If you wait too long to repair the differential and the inside looks like a grenade has exploded inside with broken metal teeth and pieces resembling shrapnel, it may be less expensive to replace the differential.
The sooner the noise from a differential is fixed, the less damage that may be caused, and the safer your ride will be. Driving with a bad front differential or rear diff at slow speeds for a short distance is possible — home or the mechanics — but travel distance and speed should be limited. Repairing a differential is a dirty and messy task. There are shims, bearings, and moving gears that fit with the precision of a thousandth of an inch. Everything must fit perfectly, or it will soon need repairing again.
Doing it yourself will save on the shop charges. However, if you have to buy specialized tools, that savings may be minimal.
It may be cheaper to replace the differential. Replacing or rebuilding a differential are two other options for fixing differential noise, and both can take several days to accomplish. It is not an easy DIY task and may be better left to a licensed mechanic.
However, much depends on the make, model, and year of your vehicle, plus whether it is front or rear-wheel drive. A bonus of having it replaced professionally is that they usually include a warranty. It can quietly carry out its purpose for thousands of miles, but when it starts making noise, maintenance, and repair are necessary. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what differential does, how to diagnose different noises, and how to stop differential noise.
Your suggestions and comments are appreciated. If you found the article interesting, please pass it on to others who may be interested. I work with noise all day, so I enjoy any peace and quiet I can find. I began looking at ways to improve the sound quality of my home and to make a soundproof office for myself. I created this blog to share what I learned and to make it easier for you to improve your quiet space too. Hi John I have a ford rear wheel drive territory I have been given a good second hand diff my old one is making a whining noise but the ratio of the old one is 3.
This is or was a very informative explanation of what I think is my problem with a F with 99, miles. I did replace the gear oil in my limited slip differential at 58, miles so my situation is disappointing to say the least. I had never in driving General Motors pickups for 27 years had a bad differential. Think I will have my mechanic perform a diagnostic on my Ford first. Thanks very much for the info. Thank you so much for articulating differential noises.
Our Chevrolet Trax AWD developed an intermittent high pitch squeal at mph after driving 10 miles. We diagnosed it as the differential then had to get the dealership repair shop to find it and fix it. There are, however, times when problems may develop. Many of the most common problems can be detected early, and with proper service and repair, vehicle owners may avoid some hefty repair costs. Every driver has two indispensable tools at their disposal to detect early problems — their own two ears.
Why is it so important to become familiar with these sounds? The whine will be constantly present, but may change pitch or intensity. Early detection may reveal a simple repair or maintenance requirement. Untreated rear end whine will worsen over time and may be the only warning of imminent differential failure. Substantial wear or damage is usually attributable to abuse or extreme mileage. Bearing pre-load and gear mesh are carefully measured and meticulously adjusted by trained and experienced technicians during assembly of a differential.
Dyes are used to ensure mating surfaces are correct and backlash is set to strict specifications to deter or eliminate whine. Special equipment like dial indicators and inch-pound torque wrenches are calibrated regularly to maintain accuracy.
Simply put, the differential allows each wheel to be independent from the other while still sending power to both of them. When one wheel is spinning slower on a curb, the mechanism will keep driving the other wheel without any skidding, binding or jerking. It the differential would not be present, we would have wheels locked together at the same speed in a turn. This would make turning difficult and with a high probability of losing control.
Besides turning, other issues could arise from the drivetrain as it would be exposed to high forces. What would happen is that one tire would need to grab and slip in order to maintain the same speed as the other one leading to the transmission of the force through the axle to all its components resulting in a huge strain on axle components and tires that leads to premature wear.
Rear differentials give out noticeable symptoms once they start wearing out or getting damaged. Usually once your differential goes bad you might experience any of the following:. The rear differential is made up of many gears with teeth entwined with each other. The effectiveness of its function is dependent on how precise these gears are arranged and oriented relative to each other.
If, for example, lubrication runs low on the mechanism or the arrangement of the gears goes out of place, rear differential noise occurs. Gear whine, bearing noise and clunking are common rear differential noises that should be a concern to vehicle owners. As a bearing begins to wear, friction increases and metal material is worn down making often bad noises until it finally fails.
Failing bearings can make whistle noise or a roaring grinding type of noise. Often the noise get louder as the cars speed or load increases. As often the noise resonates through the chassis, pinpointing the source of it is very difficult.
Thankfully there are a few simple things that can help distinguish between rear differential noise and wheel bearing noise. Wheel Bearing Noise Simplest check to identify a failing wheel bearing is to suspend the car so that the wheel does not touch the ground.
The hub containing the bearing should not allow the wheel to wiggle back and forth. If it does, chances of having a bag wheel bearing are high. Rear Differential Noise If a bearing is failing inside the differential the noise is virtually the same as the one created by a failing wheel bearing making it hard to isolate. Failing bearings are not to be played with as they can cause extensive damage to other components, increasing the repair price significantly.
Experiencing differential noise on acceleration should alert you. Usually this happens when after different circumstances a gear moves a little inside the differential or the contact pattern was never adjusted perfectly, resulting in a slight noise when the teeth mesh. Continuing to use your car in this circumstances will create a contact pattern that will continue to expand while the teeth experience abnormal wear.
Reason is that the load on the gears makes it harder for the teeth to slide across each. This also increases load on the carrier bearings making them prone to failure also and they too get really noisy. Sometimes this issue evolves into experiencing noise during coasting as well. Interestingly sometimes differential noise on acceleration appears not because the teeth are misaligned but because the user got stuck and forced the car to get unstuck. Inside the differential there is a small axle and spider gears that turn ever so slowly as you take a corner and one wheel has to rotate a tad slower than the other one.
By design they are not seated on any bearing, just surrounded by gear lube. Depending on the vehicle and the issue the rear differential has, what happens when the rear differential goes out while driving varies in severity.
Gear teeth tend to break in seats of and with every broken tooth the length of the skip and the violence of engagement increase, producing more severe noise and vibration. Drives is advised to pull over in order to prevent the possibility of loosing control. Having teeth affected on a single pinion gear may not ruin your differential completely and if caught in time you might be able to slowly reach a mechanic shop without a platform.
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