Rear differential issues

I would guess zero percent of vandals would think to remove those bolts when going after a vehicle.

 

Glad you are caught up now.... there were 225k tacomas recalled for the rear diff. I am going in for a second time with in a year next week.

 

Would some bolts missing contribute to the rear differential leak though?

 

Could cause excess vibrations to the 3rd member, making the bolts come untorqued and spin off.

 

That would be a massive fuck up on manufacture part and lawsuit waiting to happen. I think someone is just fucking with your truck.

Ex girlfriend maybe?
Wife? Life Insurance policy trying to cash in on?

Sorry not trying to be a dick saying your wife wants you dead but that's got to be someone fucking with your shit.

I'm amazed you didn't feel any vibration from the wheel, or that the wheel didn't come off

 

Let's think about this. Why would a stranger crawl under your truck to steal a few bolts? I think you know this person.

• Old girl friend or boy friend of old jilted girl friend?
• Old boy friend of a girl you have started to date?
• Going through a divorce?
• Divorcee had a friend or relative unscrew the bolts?
  
• Do you own alimony or child support?
• Somebody you flipped the bird while driving, who then followed you home?
• Coworker who was passed over for your last raise and promotion?
• Have you fired anybody from their job lately?
• Have you testified against anybody in a court proceedings?
• Do you owe anybody money?
• Have you outstanding gambling debts?
• Loan shark
• Maybe your last customer (for whatever) is not happy with your work and thinks they were overcharged
• Maybe you're trying to get out of the mob.

Can we rule out that the former owner has one of the above issues, and the perpetrator doesn't know you just bought his truck?

 

x2 on the wheel not coming off.....that's all that's holding it on lol

 

Agreed. I'm surprised you made it out of the driveway with all the nuts missing. All that's left is the ABS plug and the break line.

 

When it's dumping out that right side axle seal, yes.

 

The bolts are not missing. Looks like nuts were never installed after some rear diff or axle work was done...fail...very dangerous

 

It was a brand new truck less than 7000 miles I was the first owner I've had the truck now for about 7 months it was discounted bc i bought before the 2018s were rolling out

 

It was brand new with 7000 miles? Were those your miles? It sounds like you are saying you bought it with miles on it already.

 

I highly doubt someone crawled under the truck and took the nuts off. Holy cow hope guys don’t go through life that damn paranoid about everything.

So the nuts probably just weren’t tightened properly at some point. They loosened up and fell off. Dealer seems to be fixing the things that need attention.

 

I think he's saying he bought it brand new and it now has 7000 miles on it.

It is a bit confusing the way it was worded though.

I would doubt someone vandalizing the truck like that.

Someone doing that would take a lot more time and be a lot more conspicuous than someone just walking beside it with a key in their hand.

My guess would be that the differential was serviced according to the recall before it was sold and someone left those off, which is plenty scary enough.

 

Well we don't see the other two bolts on that side in your pic so I'm going to assume at least one of them still has a nut on it - otherwise you would have lost a wheel!

Also, the bolts that are shown could have backed out a bit since they are not being held in by a nut - so they appear too short.

Just observations, don't hate.

I'm not in the sabotage crowd, and it seems unlikely the factory fucked up that bad - although not impossible I guess. It seems more likely that the axle was worked on and not re-assembled properly (you did say that the truck had 6500 miles on it - did you mean when you bought it?). I also recall seeing complaints of vibrations that were determined to be faulty (bent) axles from the factory on TW.

Anyway, glad nothing bad happened to you over this OP. Keep digging, you'll get to the truth eventually.

 

First OP - glad you caught it before anything happened to you, others on the road, and or your truck. Secondly, the TW detectives will figure this out for you. These folks are good.

 

There's no way you'd make it to 7000 miles with it like that and not have an accident. If you did buy a lottery ticket, you're the luckiest guy around.

 

Hey my bad my wording was messed up i bought the truck brand new and I put the 7000 miles on myself

 

The force...

 

***
Rice gasket acted as glue. Tough shit.