DANG..... Now my Rear Axle is leaking...

Bad fing luck.

 

that sucks dude

 

Could be worse....you could run over a mattress with your jeep....then complain to your dealer about a shimmy!

 

Had a lady tow her dodge stratus in once had a few grand damage. She wiped out the cradle, control arms and a bunch of other shit. They thing she ran over a engine block that fell off a scrap truck that happened early in the morning before sunrise. Crazy how you wouldn't see that but I guess it's more understandable when it's dark. Couldn't believe the amount of damage, but guess I could understand that doing 50-60mph and hitting an engine block

 

It was probably a stick of metal that was dug into the ground while it hit the axle. Or it was something heavy that you hit at speed

 

Why would Toyota even care? It's road damage, not a factory defect, right?

 

I'd remove axle, remove foreign metal, grind weld grind flat and then paint.

That is if I didn't claim it. Which on this new of a truck I think it's dumb not to claim. Jmo.

 

Chunk of metal at highway speed can do a lot of damage. People have been impaled/killed by truck debris.

 

Or good luck. Imagine if it had hit the road and bounced into the cabin. Yikes.

 

I'd contact Highway Patrol/State Police and file a report. Bring that to your insurance agent. Anything that helps your cause.

 

That would have been some serious death wobble before it stopped.

 

What "foreign" metal would there be? Whatever did the damage was obviously big enough to do that kind of damage, which means that it was bigger than the hole it made. It didn't go into the tube.

Insurance claim would cost more than its worth in deductible. Quick little weld over it will do the job, wouldn't need a grind unless it was welded by an idiot.

Shouldn't need much in the way of prep, I'd be inclined to just hit it with the welder, then paint, and call it good. My only (minor) concern would be in igniting the oil on the inside of the tube, but even that wouldn't be a big deal -- it would burn up all the oxygen and go out almost immediately. After that, refill diff oil to the fill hole, drive a thousand km, and finally an oil change to clean it out.

 

Maybe they should care because axles are supposed to be tough, rugged and withstand abuse. This axle clearly didn't. Something shouldn't puncture a hole in an axle like that. Maybe a drill bit...spinning, or a torch.

 

Well, what we know is "Big chunk os stuff came off a big rig". In other words, it was big enough to catch OP's attention. Also looking at the hole in the axle, it appears that whatever it was, was POINTY. So... something BIG and POINTY came off a big rig.

Just how the heck "tough, rugged and withstand abuse" do you expect of it? Maybe every axle tube should individually be tested to be driven over by a TANK and blasted by a nuclear bomb?

 

lmmfao

 

Maybe they are just PVC? Aluminum? Part of the weight reduction program? Oh wait, that didn't happen. Never mind.

Here's the deal. Everyone in the dealership shop will be 'interested'.

Someone 'might' care enough to photo document, measure the hole, take a statement, and notify Toyota.

Some Toyota engineer 'might' run calculations based on the hole size and the speed of the vehicle that determines the strike force of the impact, assuming some tough steel or iron object.

They'll determine yes, that's adequate to puncture this tube (duh) but that the design of the tube is adequate for 99.99999% of road situations, therefore not a flaw. The rarity of the perfect strike does not justify a TSB, recall or redesign. Stuff happens.

And.......... the owner will fund the repair of his choice.

In the meantime, if he was waiting on Toyota he could have been fixed up and back on the road with a repair that I'd wager on outlasting a salt environment frame.

Now if I'm wrong, and they ship him out corrective parts and fund the labor, and issue a TSB for 'differential fluid loss causes', I'll PayPal you funds for a diet Coke. I might even do that if they don't issue the TSB, and just do the repair for him. No fair if his daddy, uncle or best friend owns the dealership.

 

And then if it breaks with a weld, will Toyota decline warranty coverage?

 

I work at a dealership and I can tell you I doubt there is one person in any service department in the 16 dealerships we have that would give a shit to report anything like this in to one of the manufactures. Most guys wouldn't even want to pull it in if they know they aren't going to get paid on it. I can also tell you that the manufactures could give a rats ass about anything that was struck and damaged liked this that wasn't caused by some other failure of a part in the said vehicle. Everyone would simply state to call your insurance company and they will give you a part and replacement price.

 

It's not a warranty claim. Damage wasn't due to a part being defective. And once you weld that, that alone is voiding the warranty on the axle. Toyota would have the right to bounce any claim on that rear end. So if you smoked the gears down the road but we're still with in your warranty period for the powertrain, they could reject the claim due to the "modification" of the axle.

My advice for the OP would be to file a police report of the damage. Give as much detail to the "accident" as possible. Call the insurance company and give them the reference number of the report. This way if they cover it and a genuine Toyota replacement is install, your factory warranty on the axle should still be cover. If the deductible is crazy high or insurance won't cover then yes I would weld it, just know that by doing so if you ever have a problem down the road there is an almost certainty that Toyota will reject any claim against that part, unless somehow the dealer or you could get them to goodwill it due to customer loyalty and or the circumstance under which how it happened

 

How do you know it wasn't defective? Maybe not defective to Toyota, but maybe, just maybe it was not built robust enough. Why the hell should an axle have a hole in it? What, is it paper thin? It's an effing axle and should be built quite stout, especially considering it's a larger 8.75", and the most important part to consider....on the almighty Tacoma with the bad ass Off Road package. Oh my gerd!!!!