Have an 01 Landcruiser 100 series with 150k miles on it. No rust. Had it for about two months.Need some advice. Heard some grinding suddenly when accelerating and coasting. Thought it might need new wheel bearings but it turns out it needs a a front differential replacement. Mechanic found shavings in the oil and mechanic wants to charge $5,400 to rebuild. Hard to justify that. Any recs for a full differential I can buy and replace that way? Thanks in advance.
Front Differential Replacement
- Thread starter cruiserstev
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Can you share where you sourced it?
You could check with your local dealer or it is available online from the discount Toyota parts sellers. Here is link to one I found. You probably could get it for less if you check other places.
www.lexuspartsnow.com
Genuine Lexus LX470 Differential
Shop wholesale-priced OEM Lexus LX470 Differentials at LexusPartsNow.com. All fit 1998-2007 Lexus LX470 and more.
www.lexuspartsnow.com
cruiserpatch
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Do not ever buy anything from this website that is listed if you want to have any sort of recourse when something goes wrong. That is just a broker website and not a dealer. They cannot help you with any technical questions and can barely help you with a return. Absolutely never ever ever work with them or any of their dozen affiliate website scams.You could check with your local dealer or it is available online from the discount Toyota parts sellers. Here is link to one I found. You probably could get it for less if you check other places.
Genuine Lexus LX470 Differential
Shop wholesale-priced OEM Lexus LX470 Differentials at LexusPartsNow.com. All fit 1998-2007 Lexus LX470 and more.
Wait for the heavily discounted sales and order from a real dealership that can really help you.
And to add, that pricing is absolutely ridiculous because you could have somebody install the front locker for less than half the price, imo. Another point of context is if you watch TFL off-road and followed them and replacing their diff. They just found a used diff where someone hooked them up with a good price and the whole repair cost them $1200.
You may want to make sure your front diff is the problem before going any further....Have seen a bunch of "failed front diff" threads and sometimes people find there CV's and hub flanges to be the issue... Shavings in front diff aren't a sign of failure.
By the way, what jerk off sold you the 100 series when they probably definitely knew it had those issues lol since you mention its only been 2 months and its already acting up.
@cruiserpatch any advice for a rookie trying to make sense of a blown front diff VS something not as serious ?
If front diff was blown / needing replacement wouldn't there be like a constant terrible noise or binding issues or something ? rather than the grinding only when accelerating / coasting mentioned
By the way, what jerk off sold you the 100 series when they probably definitely knew it had those issues lol since you mention its only been 2 months and its already acting up.
@cruiserpatch any advice for a rookie trying to make sense of a blown front diff VS something not as serious ?
If front diff was blown / needing replacement wouldn't there be like a constant terrible noise or binding issues or something ? rather than the grinding only when accelerating / coasting mentioned
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- #9
Any chance you could help me determine why the gear ratio for mine might be?
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- #10
the front diffs in the early 100s are notoriously weak, and they are commonly needed on the secondary market.
cruiserpatch
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While this is true, the shavings in the photos posted by the OP seem excessive. Even if the diff hasn't "failed" I would be getting it rebuilt with that much metal on the magnet. New carrier bearings go a long way to strengthen the 100 fronts.
Blown/failing front would present whining noise on acceleration, coasting, deceleration. Less serious issues (e.g. CV or flange) would be more of a constant rotational clunking. Bad flanges sometimes sound like gearbox problems to the unfamiliar. But generally you can tell just by observing the hub/flange (jack up the wheel and spin the tire. Shouldn't move farther than ~10 degrees
01.1998-08.2002 use 4.30 ratio
08.2002-08.2007 use 4.10 ratio
98/99 have a 2-pinion front. Would recommend upgrading to the 4-pinion version
How is the pricing ridiculous? It’s an 8-10 hour job and the replacement part alone is $2600. 10 hours at $250hr + a new diff+ tax is about $5400. No point comparing junkyard parts, and self installs. If OP isn’t looking to do the work himself, I wouldn’t recommend trying to save $1500 on a 25 year old used diff with unknown mileage that may leave him in the same place next year having to pay for it all again.
My perspective is that part can be had for 1400 plus tax during a super sale and my very qualified mechanic is just over 100 an hour, so I be looking at a cost that half of that proposed. Sure, at msrp, high cost labor and a slow guy that charges book time due to corporate, “it’s a deal at 5k plus”…
5k might be not much less than what the truck is worth….so, to each their own.
