Rear diff blew, locked up, snapped driveshaft

[sullivan]

Well, I was headed out on a road trip about a month ago. 6 hours into my trip, the rear diff exploded, and locked up, shearing the drive shaft, and it flew out the rear onto the highway.

Towed it to a local dodge dealership and its just shy of 10k to fix.

What a bummer.

Its a 2016 Ram 1500 Laramie with the 3.21

 

[stevenP]

I would get a replacement diff assembly from a boneyard and swap it out. I have had teeth chip off, and broke gears, but never had a diff lock up. My guess is the fluid was really low, or even gone.

 

[GTyankee]

On my last Ram, when the rear differential went out.
I was smiling, because then Mopar Extended Warranty was still in effect.

That is why a bought the Mopar Extended Warranty with my current 2016 Ram.
Next Month the extended warranty runs out.
I have to look for some kind of Mopar Warranty, before then.

 

[Racer9]

When you're 6 hours from home and something like this happens, you're screwed.
A brand new diff from Dodge parts online is $3300-$3600 online They want over $6k for labor?????????????
I would find a good local shop and have them install a used diff.

 

[sullivan]

Ill get a brake down, but its near 10k.

Around 5k for the entire rear axle assembly. Shy of 1500 of for the driveshaft. Then 4 bolts to connect the driveshaft to the rear diff. And then fluid for the transfer case.

The labor actually was the cheapest part of the entire situation. It was around 9 hours, which was close to $1200 or so.

After taxes and everything it added up.

I didnt have the time or effort to find a different shop, tow it, etc.

Like @Racer9 said, you're screwed when you are so far from home.

Its already finished and waiting to be picked up, but their communication has been extremely poor.

I am going to send my brother and mom up to pay and get it for me as I am in North Dakota at the moment for work.

I would have fixed all this stuff myself, but I need to work. I don't have the free time these days.

 

[regal81455]

So there was no warning something was amiss leading up to it? Growling, chattering, vibrations, feeling funny turning? That's pretty crazy and terribly unfortunate.

 

[TotallyHucked]

Wow, dude that sucks. I'd be very interested to know what caused it

 

[Burla]

10 g's, it is official we are on the pesos system, like wtf.

 

[DILLIGAF]

Towed it to a local dodge dealership and its just shy of 10k to fix.

Only a dealer

Rear diff takes 2 hours to swap and they are on Marketplace for 500-1000

 

[Jeepwalker]

What's a used rear diff go for these days? $500?

I've been involved in a couple rear diff failure jobs. Usually there's a warning that drivers didn't hear, or heed (noise, howling, etc), or didn't have the luxury of course-correcting. But sometimes a bearing cage can come apart or an actual bearing itself can crack/bust which leads to downstream bearing failure in the snap of the fingers. Fortunately its very rare.

 

[sullivan]

I am having to pull teeth with FCA to see if my truck had the recall on the rear diff. The dealer gives me a run around when I ask and then when I check my vin online it doesn't pop up.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2017/RCRIT-17V198-8121.pdf

It is what it is. Moving on. I am tempted to have the dealer place the rear axle assembly in the bed so I can tear into it myself. But with it being grenaded, who knows what the hell happened.

 

[Burla]

So you are letting the dealer fix it? Lets us know, because some of us would have some ideas. If you still have a choice, tow that puppy home.

I'd take this as an opportunity to get rid of tiny 3.21's and put some 4.10's on ot... The 3.21 is even taller or tinier then the small one in this photo.

 

[GTyankee]

When my rear differential gave me any notice ...
I had had a dealership perform an oil change & inspection on a day before going on a job that involved driving about 450 miles at a speed of 60 mph for at least half of those miles.

I left on the job & after driving about 100 miles, i started hearing a noise similar to someone slowly dragging a cardboard box on concrete.
I thought about calling the Dispatcher about cancelling & having him get a replacement driver.
I continued on the drive, i met with the truck driver that was pulling a wide office trailer, the trailer was over 12 foot wide.
The noise got louder as we traveled,
At about 300 miles, the noise changed to sounding like a metal pipe being rotated within another pipe with a cushioning of sand, it was a hollow type sound.
At about 375, the job was done & the trucker signed my invoice, i left for home.
I was worried that i was going to be stranded on a California 8 lane highway , around 10 PM, i slowed to about 40 mph in the slow lane & wishing that i would make it home.
I made it & at 7 AM i was sitting at the dealership, waiting for the gate to open.
That was back in the years when the service department did not need appointments, they just gave you a time estimate.

 

[Wild one]

So you are letting the dealer fix it? Lets us know, because some of us would have some ideas. If you still have a choice, tow that puppy home.

I'd take this as an opportunity to get rid of tiny 3.21's and put some 4.10's on ot... The 3.21 is even taller or tinier then the small one in this photo.

View attachment 533542

A stock truck isn't going to hurt a set of 3.21's Mike.Hell i drag raced mine for the first while with a completely stock diff /3.21's and the light duty factory limited slip.The weak link is the factory limited slip,not the gears.The downsides to higher gears like 3.92's/4.10's is worse gas milege,way higher oil temps at highway speeds.With the 8 speeds stump pulling 4.71:1 first gear , deep gears aren't really needed as much as they are with the older RFE transmissions.Throw in the fact once the 3.92's shift out of first,the torque multiplication advantage is with the 3.21's that are still in first gear,and after that they swap back and forth on which one has the torque multiplication advantage. When i swapped out the 3.21's on my truck to 3.55's i didn't gain squat at the dragstrip,but at 75+ mph my milege took a $h!t kicking and my oil temps also had a noticable increase.

 

[mikeru]

Glad to hear no one was injured in that. A friend of mine had a rear diff in a Tacoma disintegrate on him at highway speed. Flipped his truck and an oncoming car bounced off his truck and careened into the ditch. Luckily it was just the two vehicles involved because there was quite a bit of traffic for a two lane highway. He ended up with a brain injury and lots of cuts and bruises. He was messed up for a few months but eventually made a full recovery. The other driver was unhurt. The worst part was that when I was helping him work on his truck the night before, I noticed his diff was leaking. I was running late for dinner so I told him to check it before heading out to work the next morning. Well, he forgot to check it and the rest is history. I wish I would have just checked it at the time. But the wife had already called a couple times wanting me to get my butt home.

 

[Midknight]

Here was my 3:21 ring and pinion after swaping out for new one for reference.

 

[sullivan]

So the total is $8,665.81

The lady said she tried to give me some sort of discount as its a lot of money. She couldn't do anything on the parts, but I think she discounted the labor.

Edit: I told her to have them put the axle assembly in the bed for me, hopefully its still there. I am going to have my brother strap it down and haul it back in the truck.

 

[jws123]

The only time I have seen the rear diff explode on 4th gens is due to low fluid/driving It a long time with pinion bearing noise How many miles on your truck?

 

[sullivan]

It is just above 70k. When my brother picked it up today it was at 70,339.

 

[Daniel J]

I just had my rear differential totally rebuilt here in NC about 4 months ago. New Richmond gears, limited slip rebuild with new clutches, all new bearings and seals. Price? $1800
Rebuilt by EastCoast Gear , Lewisburg, NC They are in all the magazines
Check them out