Differential whining after pinion seal replacement

[Scusi]

Hi all
Need your advice
2017 Ram 1500 quad cab
Pinion seal was leaking at 65,000 miles
Dealer fixed it for 1200.00 with new nut and crush spacer
3500 miles later a whining noise from the diff, acceleration and deceleration
Got louder and took it back to dealer
Now they say I might need a spindle bearing
I feel the job might have been done improperly with under or overtightning the rotational torque, etc
They are not committing to it being their fault
They say 'We will know when we get in there'
I dont feel there will be an obvious 'smoking gun' to point towards the problem being their fault...
How should I proceed?

 

[Ken226]

Hi all
Need your advice
2017 Ram 1500 quad cab
Pinion seal was leaking at 65,000 miles
Dealer fixed it for 1200.00 with new nut and crush spacer
3500 miles later a whining noise from the diff, acceleration and deceleration
Got louder and took it back to dealer
Now they say I might need a spindle bearing
I feel the job might have been done improperly with under or overtightning the rotational torque, etc
They are not committing to it being their fault
They say 'We will know when we get in there'
I dont feel there will be an obvious 'smoking gun' to point towards the problem being their fault...
How should I proceed?

There is no "spindle bearing" in the differential, so i'll assume you mean the pinion bearing. The steering knuckle has a spindle, but that's on the front of the truck, so i doubt they're talking about the front wheel bearings.


You can't fix a pinion seal by replacing the nut and crush washer because the are not the same part. A bad pinion seal would be fixed by replacing the pinion seal. So, they replaced the seal? Or just the nut and crush sleeve?

But, @70,000 miles, i very much doubt that your pinion seal spontaneously wore out. More likely, the damaged seal is just a symptom.
A common mode of failure for the pinion seal, is that the pinion bearing goes bad and the new slop/movement in the yoke/gear caused by the bad bearing, also destroys the pinion seal. If this was indeed the case and they left the bad bearing in, but only repaired the symptoms caused by the bad bearing, ie the seal, then it stand to reason that you'd get the exact results again, since the bearing is still bad.



This is a dealer, right? So the repair has a warranty? Then under warranty, the correct repair is to replace the pinion bearing, nut, crush sleeve and seal. Also, to inspect and verify that the pinion gear and carrier gear weren't damaged by the bad running clearance caused by the bad bearing, and if so, to replace the gear set too.

If they are going this far, then in my opinion it is worth paying extra to have them replace the axle bearings, seals and carrier bearings too. Rebuild the whole, entire thing.

 

[Mojo88]

I agree with above. Likely too much damage already to just try and do a quick repair.

 

[Scusi]

What causes the pinion bearing to fail so prematurely?
Yes, they replaced the seal as well.
Is this a somewhat common problem with these differentials?
John

 

[Ken226]

What causes the pinion bearing to fail so prematurely?
Yes, they replaced the seal as well.
Is this a somewhat common problem with these differentials?
John

Yes. I've owned two Rams and both had to have the pinion bearing replaced. I'm batting 100% so far, with a sample size of 2.

My 2010 Ram's pinion bearing **** the bed at about 100,000 miles and bought me a 1-1/2 week vacation on the Navajo Nation Reservation near Farmington, NM, in the middle of a 2400 mile move.

My 2013 Ram's pinion bearing died at about 80,000 miles.


As to what causes this. Pretty much the same thing that causes anything else to wear out. Bad parts, assembly at the factory, bad manufacturing, bad metal, overuse, poor maintenance, bad luck, bad oil, or more likely, some unknowable combination of the aforementioned in conjunction with other unknowns.

 

[Bigskyroadglide]

I'm on my 7th dodge/ram since 1987. I've had 1, this was due to a manufacturer error where they(FCA) at the time manufactured the different without a hole in the diff to check the fluid. They rebuilt the rear diff, at around 30k, sold truck at 150k, never had a problem.

The other 6, did not give any problems during ownership, I still have 3 of them. The one with the most miles, is a 3.92 with lsd and is in a highly modified truck. So I would say, they are not all bad.

My experience