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Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2011
- Posts
- 6,632
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- 2,978
- Location
- Minot, ND
- Ram Year
- 2014 Ram 2500 Crew
- Engine
- 6.7L Cummins
So after having the rear pinion seal replaced a couple weeks ago I started hearing this hellish noise from the rear end. I thought maybe it was a bad u joint or something so I took it in. Let me be clear I have extended warranty through United Car Care and they will cover everything except my diffs which have the aftermarket gears and the powertrax. SO they covered the pinion seal a few weeks before. The service advisor comes to me after mechanic looked at it and says it is something coming from the rear end and with the aftermarket gears UCC won't touch it do you want me to proceed? I say no I'll take it to my mechanic who did the job and see what he thinks because he is the one who will have to warranty the gear and powertrax job. My mechanic takes it for a spin and says it sounds like a bearing... Okay so he says I bet what happened is when they did that pinion seal they overtightened the pinion nut and not the pinion bearing is bad. So I call the service advisor at the dealer and ask him about the process his guy used to complete pinion seal replacement. Did you open up the rear diff to do it? He gets defensive and says no we don't do it like that. So I ask him how did you replace the crush sleeve then? He tells me they didn't they just did the seal. Well in doing research the only way to do a pinion seal the correct way with no shortcut is to replace the crush sleeve and the pinion nut.
So here I am stuck trying to fix what the dealer jacked up and the dealer is blaming the aftermarket gears when really problem was caused by taking a shortcut. Worst of all the dealer billed the warranty company for 1.5 hours of labor and since they cheated it took maybe 30 min - 45 min.
I call the warranty company and find out what they got billed for they confirm the 1.5 hours and then tell me that they just pay what job book says and they don't know if the dealer did it the complete way or the shortcut way. I have to look at invoice but I think they charged for rear fluid too. So I ask if I can take my truck to another shop and they tell me no if I am in 50 miles of the dealer that sold it I have to go there unless the service manager will release my contract. Talk about being boxed in. The company gets f'd by the dealer but then basically protects them via this policy.
So now I am driving the '90 Ramcharger until my mechanic can work on my truck on his days off from work (he is a mechanic but does more mechanics on the side at his house.)
Long post but can somebody who knows about drivelines please confirm that this way of taking a shortcut is probably to blame even though I know I won't be able to prove it. I probably had less then 500 miles on since they did seal and it started to make the noise. I hate when people do things half assed just wastes everyone's time and money. I forgot to mention this is the second time they have done seal replacement on my truck with 42,000 miles on her. once before 36000 once during gear swap done by my mechanic and then once after it started to leak again. So dealer has done 2 and my mech. has done once.
I found this post below from some guy with a Ford who had same thing happen.
"Problems after rear pinion seal replaced...
I had my rear differential fluid changed at a local shop. I was told that the rear pinion seal was leaking and needed to be replaced ($145). The repair was made and the fluid was changed.
Now it has been about 4,500 miles and I started to get a rear end 'whine' or 'groan'. I took my truck to a different shop, who did a road test, and said that the noise is from the rear differential. I told the mechanic about the service I had and he immediately said that the shop probably over-torqued the pinion nut and crush sleeve, which has now damaged the pinion bearing and possibly the axle bearings. He also thinks the shop reused the crush sleeve after replacing the seal, which he said should have been replaced if done properly.
The shop removed the differential cover and preliminarily determined that the pinion bearing will need to be replaced, but thinks everything else is fine. He is going to get back to me about the crush sleeve tomorrow cuz they ran out of time.
The shop said that the previous mechanic is responsible for the damage and suggested that I call them and request they pay for the repairs. I am trying to get opinions about the situation to have my argument ready when I call the shop.
Is it possible that the over-torqued pinion nut and reuse of the crush sleeve could have caused this damage? Can I prove this after only 4,500 miles? What is the best way to explain this to the shop for them to understand what I'm talking about...I'm not a mechanic and am only learning about this as this goes on. Thanks!
FYI, the same shop also replaced the fuel filter that same day...broke the fuel line clip in the process...replaced the clip with one they fabricated from another vehicle. Needless to say, the clip failed...fuel line came off and I dumped a half tank of gas on the freeway...hence why I took the truck to another shop. I'm lucky to be alive from what I've been told."
So here I am stuck trying to fix what the dealer jacked up and the dealer is blaming the aftermarket gears when really problem was caused by taking a shortcut. Worst of all the dealer billed the warranty company for 1.5 hours of labor and since they cheated it took maybe 30 min - 45 min.
I call the warranty company and find out what they got billed for they confirm the 1.5 hours and then tell me that they just pay what job book says and they don't know if the dealer did it the complete way or the shortcut way. I have to look at invoice but I think they charged for rear fluid too. So I ask if I can take my truck to another shop and they tell me no if I am in 50 miles of the dealer that sold it I have to go there unless the service manager will release my contract. Talk about being boxed in. The company gets f'd by the dealer but then basically protects them via this policy.
So now I am driving the '90 Ramcharger until my mechanic can work on my truck on his days off from work (he is a mechanic but does more mechanics on the side at his house.)
Long post but can somebody who knows about drivelines please confirm that this way of taking a shortcut is probably to blame even though I know I won't be able to prove it. I probably had less then 500 miles on since they did seal and it started to make the noise. I hate when people do things half assed just wastes everyone's time and money. I forgot to mention this is the second time they have done seal replacement on my truck with 42,000 miles on her. once before 36000 once during gear swap done by my mechanic and then once after it started to leak again. So dealer has done 2 and my mech. has done once.
I found this post below from some guy with a Ford who had same thing happen.
"Problems after rear pinion seal replaced...
I had my rear differential fluid changed at a local shop. I was told that the rear pinion seal was leaking and needed to be replaced ($145). The repair was made and the fluid was changed.
Now it has been about 4,500 miles and I started to get a rear end 'whine' or 'groan'. I took my truck to a different shop, who did a road test, and said that the noise is from the rear differential. I told the mechanic about the service I had and he immediately said that the shop probably over-torqued the pinion nut and crush sleeve, which has now damaged the pinion bearing and possibly the axle bearings. He also thinks the shop reused the crush sleeve after replacing the seal, which he said should have been replaced if done properly.
The shop removed the differential cover and preliminarily determined that the pinion bearing will need to be replaced, but thinks everything else is fine. He is going to get back to me about the crush sleeve tomorrow cuz they ran out of time.
The shop said that the previous mechanic is responsible for the damage and suggested that I call them and request they pay for the repairs. I am trying to get opinions about the situation to have my argument ready when I call the shop.
Is it possible that the over-torqued pinion nut and reuse of the crush sleeve could have caused this damage? Can I prove this after only 4,500 miles? What is the best way to explain this to the shop for them to understand what I'm talking about...I'm not a mechanic and am only learning about this as this goes on. Thanks!
FYI, the same shop also replaced the fuel filter that same day...broke the fuel line clip in the process...replaced the clip with one they fabricated from another vehicle. Needless to say, the clip failed...fuel line came off and I dumped a half tank of gas on the freeway...hence why I took the truck to another shop. I'm lucky to be alive from what I've been told."
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