machining debris found in rear axle

the flake of metal isnt super stuck to that magnet and has some decent surface area. at 60+ i wonder if theres enough force from the oil to pull it from the magnet and start circulating in the oil again. theres no noise from this diff and i plan to pull and put 5.29s in anyways so not super concerned about it

 

Thanks for the post.
Did the "break-in" oil change.
Now for the differential grease swap, hunting for "buried treasure".

 

Try a plug with stronger magnet? I use this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tgi-140032-1-kit

 

Look at 4:32 of the video you quoted.

The drain plug is in a recess in the bottom of that housing, away from the main flow of oil. I highly doubt anything on that magnet gets disturbed, by design.

This is a bunch of concern about nothing.

 

I could be wrong but I thought the entire rear end is manufactured by Hino who supplies Toyota heavy and light trucks. Toyota doesn't make these in house.

I'm also pretty sure those casing bits would get obliterated by the much harder gears in the diff if the magnet didn't get them first. No "extras" like that when I did my OR a couple months ago though.

 

Yep, they'd just get turned into glitter..
Non-issue.

 

This is what came out of a brand new 2023 Tacoma with 30,251 miles. My truck is currently in the shop. They made me sign a $185 inspection fee pledge if it's not covered under warranty plus the cost of tear down and rebuild of my rear differential.
All three of the Service Consultants including a supervisor said they never seen that much debris but they are the middle man with the warranty department, which sucks.
I am currently awaiting the decision and results on how they are going to resolve this.

 

That’s nice.

 

My 2021 diff failed around 10k or so, got noisy. Toyota replaced the entire carrier/dif assembly no questions asked. Black burnt oil, lots of metal- their words. They didnt/wouldn't say what went wrong and honestly it's all after the fact speculation after the damage is done. An aberration or was there some rogue pcs of metal that caused it, speculation.....

 

Other than the presence of the debris, what’s to “resolve”? Are you having rear differential issues? More than likely that stuff has been stuck to the magnet for 30K, assuming this is your first diff oil change? Unlikely to have caused damage.

 

Take a look at the gears inside that pumpkin! It's not like we are talking close tolerances here. There is a reason the lube in those boxes are as thick as old honey.

 

I got similar type of debris on mine when I changed the fluid in 2022. Diff still runs fine spinning 35s and bouncing up rocks.

 

As mentioned, that is just machining debris.
You can tell by it's shape that's it's never even been munched by the gears, but had it been, they'd have chewed it up like an inbred Rottweiler going through the gristle on a ribeye.

 

its not the gears you worry about. its the bearings. the very smallest chunk of metal can lock up a roller and kill a bearing.

i just would have liked to have seen a better quality control inspection on these axles. its not small unnoticeable pieces being found in them. these are also the axles that have the recall for the sloppy welds. overall poor qc

 

There is a recall on some 2022 and 2023 rear axles because of welding splatter. Even though this TSB is about welding splatter on the outside, it is good to have this NHTSA info when dealing with Toyota about machining debris inside.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2024/RMISC-24V152-7847.pdf

 

So far no I'm not aware of a known issue (other then these complaints of Toyota recalls for debris left in engines and on axles, etc), What I ment by resolve is they honor their warranty for defects and workmanship and cover the tear down inspection. I.E clean, flush, inspect, repair, replace etc.
I was already part of the recall and they replaced 4 bolts on the rear axle. Ive been under there and the splatter looks like a child did it. Smh

 

I changed the transmission and rear diff oils in my truck yesterday, was surprised by how clean both were at 60K.

 

I took my 2023 trail edition in for a noise coming from the rear end. I thought it was a brake drum dragging a little bit. Not too loud but I could hear something. They called me a couple hours later and say it’s the diff and it will be replaced. I asked how it happened and they said something about machining but kind of trailed off and weren’t too jazzed about being any more clear. that was my experience.
I’m glad they were honest enough to trade out the diff and I haven’t had anything problem since. did a diff fluid change after the first 500 miles on the new one to see what was in there and got the expected amount of crap from a new diff stuck to the magnet.

 

It’d be interesting to know if a tear down and inspection of your diff would be covered by the warranty if you don’t have any mechanical issues currently.

A separate question is whether you really want a dealership to tear down and reassemble your diff.

 

doubtful and no