Rear differential major damage

Looking for any advice on how to get Toyota to honor the drive train warranty. We have a 2016 long bed, double cab 4x4 SR5 auto trans with 55K miles, purchased in April 2016. While my wife was backing out of a parking spot in the snow, tires spun so she put it in drive to go forward then reverse again then there was a major metal grinding sound. Her co-worker who was watching outside of the truck, saw the rear wheels lock up and then saw fluid running out of the housing. It was still snowing at the time so wondering if the cold temps could have been a factor.
Toyota had an engineer look at it and determined it was driver abuse due to over-revving which was not the case. Any ideas on why this may have happened would be appreciated. Thanks

 

No one here is going to believe that wasn't abuse when there is a hole in the housing. Jesus christ.

Pony up the cash to fix it and move on.

 

Yep........

 

Im going to go with its not covered under warranty. Looks like you'll need a whole new rear drivetrain assembly.

 

On top there is a big bump from another gear piece flying at high speed??

 

Never heard of, or seen a diff grenading to that extent with how casual you made your wife's maneuver sound. She slammed that thing in drive while still spinning highly in R.

 

They want 4,500 to replace the whole rear end. I know it looks bad. If I felt she was at fault I would not depute the claim. Is there absolutely no chance that this could been from a defective part?

 

Even if the diff was defective imagine how much force would be required to actually dent the diff cover and actually penetrate it from the inside. Them peices were moving, and moving fast.

 

don't think you're going to get that covered in that situation
I suggest you play dumb about this one and hope the dealer will do some warranty work and look the other way.

 

Now way it was a faulty part.....force had to be applied at something that was spinning fast, for that to happen.

For sure an operator error and over-revving.

 

Tires spinning and going from drive to reverse and back again while tires are spinning?

Almost as bad as the thread where the guy grenaded his front diff while in 4lo WOT

Make the wife pay for it.

Edit: Not to mention that going from drive to reverse while tires are loosing and gaining traction quickly and randomly is just asking for something to grenade. Just like why axles and diffs fail when offroading and the wheels are hopping.

 

Get a new one from ECGS with a locker and send your old one as the core

https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/c-1207123-assembled-3rds-clamshells-2016-tacoma.html

 

OP, while anything is possible, Toyota rear axles are not known for catastrophic failure like that. No matter the circumstances surrounding what your wife did or did not do, you will have an uphill battle getting that covered under warranty. Sorry.

 

I have to agree with everyone else saying there is no change it'll be covered by warranty. I bet the engineer didn't even need to inspect it. The picture you posted says it all.

 

As hard as this is to read it is helpful. Thanks for the input.

 

I would start looking in the Junkyards for another rear end assembly

 

Yes. The defective part was the driver

 

Axles and Diffs fail all the time when there is a bunch of tire free spinning and then sudden traction. When tires are spinning with no traction and then all of a sudden gain traction, that force/momentum has to go somewhere. Usually this occurs in the form of snapping and twisting axles. Now throw in the momentum of a tire spinning in one direction and then slamming it with force in the opposite direction. Yeah welcome to Snap City.

There's a reason why it's a no no when your wheels start spinning and hopping on trails. Essentially the same thing is happening with tires gaining momentum in a free spin while up in the air and then suddenly coming to a stop when they hit the ground and gain traction again.