A replacement of just the bearings was running $1,000 or a complete 3rd member brand new Toyota OEM $1,380 + labor. No brainer for me plus I now have an extra e-locker. The local shop said noise could still be there even after new bearings. Toyota stealership said same thing. The labor was way cheaper by R&R of 3rd member. She's really quiet now.

 

Yeah, that's just crazy talk right now. I don't have a spare grand to blow on what amounts to a minor annoyance right now. I am embarrassed to have let my own rear end's maintenance fall by the wayside, but at the same time relieved that I may have caught it before it began it's rapid destruction. I can say one thing: The noise has been going on for a long time... years. My last diff service was at the dealer 4 years and 41K miles ago during the 90K service. My fault.
If I get adventurous in the spring, I may try to refresh the carrier bearing preload per instruction from hross14 and the procedure on ZUKs site. Doesn't appear that I could seriously damage anything trying that.
On a somewhat side note, I noticed the dealer replaced the diff breather during that 90K service. I am somewhat confident that the breather must have been plugged and replacing it is the reason why my axle stopped leaking even though I didn't pay them $380 to replace the axle seals.

 

zuk did the complete rebuild less gears (mine were totally fine) for about 600 with all the parts shipping labor. If I had to do it a again...ZUK would be the man to do it. He only touches and specialized in yota 3rds