Tacoma rear differential failure

Anyone with a manual tranny have a rear diff issue??

 

Absolutely.

 

Same deal ... howling? What did the dealer do?
So you have the 8.75 rear WITH the locker and you have/had issues?

I have the sport 8.75 rear no locker no issues.

 

SR5s have it too. @ZachMX comes to mind as one that has already had a replacement with an SR5.

 

I have the 8.75" rear with the locker and manual transmission. They replaced my differential. The new one was louder than the first one from the second I drove it off the lot.

 

Hmmm... I guess a conclusion could be made from that. Maybe it's not the diff!??

What did the dealer say after the replacement and it was louder... lemme guess, "completely normal" ??

 

2 now and a platinum warranty for my troubles...this truck.

 

warranty doesn't mean dick if they still make noise

 

yep. stuck though, don't think it qualifies as a lemon just yet or at all as it hasn't ever truly failed just howled over time. we will see.

 

Doesn't solve anything, but at least it buys you 100k miles that you don't have to worry about paying for a blowout if it does end up causing a failure. Better than nothing I guess.

 

I got a 125k because "I'm a valued long time customer"...lol. Seriously considering going back to a 2nd gen.

 

Wonder if it's a bad ring & pinion gear , there's been a lot of discussion on ring & pinion issues other than Toyota's .manufactures such a Motive , Richmond , USA ,Yukon and others have had problems with soft metal gear sets

I've had friends of mine with performance built muscle cars have issues with ring & pinion noise and having to do multiple gear swaps or correcting backlash many times

I know on my Camaro and running Motive gears my ring pinion is noisy on accel . I've swapped gears and set the backlash using proper procedures and still noisy


A lot of ring & pinion gear sets are now mfgd off shore and now seeing quality control issues

 

I think the reason a lot of people are still downplaying the members complaining about the howl is I've seen more than one member swear it was "on every Tacoma I've driven", if its on EVERY one then that kind of by definition makes it "normal". We're buying big complex mechanical machines, I sold BMWs for a while and even $75k-$150k ones had people nit picking things "wrong" with them. When the new 2.0 Turbo came out people were FREAKING out about how their engine was messed up and there MUST be a problem. We even replaced a number of fuel pumps, fuel injectors, etc to try and appease them but people right after the repair would SWEAR its worse now and get pissed off when we tell them its normal.... Now that the 2.0 turbo has been out a few years and people got used to them no more complaints. Same noise, same fuel system, no one complaining anymore. The reason is the high pressure fuel pump and direct injection make the thing sound like a freaking diesel, especially when its cold start the car almost sounds like its sputtering and choking on top of VERY loud injector ticks. If you just came out of an E90 3-series with the N/A 3.0L straight six you'd swear there is something seriously messed up about your brand new F10, but there wasn't, just the way the new ones sound and people learned to just deal with it.

Saw the same thing with the new Honda direct injected 2.0 in the Civics, people seemed to trust us that is was "normal" more but I think that's just because people trust Honda more.

I personally feel the same way about the new transmission, everyone swears theres something wrong with the programming, there isn't, its purposeful by design to maximize fuel economy (which everyone complains about) and its the same way in every modern car I've driven. I reflashed my ECU after breakin and revved high into the powerband in ECT power mode and manually holding gears for a few hundred miles to get it to "relearn" a little differently and it seemed to help, at least in my mind. But otherwise they all feel soft and have an urge to upshift early in all modern non-luxury/sports cars. I'm lucky in that I work for an automotive group and there's a ton of brands so I get the chance to drive whatever I want daily back-to-back-to-back if I want. So when I saw the people all complaining about the diff howl I literally went over and immediately personally drove SIX brand new Tacomas, four 2016s and two 2017s just to try and see what everyone was complaining about. I heard something for sure, only difference is it sounded totally normal to me and still overall more quiet than my 2nd gen even though there was a distinctly new noise. I did notice it seemed a little louder in the manual and sport auto version but that doesn't make sense because they have two difference differentials and the Limited seemed even quieter so I think it has more to do with several factors like slight differences in aerodynamics, tires, and possibly even current climate conditions (I imagine driving in a cold strong dry crosswind would create different noises than in a hot humid head wind).

Edit: Not trying to completely disregard people's complaints as they could for sure be legitimate, just giving some perspective and possible insight from the industry side. Also explains why Toyota doesn't freak out like some expect them to... because complaints like this happen all the time and most of the time they end up being nothing, so cant fault Toyota for not jumping to put out a fire that's not even showing any smoke yet.

 

I honestly can't hear any 'howl' or 'roar' or anything coming from videos that I have seen. It doesn't sound like a banshee or cayote, does it? Is there an honest-to-goodness video that isn't overwhelmed hy other noise to definitively show me what this howling thing y'all are complaining about?

I can't hear a darn thing over the tire and road noise anyway.

The Taco is also quieter than my wife's vehicle ... that's pretty impressive.

I'd really like to hear this roar that's gotten people worked up

 

Its a "whoooo" sound like a ghost not a coyote howl, and as others have mentioned, field engineers, service writers, etc. all said its NOT normal, the guys that are getting the its normal are on their 2nd/3rd diff or just shitty customer service. I can't stand all the people that don't have it underplaying it. Its not normal, no one knows whats causing it or as to any issues it could have long term.

 

Hmmm. So far so good on mine. 16,500 miles.

G.

 

Exactly

 

You'll notice I didn't downplay it as 'normal'. I just want to hear it for myself what it sounds like without having all the road noise and stuff overwhelm the recording.

 

Everybody in America what's to sell you warranties I feel like this if the product is any good why would you need an warrenty I went to my dealership last month to have the TSB done and confirm the howling in the diff. Well when the truck was ready the tech told me they installed the TSB but they told me they could not produce the howling sound. I then ask to talk to the mechanic who worked on my truck. He told me that several tacomas have come in with the same problem but at the moment toyota does not have fix for it. OK I can live with that but on my paper it said no problem with the diff. I made the tech change the paper work based on my conversation with the mechanic to say there is a howling noise coming from the rear diff.

I can tell she was hestitant about doing it but I wanted to make sure it was officially documented.

Here is my thing, why the hell is it so hard to get people to do the right thing. What do these techs think that the problem will magically just go away. Here's the kicker she wanted me badly to make sure I gave her a top rating in the service survey. Yea right

It is not just the car industry that this sort of stuff happens but everything from the home security industry to the electronics industry. This is why I say what is the point to a extended warrenty it companies want to bullshit you when you report a problem.

 

Chinese or Mexican steel ?. I know Chinese marine lower units have lots of problems