked. Tons of sparkles, oil is completely silver. Time to go shopping. Going to get another used assembly and hope for the best.

That stinks, but eBay is your friend.

 

[DaveO9]

I might be getting a break - I called LKQ Online today and put in a warranty claim. Still some hoops to jump through, i.e. got to take it to a shop for an official diagnosis, but maybe it will work out. Called in the nick of time - it's a 6 mo warranty and tomorrow is exactly 6 months from the date on the invoice email. Although there might be a short grace period, the guy was asking me when I installed it.

I'll call a trans shop I've used before tomorrow, but has anyone ever had this experience of having to get a shop's diagnosis for a warranty claim? I'm hoping they can drive it, hear the noise and say, yep it's toast, and I'm done. It's not like you can just pop a cover off of these front units and look at the diff and bearings.

 

[Geotrash]

I might be getting a break - I called LKQ Online today and put in a warranty claim. Still some hoops to jump through, i.e. got to take it to a shop for an official diagnosis, but maybe it will work out. Called in the nick of time - it's a 6 mo warranty and tomorrow is exactly 6 months from the date on the invoice email. Although there might be a short grace period, the guy was asking me when I installed it.

I'll call a trans shop I've used before tomorrow, but has anyone ever had this experience of having to get a shop's diagnosis for a warranty claim? I'm hoping they can drive it, hear the noise and say, yep it's toast, and I'm done. It's not like you can just pop a cover off of these front units and look at the diff and bearings.

Yes, it's a common practice to require a shop diagnosis for warranty claims. Will they pay for that diagnosis too?

Fingers crossed!

 

[DaveO9]

Yes, it's a common practice to require a shop diagnosis for warranty claims. Will they pay for that diagnosis too?

Fingers crossed!

I haven't asked yet. I'll ask or maybe just submit the receipt, but even if they don't, it'll be better than paying the $400 for a different unit.

 

[DaveO9]

I was looking more closely at the oil I drained out the other night. There is tons of metal in there, but it is super fine, zero flakes or chunks. Reminds me of metallic silver paint that hasn't been thoroughly mixed. And a magnet doesn't pick any of it up. I'm guessing something is grinding a groove in the aluminum housing. I had a Dodge Dakota years ago that did that in the rear end. It ground a perfect groove in part of the housing, looked like it had been factory machined.