Off-Road Tires & Lift cause Rear Diff. Damage?

I'm running 35s no problem. If he has his locker on on pavement it can destroy the diff.

 

Thank you. Yes, he was rear ended while sitting still at a light. It pushed him into the car in front of him and he had front and rear damage that was all repaired by the at fault driver’s insurance. This happened just slightly after the RD you see in the pictures had been installed by a mechanic we felt confident in, at the time.
While at his shop with a different car of ours, I mentioned to him that my son had been rear ended in his Tacoma and he, the mechanic, had a strong negative reaction. He said that all that energy can damage things (RD, drive shaft, transmission) but, may take time to “show up”. We will never know, I suppose. There are too many possible contributing factors to identify which straw broke the camels back. Driving while locked, incorrect fluid, getting rear ended, driver habits, rust on the gears when he opened it up yesterday, etc... Also, there was a tremendous amount of give/movement in the RD that my mechanic felt was a real issue. However, the Toyota mechanic that took a look at it for me yesterday said it could have been that way before the RD disintegrated or, it could have happened because it disintegrated. No way to know, at this point. Too many unknowns. Thanks for your post.

 

Thank you for the vote of confidence. I appreciate it very much. Feeling a little embattled, at this point. Just trying to make sure it gets done correctly and that we don’t have this issue any more. My son absolutely swears that he doesn’t mishandle the truck. I can’t prove or disprove. I do know there’s no unusual wear on his rear tires as one guy suggested I look for. He admitted to driving with the lock engaged on pavement. It’s water under the bridge now and anything else with the truck will be his to take care of. Thanks again.

 

In my opinion as a kid who beat up some rigs, if he was just beating on his truck enough to blow up 2 rear ends, then he would be breaking much more stuff also and it would be noticeable.

 

He is not a new driver. He’s a 20 yo college student and has a full time Summer job, now, detailing cars and boats in PCB. He is not the social partier. He was ALWAYS the designated driver for his baseball team buddies. He’d drop them off and pick them up. He is a quiet, reserved person. An Eagle Scout, even. I’m not implying he’s perfect. Of course he’s not but, he’s not the fool you apparently think he is. He has gotten decent grades as well.

What do you mean by “holes in several stories” and “convoluted lines of thought”? Everything I have posted is the absolute truth. I may have not used the correct term or verbiage but, I’m certainly telling the truth. I don’t understand your implications.

As far as the damage to the parts, there are so many possible contributing factors that I can not rightfully blame my son 100%. (I know young guys like to show off. I get that)

1) rebuilt/salvaged RD
2) possible incorrect oil used
3) was rear ended while stopped. Significant damage.
4) Son drove on pavement with RD lock engaged
5) There was rust on the gears when he pulled it out yesterday. (Quality of the salvaged/rebuilt RD?)
6) There was tremendous play/give in the RD which the mechanic said was bad if it had been like that the whole time.
7) Quality of the work done by the previous mechanic on installing the Salvaged/rebuilt RD. (Current mechanic feels it was a salvage as there was rust on one location of the gear as though it had been sitting in a little bit of water. I’ll try to show you a picture of the rust)

Thank you for you thoughts.

 

tell your son to looks in the cheap and free mods thread for the diff breather mod in the rear. Extends it up to the gas door with simple hardware, will prevent water getting in there again. Could be possible that the previous mechanic just tossed the rebuilt third member right in and didnt cross check any of the shimming for the pinion gears to see the patterns of where they meet on the main ring gears. Im willing to bet one of his friends knew you can do sick drifts with a locker on and he sent it too hard. Shit happens! But much respect for coming on here and getting him a new rear diff setup!

 

Thanks! Sounds like a good thing to consider. I’ll mention it to him.

 

So you can do sick drifts with the rear locker on in a 236 HP tacoma because I can't.
I have tried and I give 0 fucks what I break

 

If your son likes to grenade diffs so much, you should have just bought him a 3rd gen

But in all seriousness, hes lucky to have parents who care to help him out. 90% of everyone on here were just as dumb at some point, me included. As long as he learns something from it all

 

I was able to upload the video to YouTube in order to share it here. This is my current mechanic explaining that he found give/play in the RD once he took it out of the truck and, why that is not good.
The Toyota mechanic said there is no way to know if that give/play was a possible cause of the RD destruction or, a result of the destruction. Just sharing as an FYI.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me!

https://youtu.be/1jfvay8JIQw

 

That is REALLY loose. If it was set up that way, I can't imagine that it would last more than 1,000 miles before destruction, and that's being generous. I don't remember how many miles you mentioned since it was done, but it was a lot. There's no way it would have lasted that long. Taking the carrier( that big part that he grabbed ahold of) out would get you a look at the bearings, and you could see if the rollers or races are completely trashed. However, that's kind of wasted energy. Fix it up good and go on with life.

 

locker anytime mod, correct terrain, and the right application of gas and brakes i bet it could be done

 

It can most certainly be done.

 

video or it can't


I know it's possible but the way it would have to be done with 236 HP you wouldn't need the rear locker

 

gravel roads + rear locker, oh yeah drifts can be had real good.

 

but rear locker only engages in 4-low.

And the traction control sucks for this. even if you turn it off it will only let you get so far sideways before it stops the fun.
Don't ask how I know this

 

locker anytime mod.... look it up. 2wd + rear locked (same as OP's prerunner with a rear locker) makes for some fun shenanigans, but dont do as OP's son and be sliding around going from probably low traction to high traction surfaces, those shock loads are what tears up diffs.

 

I'm confident that I could do it easily if I didn't mind replacing the rear diff. I've had a couple Rwd cars with LSDs that had less HP/TQ and drifting them wasn't an issue. I also had to replace the rear diff in one of them.

A prerunner can engage the locker and light them up pretty easy and they're just Rwd. If you have a 4wd you just need the locker anytime mod. There are several videos on YouTube of Tacoma's blowing up the rear diff doing burnouts on pavement with the locker engaged. If you want to drift it you just need to carry more speed and pitch it into a slide.

Are you shutting the traction control off or just turning on the auto LSD? I have no problems getting completely sideways or doing donuts with traction control turned off. Come to a stop and hold the button down until the trac off light comes on. If you just press the button it turns on the auto LSD.

 

Did you guys watch the video? I'm pretty sure that wasn't caused by drifting

 

By the looks of it it was likely making noise for a bit before it went pop. I agree that there was likely something else going on that contributed to it failing based on the other pics they posted.