Large piece of metal found in my rear differential...I'm a bit pissed at Toyota's quality

Why? That is the whole reason the drain plug is magnetic. Its bound to happen that a few small chips from the manufacturing process will make it through, then they get caught on the magnet.

 

you are not overreacting but it looks like that Tacoma had a rough life. and whoever was doing maintenance did not actually care about what they where doing. if you where the original and where doing your services at a dealer that dealer is despicable.

i don't know the mileage you have right now but i'm glad you are catching thing early and fixing them before they become something worse.

 

What in the world in this thread would lead you to believe the OP’s truck has lived a rough life and been poorly maintained? The OP is literally doing his diff fluid change on schedule. The shaving is from the manufacturing process, and the buildup on the magnet is totally normal.

 

This is what happens when u don’t change ur diff fluid with every engine oil change. Thought everyone knew this by now

 

FWIW, I did my rear at 30k km and fluid was like new. Just tiny metal shavings on the magnet, nothing concerning. The front was black with some glitter in the fluid.

 

Yep. Change engine, transmission, coolant, diffs, transfer case and brake fluid every 3K miles.

 

i don't know when he got the car. he may not be the firts owner and this is why i said HAD a rough life. OP already he had an issue where the oil pan bolt had 6 gasket on it and now the differential either was not maintained or where someone did maintenance and introduce the metal disk he got out.

 

The vehicle has 12K miles on it (it’s in the first post). It came with the extra washers on the oil pan from the factory. The OP is doing maintenance on schedule or before schedule.

 

Those little discs are from when a drill bit breaks through the far side of a metal object being drilled.

 

I thought it was one of them bitcoins the youngsters are always talking about.

 

Sounds about right.

 

Why are so many of you indifferent with the manufacturer being sloppy in their manufacturing process? I suppose if they erred and filled the differential with water you’d be fine with that too.

When I purchased my truck I believed, and had confidence, that my engine and drivetrain was free of remnants of large manufacturing debris. I distinguish between particulate from normal wear and gaps in the manufacturing process that induces much larger particulate.

 

What you have there is the small left over bit of material from when a hole is drilled in metal. Most likely the holes that mount the third member to the banjo housing. Obviously missed when the banjo housing was cleaned out after the drilling. The filter (the drain plug magnet is called and considered a filter) did the job it was supposed to do and caught the debris. The rest is break in material. If there is no noise and no vibration from the differential, then I wouldn't be worried. It that piece had passed between gear teeth, it would look a lot different, not like the end of a drill bit. Also, the teeth of the gears are hardened, if the has passed between them, there would have been a major event that would have been unmistakable. The teeth do not have much room to accommodate that metal and would have most like broken off.

 

I'm feeling the same way having seen similar posts on TW and really bamboozled by the fanboys who seem so quick to deflect blame onto the consumer in defense of the infallible almighty Toyota?

I heard that Russians have an inherent underlying cro-magnon attitude built in to their culture towards their neighbors that says:
"If you have a better house than me, I'm going to burn your house down so that it will make me feel better about my misery".
Hope that attitude doesn't take root here?

 

Obviously its not ideal, but neither is the real world. I have yet to read of a single case where this "sloppy" manufacturing process caused an actual issue. If this was happening without a magnetic drain plug, then sure I can see that being an issue.

And water? Been there, done that already.

 

Because no one cares about it as long as it doesn't break things? Does consumer reports have lists of the top 10 cars with the least manufacturing debris in the engine and drivetrain, or just the most reliable cars? There was some metal in the diff because we live in a world with imperfect manufacturing and it was caught by the failsafe so the truck suffered no damage. The system works, what's the big deal?

Evidently this is a relatively common issue, yet there's no one even anecdotally saying that it has caused a diff failure. You're making mountains out of mole hills.

 

im still under 30k miles. so have not done the first differential service.

 

At the very least I'd want them to know and document it. That way you have recourse if you have a problem down the road.

 

We found the service advisor at the local Toyota dealer.

 

That is pretty small. I wouldn’t worry about it. I’ve had much larger chunks stuck to the megnet on the race car and it did just fine.