Differential Hot to the touch and seeping oil around fill? Need help with this one

I can only hear this noise from the back when the power rear window is open too. I should put my GoPro on the frame and drive around to let y’all hear what it sounds like. To me it sounds very metal on metal, not the normal gear whine that I’m used to from the rear diff. But since the diff checks out so far I’m back to leaning towards brakes in the rear, whether it’s the drums or the parking brake

 

Why not check it to ensure it's full. Better yet give it a diff service with new washer. Quick brake clean scrub and see what happens.

 

Do you have digital temp gun , if you have one measure the temp at the pinion bearing . Temps should be no lower than 200 deg and no warmer than 250 deg


Warmer / hotter temps would indicate bad pinion bearings and also carrier bearings

 

FWIW and reference: I have no whining noises that I can hear from my physical (mechanical) drive line (2014 4x4 125K) and in my mind, diff whine isn't normal unless maybe there are huge miles on a vehicle. I would suspect the tires as the source before I suspected the diffs or transfer case: The current ones on my truck whine when it gets over 90 degrees here. They're some no-name brand ("Laffen"?) that I've never heard of so I'm not surprised.... (i.e.: the selling dealer was "Laffen" his %$& off when he put them on. )

 

I don’t own one but my dad does and I can get a reading tomorrow. Is the pinion bearing inside the differential or is it external? Just trying to make sure I know what to measure.

 

I would tend to agree with you except I’ve heard of quite a few cases from friends as well as people from the forum about the rear diffs being noisy in 3rd gens in particular. But that’s a good point as well, my wild peaks are definitely loud

 

The pinion yoke where the u joint attaches to is where you want to measure temps . You can also measure temps along the axle tubes . Measure temps at the inboard area of the axle tube and at the outboard area

 

Okay perfect, thanks!!

 

Thank you all for the help so far. After driving for about 30 minutes last night and 10 minutes this morning at highway speeds, the diff has not leaked any further. I tried getting a video clip of the noise while driving but the wind noise drowns everything out. I can hear the noise in the video but I might be hard for everyone else to. I’ll move the camera and go for another drive to see if I can get a better video

 

Here is the best audio clip I could get. I boosted the audio a bit to hopefully highlight the grinding sound. I can hear it good around the 20 second mark and onward but I realize it's very subtle.

 

Almost sounds like a rear wheel bearing when you started to accelerate

 

I don’t hear any grinding.

 

Something does sound a little funky and I’m
Not entirely sure what it is. Tonight I’m putting it on jack stands and spinning the rear wheels to see where the faint noise is coming from.

 

If I'm not mistaken: a ring and pinion whine caused by wear or other issues will vary in sound as you get on and off of the gas pedal due to load/unload.

 

This is what my parking brake assembly looks like under the center console. Is there a reason why the two cables would be misaligned? Thinking the passenger side not releasing as far forward as the drivers side could mean that the passenger side is dragging

*Update: the equalizer bar appears to be uneven and doesn’t hold its position after changing it manually and actuating the parking brake a few times

 

Put it on some jack stands. Strip the tires, and see if both drums come off easily. Perhaps the passenger will be more difficult indicating you may have messed up the parking brake. Take a pic of both sides to compare.