Will it hold up?

Over the last week or so i've noticed an occasional strange noise from my rear end. Heard it mainly when navigating parking lots at low speed. Well now over the last 2 days it has started to get worse to the point where today it appears there is something severely wrong with it. I pulled it into our garage tonight and threw the jack under the rear end, then rotated the tires by hand while my dad listened from a creeper under the truck. When holding one of the rear tires(usually the drivers) and rotating the other, it would rotate fairly freely, then begin to bind, make a growling and release with a chatter/clatter(audible from 20 ft from the truck!) coming from the 3rd member. I would imagine this has something to do with the LSD in the rear end?
My friends dad(who is a Jetboat mechanic) said that their CR-V has a LSD and began to do the same thing a while back. The owner of a local car repair shop advised him to change out the oil/LSD additive in the rear end and afterward it totally solved the symptoms they were experiencing. Tomorrow im going to change out the oil/LSD additive and hopefully it helps because on wednesday morning im going to be leaving to go back to college which is a 250 mile drive and i'll be loaded with quad, tools, clothes, etc.

 

Hey, CHRIS!?!?!?

 

Good luck

 

Thanks.
Oh, and just to add a little more info: My truck has about 33,700 miles currently, and the rear diff oil was changed out for full synthetic and LSD additive at about 18000 miles.

 

damn dude this sounds bad, i had my bearings go out and it growled really bad so i dunno if you could check those or not

 

Maybe you shouldn't have gone synthetic.

My dif fluid didn't get changed until the recommended interval of 120,000.

 

Yeah, i dont know. Maybe not. But I've always heard that synthetics help gas mileage, especially when its cold, and I get some pretty long and cold winters. I also tow a LOT so thats why I changed it when i did too.

I pulled the filler plug and checked the oil earlier and it seemed perfect still. just a very slight gray/tan hint to it so it almost appears new still. Thats why I cant believe that the oil is whats causing any of these issue.

 

hey i just put synthetic in mine today so if it starts growling at me ill let yu know haha. it's gonna get the 300 miles test on wednesday

 

Well, i work my truck pretty good, but I definately don't beat on it and abuse it. I take care of it and respect it. After all, i need it to be able to make my money, so the last thing I want is breakage and down time. I agree though, this is a great excuse to install an ARB in it finally! Im going to see what the Toyota dealer says on wednesday or thursday though because whatever the problem is, it should still be covered under warranty.

 

I know syn shouldn't hurt it. But I was thinking in terms of my lower unit on my boat(yes I know not the same as the truck rear dif). The repair manual & Mercury says absolutely do not put syn in, if it did not come with syn. That was kinda strange. Why would it matter?

 

Thanks Chris, will do. I'm gonna go drain it to see what it looks like(make sure theres no metal) and then run to town in my dads car to get the oil. :crossesfingers:

 

hey chris i put mobile one full synthetic in mine yesterday, should i drain that and switch it to somthing else or what.

 

Well, changed it out with this stuff:

Seems to be a little better now after driving it about 10 miles on some curvy roads by my house. Still got it to chatter once at low speed, and then once back home I pulled it in the garage, jacked it up and did the trick with the rear tires. I can get it to chatter, but once again it does seem a bit better. Hopefully it just takes a little time to wear in to the clutches in the LSD and then goes away entirely. My rear diff seems to be getting pretty warm though. At about 70* outside it got quite warm just from the 10 mile drive I did, I can still hold my hands on it, but it was pretty warm. This all seem normal?

 

The differential housing will get warm, but it shouldn't be hot. My guess is that you have a bearing going bad. It happened to me in my Jeep. I noticed a growling noise, and the differential housing was very warm. I popped the cover off the rear end, and the oil looked like it had glitter in it. I removed the differential from the housing, and the bearing on the drivers side was scored.