I changed all my fluids today. I was quite shocked to find large metal shavings stuck to my front diff drain plug.

I'm not sure if I'm in big trouble or not. I am still under my drive train warranty. I did discover that my front diff had been leaking a little at the drain plug. I pumped fluid in before draining to see how much had leaked. It had gone down to about .7 of the 1.0 qt. capacity. So I don't think that was the issue. I last changed my fluid at about 25K and I'm at 50k now.

 

FWIW I get that as well. With the stock gears and then again with the aftermarket gears. Pretty much the same thing.

Mason said it was normal to get a little bit of metal.

 

take it to the stealer anyways, dont let them give you the bigger tires cause more damage crap either. maybe youll get a free diff. ask them for 4.88s!

 

I was looking at your picture. That doesnt look like normal wear and tear to me. Take it in and show em the shavings.

 

These chunks just seem too large for normal wear and tear. I think I will have the dealer take it apart and look at it. I didn't have all this metal the first time I changed the fluid. Something must have happened.

 

You voided your drivetrain warranty when you lifted it and put bigger tires on. Does it make noise when you drive in 4WD? If not don't worry about it. Like I said, I had 2 sets of R&P do the same thing.

Take it to the dealer but I warned you.

 

Change the gear oil more often also. You went too long for the kind of abuse you put that thing through.



I do mine every 2 months. Plain old gear oil from checker. It's just going to get dumped in 60 days anyway.

 

Damn man, I've never seen that much. I would think something is wrong there...

 

Well.......... I guess I never had THAT much either. Some, but not a fricken huge pile. Mine is always more dust like as well. Not shavings.

 

I agree I need to change it more often. The manual says every 15k. Every other oil change sounds good to me. And I may reconsider the 7.99qt Mobil1 75x90.

Its going to the dealer and push for new gears. I hear doesn't take much variation to damage gears. If they don't want to do it, I'll have even more of an excuse to get 4.88's.

You know I was thinking of a possibility for the damage. I noticed my skid plate had bent up and into my diff and showed signs of contact. Perhaps, a hard hit to the diff knocked the gears out of their tolerance for a moment. Just guessing.

 

wow, that would have to be one bitchin hit...

 

When you take it in you may want to remove your skid plate so they don't see the dents. The dealer gave me a hard time for the dents on my frame, crossmembers, and skidplates and implied I was abusing my truck.

 

Based on the carnage under my truck, I pretty sure after the initial inspection from a dealer, I would be refused warranty work for this. And I wouldn't want them to spend all the time splitting the axle apart and then tell my it's not covered. I am going to see about getting a friend of a friend dealer mechanic to look at it to see if he could slip it through as a warranty claim.

With Cruise MOAB coming up in 2 weeks, I'm in a real pickle.

It doesn't make any noise in 4 wheel drive. My gut feeling is to drive it for a few months until I can get 4.88's installed. But the idea of blowing it apart on a trail is daunting. Especially in MOAB.

 

I say that you definately have some problems going on. Fine particles are normal. However those things are shavings. It could be from a bearing letting go to problems with the Ring and Pinion. Take it in and show the stealership. I don't think that they can argue with that one.

 

I would definitely take it back to the dealer, after-all its still under warranty. Let Toyota fix it now if something is wrong rather than having it towed later on with a major mechanical breakdown. Thats what warranties are for!!!

 

Those are huge chunks Scott. I haven't studied 3rd gens enough to know but on my old junk its nearly impossible to damage the front diff with rocks. Isn't there a big sturdy crossmember below the front diff?

In any case, it definatly needs attention. I worry about the fine particles I get on my drain plugs. I'd totally freak out if there were inch long chunks of gear on them. If Steve says its normal on a diff that sees lots of hard trails I trust that, but it really does not look normal to me.

At least the magnetic plug did its job.

I doubt being down 30% on gear oil caused that much chunking. Switching to synthetic oil will proably not fix the problem either. I can't imagine chunks that big coming off without some noise occuring.

Untill you are sure its not a problem you might want to remove the rear driveshaft and cruise around town in front wheel drive, then change the diff oil again before you head to Moab. If it happens again or you get noise its really a problem. If not, you can re-use the oil and call it good.

Manual hubs rule.

 

I have been given two trains of thought along these lines.

1. Excessive wheeling with oversize tires could have just stressed the gears at some point.
2. The Toyota factory didn't set the pinion bearing preload tight enough.

Either way I agree something's not right in there and I can't blow it off. So I'm scheduled with the dealership for Monday. Burt Toyota on Broadway sponsors the Tacoma Terr. guys and evidentially aren't so jumpy with modified vehicles. Plus a few of the tech's have been notified of my problem and are expecting me. Thanks to Ben from Chisto's shop for that.

I am going to try to wheel it a little over the weekend so they hopefully an see some more shavings when they remove the fluid. Plus I'll have a picture and a bag of shavings for them too look at.

I'm told that if they make the call to warranty it. They will just swap out a completely new diff. and be done with it. That would be nice.

 

That is probably true. I would try to score a 4.56 diff up front while you are getting the freebie...

 

I would have to swap the rear to 4.56 also for that. In which case I would want 4.88's.

 

That is true, but it would be hard to score half a free regear from the factory. I would take what I could get...