Help with rear differential please (1 Viewer)

[Litmanovitz]

Hello gentlemen,
I need your advice please on a noisy rear differential on a 1999 4runner. My daughter drove her 4runner from LA to Phonix to do a film project, when the rig started to make noise. Pep Boys diagnosed it as noise from the rear differential and estimated the repair to be $2,000!.

Can you please recommend a differential shop in Phonix AZ, which hopefully will rebuild the rear differential for a reasonable price.

Can you please tell me if a 4runner can drive in "4 wheel drive" mode, if the rear drive shaft is pulled out. This will allow me to bring the her rig to my house in the bay area and rebuild it by myself.

Thank you in advance,

 

[jynx]

That is pretty steep. The world famous Zuk is in that area I believe. He is the godfather of Toyota differentials, but I am not sure how much work he is doing these days.

As far as it being driveable, yes, you should be able to pull the d-shaft and drive with the front locked in. The only question would be if the rear is bad enough to continue to come apart with the shaft pulled. I know there are a ton of active cruiserheads in that area, you might check over in the clubhouse section and post up over there. Someone might be willing to give you a un-biased opinion on the problem and direct you towards a shop in that area.

Good luck.

 

[Mr Chuck Norris]

I would get a Toyota shop to verify the noise to be sure.

And depending on the diff, it could run up to that price for a shop to do it... but I'd throw in a lower mile junkyard diff for 1/4 the price.

 

[KLF]

I drove my '85 4Runner for 6 months with a growling/howling rear differential way back... well a long time ago. It didn't get hot, and I didn't have the time or funds to fix it, so I just kept going, and it never got any worse. Eventually I did fix it by buying another diff from a junkyard, I think I paid $350 for it which by today's standards is an absolute ripoff (4 cyl open diff), but I didn't know better at the time.

I would NOT trust any diagnosis by Pep Boys. I wouldn't trust that place to put air in my tires.

Find a local guy (look in the clubhouse section) that can take a look at it, perhaps even dump the lube out and check it. If there's no big chunks, then I would bet that it will make it to your place. It's likely just a worn out pinion bearing, which is what mine was.

 

[jynx]

Just a quick update on this. He got ahold of Zuk (Ken) who properly diagnosed a wheel bearing noise NOT differential (good call KLF on the Pep Boys BS) and his daughter made it safely home.

Cheers