Noise while in 4 wheel drive

[Ryan Mackie]

Hey all,

Whenever I am in four wheel drive I am hearing what sounds like a rubbing/growl sound almost like a dry bearing or something the likes of that. happens while coasting, Accel, and decel but worse during accel. Anyone else have this sound?

 

[star_deceiver]

Is this noise with the front and rear diffs locked or unlocked?

 

[Ryan Mackie]

Have only tried with them unlocked. Say driving in a snow storm on the highway 60-70 km/h

 

[star_deceiver]

Check to make sure your tire wear is close to equal front to back, but you may want to have a dealer tech do a ride along with you if you can make the noise happen on command.

Even up to 90mph, there’s no noise out of my 4wd system.

 

[fxgrub66]

I also have the same noise coming from my 2019 Laramie. I have taken the truck to my local dealership and had the service manager come with me on a road test. During the test, you could clearly hear this grinding/growling noise coming from one of the differentials while the truck was in 4WD. The service manager agreed that this noise was unusual and that he would look into what might a possible solution. The next morning, the service dept called me and said that they took a brand new 3500 Laramie diesel off the lot and did a road test on it as well. They went on to say that this truck made the same noise and therefore this noise if normal. I found this to be ********* as I have been a licensed mechanic for nearly 50 years and most of those years for Chrysler and know the difference what is normal differential noise and what is not. By the way, my truck had only 600 miles on it when this road test was done. Trying to find more information on the web about this issue.

 

[crazy jerry]

well if theres no noise in 2wd then obviously it isnt in the rear end. only thing left is front axle or tcase. carrier or pinion bearings or the gears them selves is the only possibilities regarding the front end.

 

[RamCares]

I also have the same noise coming from my 2019 Laramie. I have taken the truck to my local dealership and had the service manager come with me on a road test. During the test, you could clearly hear this grinding/growling noise coming from one of the differentials while the truck was in 4WD. The service manager agreed that this noise was unusual and that he would look into what might a possible solution. The next morning, the service dept called me and said that they took a brand new 3500 Laramie diesel off the lot and did a road test on it as well. They went on to say that this truck made the same noise and therefore this noise if normal. I found this to be ********* as I have been a licensed mechanic for nearly 50 years and most of those years for Chrysler and know the difference what is normal differential noise and what is not. By the way, my truck had only 600 miles on it when this road test was done. Trying to find more information on the web about this issue.

Hi fxgrub66,

Have you perhaps considered working with a different local dealer for a second opinion? If you continue to work with your dealer to address this, we suggest contacting Canadian Customer Care to have this documented. You may find their contact information by clicking on the following link and scrolling down to the "Canada" tab: https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/footer/Pages/contacts.aspx.

Mark
RamCares

 

[fitz7]

I also have the same noise coming from my 2019 Laramie. I have taken the truck to my local dealership and had the service manager come with me on a road test. During the test, you could clearly hear this grinding/growling noise coming from one of the differentials while the truck was in 4WD. The service manager agreed that this noise was unusual and that he would look into what might a possible solution. The next morning, the service dept called me and said that they took a brand new 3500 Laramie diesel off the lot and did a road test on it as well. They went on to say that this truck made the same noise and therefore this noise if normal. I found this to be ********* as I have been a licensed mechanic for nearly 50 years and most of those years for Chrysler and know the difference what is normal differential noise and what is not. By the way, my truck had only 600 miles on it when this road test was done. Trying to find more information on the web about this issue.

My rear diff went in my ram 1500 when in 4 x 4 driving in winter conditions. After the rear diff repair undwr warranty my 4 x 4 now howls too when driving in a straight line. The rear diff replacement under warranty failed in 3 days. Srcond one had noise after 3 weeks which thry determined was bad rwar bearings. Even b4 my first rear diff blew i had uneven wear on my rear right tire. It was almpat going treadless compared to the other 3 tires. Let me know if you find a solution. Im ready to pretend i am buying the same truck so i can **** the 4 x 4 and see if i can hear the same noise. At 47k km my 2019 ram 1500 became a lemon and its been badly repaired numerous times by the dealership that i 4got what a normal ram 1500 is supposed to sound like. When i accelerate its like woowooo wooooo vrrrrr noise 30km and up in 4 x 4. Same with you? The noise is so loud i don't want to take it in 4 x 4 on the highway so for sure something must be wrong.

 

[fitz7]

Hi fxgrub66,

Have you perhaps considered working with a different local dealer for a second opinion? If you continue to work with your dealer to address this, we suggest contacting Canadian Customer Care to have this documented. You may find their contact information by clicking on the following link and scrolling down to the "Canada" tab: https://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/footer/Pages/contacts.aspx.

Mark
RamCares

Fca said they would call me and never did. Then another fca guy said i will escalate your claim since my vehicle was undrivable 5 months. Then i get ahold of a 3rd fca guy and he said the 2nd guy wasnt authorized to say suxh things and reiterated my remaining warranty period and said deal only with the dealership and dont call back. I was calling to say my 2nd rear diff repair makes noise and they are about to replace my rear wheel bearings and to have 3 major repairs in 5 months shoukd warrant a new axle. But the fca guy said stop calling and go to the dealership. So basixally fca just wants to keep putting patch jobs on your vehicle until warranty expires. Will not be buying another fca product..

 

[flashman252]

Bear with me here as I am not a mechanic, just a dumb nurse, but your story sounds very similar to what my buddy went through last year with his 2020 laramie. I am going to type this as I remember, but I would have to reach out to him to maybe refine the details exactly. Anyways...

My buddy just had this issue last year in his 2020. He thought it was a bearing going bad... nope. So then he took it to a shop and found teeth were not looking so good in his transfer case, apparently it was missing teeth (again, going off memory) but he had his transfer case rebuilt. I'd have that looked at real good. Not my truck, I can certainly reach out and make sure thats what he had fixed, but if I remember right, that was the first gremlin that popped up.

Now shortly after that fix, he would be towing and all of a sudden the truck was stuck in 4th gear. Throw a CEL and he would pull over, turn truck off and it cleared itself. Did it for awhile and couldn't quite figure out what was going as the CEL would fix itself, but couldnt necessarily drive without pulling over and resetting it because transmission was stuck in 4th gear. Finally he noticed if the truck was going down hill, coasting, the issue would come up. Ended up being a bad shifting sensor (or something like that) but the issue is the sensor is inside the transmission and requires being pulled out. He had 95k mi on the truck. He got a brand new transmission through warranty. How he worked out a brand new transmission with the dealer... I HAVE NO IDEA!!! But he buys a few trucks through this dealership, so I am sure it helped him.

It helps that he has his own RAM mechanics through his work, so the dealer was really cool and just gave him a transmission, wrote it off on warranty and let his mechanics install it. He is partial owner of a major plumbing company here and they run all ram trucks in their fleet and have their own hired ram mechanics. So he is fortunate with that.