jtmiller02

Yup you read that right, I have a 2007 that I bought new 2.5 years ago. In the first year i put about 4,000 miles on it. In the last year and a half I have racked up around 45,000 miles. I do tow boats on occasion but didn't even own a hitch up until 6 months ago. This truck has not been abused.

Last week I come home from vacation for the 4th and notice a slight noise on deceleration. Then I notice a popping noise when backing up. Looks like the rear end is toast, pulled the plug and its full of fluid, and full of metal too. No leaks just trashed guts.

What would you do? Dodge dealer #1 basically told me to pound sand no warranty, dealer #2 is trying to get Dodge to offer some assistance but its been over a week and no response. I will gladly pay for an extended warranty if they would cover the failure. But this is obviously a defect and not some sort of maintenance or wear issue.

I thought I had 100k powertrain warranty, never realized I was driving a time bomb waiting to go. I'm starting to think I should just take it down to the Ford shop and trade it on a new 2011 Superduty. A rear-end blowing at less than 50k is complete ********. Is this a common problem and how much should it realistically cost to fix? I have already been told by an independent guy he can get a used rear for about $1200 and install it, but I'm not real excited about another rear end with no warranty.

jtmiller02

Forgot to mention truck is 100% stock, no mods, stock size tires, etc...just maintenance and a bunch of long distance trips racking up miles the past 2 years.

cbrahs

not a powertrain warranty unless you purchased an extended warranty to 100k miles. the 100k warranty is for engine only.

SolarExpress

We just had the ring/pinion replaced on our 2007 Aspen. There MAY have been extenuating circumstances to that (she got t-boned in the drivers side wheel a month after we got the truck). Hers was just howling. We took it in the have it checked out. New guts. Only good thing is that year model had the lifetime powertrain warranty. Now if they could just get the shimmy/shake out of it, it will be a nice truck!

.boB

The 100K mile warrenty is only for the Cummins engine.

I think in '07 the standard warrenty was only 12m/12K miles.

This was a pretty common problem with the corporate 10 and 12 bolt rears. The bearings didn't last, and eventually failed. Usually around 70K miles or so. I have not heard of this being a problem with the 2500/3500 axles. The diff is completly differant. There are no clutch plates. It's a worm gear, like the old Gleason. Usually much stronger and longer lasting than a standard LSD.

Essentially, you're hosed. Plan on spending $12K'ish for a new diff. I would not get it done by the Dodge dealer. They'll just put in the same thing you already have, and charge a pretty high price, too. I would find a good diff shop, and install a Detroit TruTrak. Worm gear, but a better product.

http://www.eaton.com/EatonCom/Produc...trac/index.htm

cbrahs

12m/12k miles is for parts replacement.

standard warranty is 3yr/36,000 mile and engine is 5yr/100k.

ssandlin

Sometimes stuff just happens. My wife's Ford lost the rear end at 44K miles, so it's not limited to just Dodge.

Danderson

Start a thread inquiring about good diff guys in your area. Somebody will know of one. I don't know where the 12K figure came from?

jtmiller02

I'm in New Orleans, and I need a good diff. guy. Also need a trade in price on a new F-350

torquefan

These are a very decent, strong rear end, and I have not yet seen a problem with one, except one that had some water in it. I don't believe there is any reason to be leery about this unit if you have it repaired, and there certainly isn't a reason to switch to another brand. If you (or a previous owner) have driven through a bad storm or have backed boats into water, I would pull the cover off and look for a rust line on the inside of it. Find out which parts are toast- does it need gears too, or just the bearings? Is the carrier damaged? A professional should be able to do somewhat of an analysis to tell what type of a failure it was.

CD in NM

If you go to Carson Dodge's website and look at the past posts on 2006/2007 diffs, you will find quite a few whose rear end went south. Quite the discussion back then about fluids and what AAM will cover and won't. It will start with receipts for fluids and mileage information when the changes took place. AAM is who you want to discuss this with, they HAVE warrantied their rear ends beyond the 36K from Dodge with owners contacting them.


CD

no_6_oh_no

Yep, its traumatic when ones rear end goes south and the rest goes north.


Back to the scheduled program, AAM used some crappy bearings in the carrier and pinion. Its not unusual to loose one or more and trash the diff if you don't catch it.

If you can get help great, otherwise its a rebuild or find a pick-n-pull yard.

jtmiller02

I bought the truck brand new. I put boats in the water all the time, the differential doesn't go in the water.

Truck will be going to the shop in the next day or so, I am going to put it on a trailer and haul it over with another truck.

mitternocht

That sucks man; I think AAM used a batch of bad bearings for a while.

When I swapped my 3.73’s for 3.4.2’s at ~70k miles one of my carrier bearings was starting go. I had no idea something was bad until I took the carrier out and saw the pits on the rollers and inner race. The opposite carrier and both pinion bearings were just fine. I replaced them all. Had I not caught the bad bearing when I did it would have smoked my rear too.

It is just one of those things… you have to take it on the chin and move on. GM uses AAM axles and I doubt Ford makes their own bearings, they probably use the same suppliers as everyone else.

rockcrawler304

Sorry to hear about your diff. It does happen as anything mechanical can and will fail at some point in time.

If you think it is just Dodge you're wrong. My buddy has an 07 F350 with 29k miles and on his second rear diff and has never hooked a trailer to it yet!