Talked to the dealer today. They said that the rear diff fluid was pretty dirty, and they wanted to change it out.

I asked how changing the fluid out was going to eliminate bearing noise in an open differential. Got some stuttering on the other end of the line.

Called them again later, near 5pm, and they said that they had a call in to Toyota regarding the problem and that they would keep me posted.

 

chances are the fluid was never changed, the previous owner may have used it as a tow wagon, and never did proper maint... they cant blame that on you if they sold it to u...

it should have been changed before you bought it.

i actually put notes in the owners manual for my fj when i traded it in so whoever bought it knew what i had done to take care of it.

 

Just talked to the dealer. They said that there is a TSB involving an oil baffle in the rear differential. They said that they are going to disassemble the rear diff today and look everything over.
I will let everybody know what they find.

 

So, after 4 days of my local dealershit BSing me, they finally called me today and said that they have a new complete rear differential assembly ordered for my truck.
So far, they have done absolutely nothing to my truck. It has sat in the parking lot since Wednesday of last week.
I am very happy to be getting a brand new rear differential, but I don't think I'll be returning to this dealership for any service.

 

Forgot to post an update here.

They finally ended up putting a new rear differential in my truck at 40K miles. It was covered under the powertrain warranty.

The new rear diff is absolutely silent now driving down the road. They said it was bearing failure, but they didn't take the old rear diff apart to see which bearings failed.

 

can you explain the noise and when it would happen? I am having a very frustrating sound that happens when i am in neutral throttle. If im going down the highway and have the throttle held to where i am not accelerating or decelerating i get this humming noise and I can feel it in the floor. It is similar to a rumble strip.....

 

Here's the front diff TSB which many of us on this forum had to have done. My truck had this issue at 22,000 miles. Dealer fixed it using this TSB.

However, if you are getting rumble at highway speeds, this is probably not the same issue.

http://toyotatundraforum.com/pdf/Front Diff TSB.pdf

 

The best way I can describe it as is a loud growling that was most prevalent at 35mph under light throttle or coasting.

It was speed sensitive as well, as it increased in loudness as speed increased, and decreased as i slowed to a stop.

It was a constant noise. No popping, banging, rumble strip, etc. noises. Just a loud, steady growling.

 

Yea that does sound very much like a TC issue. I had the same thing on a couple Acura's. Was the TC both times. Felt just like a rumble strip and I could duplicate it by getting on the throttle lightly.

 

Damn I hope I don't need a rear diff. I'm at 80k plus

 

Change the fluid and hope for the best.

 

Finally got around to dropping off the truck at the dealership the recall services and had them check out the rear end noise. They pin pointed the noise out to the rear right axle bearing. Quoted 1k+ for replacement.

 

Seems expensive, but then again it's the dealer. I wonder what an independant would quote.

 

Rear bearing

I had to replace a right rear bearing in hub at 36k and vehicle was 6 years old. Dealer quoted $1200, I bitched at Toyota that the failure is due to parts failur or workmanship, after all this is their prized workhorse truck and I only use my truck as weekend vehicle. Toyota split cost of repair with me. But I am concerned about the bearing on the passenger side going bad, not what I expected from Toyota vehicles.

 

Ask the dealer what it would cost to check the other side. I would expect some break in price for doing both at the same time; and if it's bad, I'd expect the same 50/50 split in covering the cost.

Bummer at a failure in so few miles.