Tacoma rear differential failure

You may take the issue of a howling diff lightly. You may also think it is normal. Trust me, regardless of how many people are experiences this it is nothing to take lightly, or something you just throw under the rug and forget about it. People have spent a lot of money for these trucks and the howling diff is unacceptable. It amazes me that so many people now a days accept levels of incompetence and down right neglect and want the rest of us to embrace this as well. "It's OK you are over reacting" " Just turn up the music and the sound will go away"

Conducting business in this country now a days has become businesses just want to take your money but no one wants to take responsibility when shit happens. So I will be one of those people you refer to as freaking out about this. Toyota got every dime of their money from me, now it is time for them to step up to the plate. I wonder what would happen it I stiff or short changed Toyota some how on the cost of this truck. I think I would take a page out of your book "Awh Toyota stop making a major issue it is only a few hundred dollars" or "Toyota you need to stop freaking out over a few hundred dollars"

 

You are absolutely correct. YOU SHOULD NOT ACCEPT THE FACT THAT YOUR TACOMA IS VERY LOUD

 

@smitty99 just got replaced by @viking15

reported.....

 

a howling like that isnt normal as others have said, its a sign of poor gear setup. now is this "normal" for all new tacos, maybe, but none of the gears i have setup howl like that lol. at the same time, i have mud tires and a stereo, so i dont hear shit. as long as its not chunky its fine lol

 

I understand its not right, and I'm not happy about it and I'm worried too. I just can't call it diff failure. I'm not sold on the idea that it's improperly set up gears, seeing as there are so many doin it but so few blowing up. everyone here acts like they are master techs and KNOW there is an issue with the diff, but no one has fixed it or found what exactly is the problem. that's my point, OP hasn't had diff failure, just a diff leak and a possible diff problem. but has not failed

 

I am a master tech. It's my understanding though that Toyota doesn't let techs build their own diffs, the 3rd member comes preassembled. I have no problem fixing another manufacturer though.

 

That's great, but still waiting for someone to bite the bullet and have a shop check the gears and bearings out and say yes it's unacceptable, but haven't seen that yet. I would think someone who is going to go to lower gears could ask them to check it first so we could get an idea. To me I think it's more of a bearing issue, maybe from driveline angles and not actually a problem with the diff

 

I've been saying that. I would want to know what backlash is at and pinion preload. Pretty easy to check on the bench with a Toyota diff

 

Not surprised that nobody is quick to want to spend $800+ to have a gear shop rip into their rear end just to tell them what is wrong with their $35K to $40K warrantied vehicle's rear end quality/mfg.

 

how many miles are on those bearings? they dont even look evenly worn lol. I wonder if they are having a weird batch of bearings that arnt matched bearing /race.

 

Seems like several people have had lower gears installed already. also with as many people on here so concerned, i figured someone would have the ability and want to try check it themselves. I know it takes tools most don't have access to but still. I'm also not sure about that price your throwing it there.

 

That's not a toyota

 

A reputable shop will probably charge 4 to 6 hours of labor to pull apart a rear end and put it back together.... do the math? I replaced a rear end in my 1968 GTO and the cost was a little over $1200 for a reputable shop to do the work. Parts were ~$500, labor was $700-$800.

 

Has anyone noticed that none of his diffs have failed?

 

Ok you do the math. -500 because the gears aren't getting replaced, minus the labor of not pulling the gears apart. I would think if you pulled the chunk yourself and bring it in it would be like $100 to set it up and check the numbers

 

or you can learn a skill and buy new tools I spend around 400 to regear and have no noise or howl on my 03

 

The labor is remove and replace gears. New or old, doesn't make much difference as it still takes the same time and effort to R&R and inspect? Labor was about $700 to $800. That was 6 years ago. It was in Los Angeles however....so figure there's probably a $100 price increase there over somewhere like Texas. But again, that was 6 years ago.

 

Why would you replace good new gears, most of these don't have enough miles on them to matter. they don't have to take the diff apart to check it. if they had to add shims then yes, but if it checked out fine then they wouldn't even get into it.

 

I'm saying just to pull the rear end and check the gearing would probably cost that much in labor alone. Toyota already replaced my entire carrier assembly (rear diff guts).... I replaced the rear end on my 1968 GTO because I wanted a new Eaton Posi in it as part of the restore

 

And that's a big point, how many people should have this problem, get the chunk replaced only to have it happen again, to be able to say that maybe we should look somewhere else other than the diff. if it was a set up issue they would have corrected it and/or it wouldn't be a common problem. I feel like the real issue is something else. At the small shop I work at, if we have to replace a part twice and it comes in again, we expect there to be a different problem than what we keep trying, not just keep doing it over and over. definition of insanity