Metal shaving in rear diff

While changing my rear diff oil today I noticed this metal shaving on the plug.. How screwed am I?

 

Shavings a plenty on rear diff are usually normal, chunks... not as much. If you are mechanically savy, removing the cover and inspecting the teeth will help determine the severity of the issue. If not, prob would recommend bringing it in.

 

It's got 203k on it so I would hope it was changed at some point lol but I don't know that for sure thus the reason I changed it.

 

I wouldn't sweat it. Unless the thing is groaning / whining it's almost certainly fine

 

Hard to see in the pic, but even at your mileage this could be metal left over from the original machining process, if this is the first fluid change. I’d clean it off and give close inspection, see what you think for peace of mind.

 

It is groaning so changing the fluid was my start at diagnosing that groan...

 

Was the fluid otherwise decent looking? Unless the oil came out looking like a silver glittery paste I'd be surprised to see a diff failure. It's certainly possible, but very unusual.

Have you checked the rear wheel bearings? They're also pretty loud when they decide to go out. Unfortunately not a walk in the park to change either though

 

The fluid looked ok, didn't smell unusual. It just smelled like diff oil. I don't think it's the wheel bearing because the groaning happens only during acceleration, if it was the wheel bearing it would happen all the time right?

 

Typically yeah a bearing would be constant, and the noise will usually go away when turning one direction or the other.

Have you checked the driveshaft center bearing / all the u joints? I'd just wanna check absolutely everything before saying it's the diff for certain. My 4runner has groaned under acceleration since I've had it, but pretty sure it's the trans in my case

 

I just experienced a diff failure this past week in Moab. If the fluid looks clean you should be fine with that little bit. After a complete cleaning and 1000 miles on a new diff I got more debris than that when I changed the oil today...

 

Jack up the truck, put the transmission in neutral, spin the driveshaft by hand to check the condition of the U-joints and carrier bearing. Also check how much up-and-down slop there is in the carrier bearing. If it's a 4WD, put the truck in 4hi, then unbolt the rear driveshaft from the truck and drive around. See if the groaning is still there.

Complete rear axle assys with lower miles than yours are available in salvage yards for under $1k.

 

What should I be looking for as far as u joints are concerned when spinning the driveshaft.

The center bearing has quite a bit of up/down play, not sure if that's meaningful though. If the center support bearing and u joints are bad I'm planning on swapping to a 1 piece driveshaft.

 

Not yet, my plan was to start with the fluid change and go from there. The center support bearing moves up and down quite a bit, not sure how much play it's supposed to have.

 

Sounds like the center bearing is toast. If you haven’t already, you may be eligible for the recall leaf springs, as well

 

I have dakars on there now, but if the bearing is toast I'll probably just upgrade to a 1 piece driveshaft.

 

Probably a good idea