Rearend whine

I've been hearing a whine, sounds more like a rattle when I drive anywhere. It happens when I let off gas from ~40mph to 25 mph. Giving it gas gets rid of the noise. Thought it was wheel bearings, nope. Thought it was driver side front differential needle bearing which I replaced with EGCS bushing, nope. Thought it was u-joints or carrier support bearing, nope and nope. Pretty sure it ain't the transfer case or transmission and more likely to be pinion bearing. Is that a correct diagnosis?

 

quite possibly...Have you drained the fluid to see if there is any metal in it?

 

As far as I remember, there was quite a bit metal on the drain plug.

 

time to pull the differential and take a look

 

Is that a hard job for a novice to do? Never have done it and dont want to mess it up. What parts should I get beforehand if I do need to replace anything?

 

It's not hard to do, but if you yank it open and discover some baaaaaad stuff it will be up to you to repair at that point. If I was you I would take it to your local trusted mechanic if you aren't mechanically inclined.

 

My 2014 has done this since day one. There was a TSB on this exact issue up till but not including 2014! My dealer tells me that they switched manufacturers in 2014 because of this, that's why there is no 2014+ TSB. The whine really pisses me off but so far no help from the dealer.

Mine too does it on deceleration up to exactly 60 mph, at 61 it quits. IMO, the backlash is not set right. It probably won't hurt anything, but it's real annoying at $36,000!

 

If they didn't fix mine, I was going to dump it at the nearest dealership. I couldn't stand the rear end whine and would lose money for my sanity but luckily they were able to fix it

 

Well wouldn't ya know Lookie here what popped back up...