2018 Sport 4x4.

At 96,600 miles, my rear diff has started howling like a werewolf again. Just out of the blue.

Kind of depressing considering it was “rebuilt” by the dealer at 46k, 2 years ago. That time it was full of water so they said they replaced all bearings and ring/pinion.

This time the fluid looks fine, is full, and shows no signs of leaking etc.

Why am I eating diffs?? I don’t do anything severe in it. Just drive around home and to/from work trips on the interstate.


This time I have to go out of pocket. Would y’all suggest rebuilding mine again, or replacing with a salvage unit?

A reman would be best probably but kind of hard to come up with the extra $$ here around Santa time.

 

Sounds like the water was the root cause of the first failure. I would say the second is due to the gearset or bearings not setup perfectly as a part of the rebuild. It's an art and science to do that. I've got a buddy that is good at it, he has seen many "rebuilds" come to him that were not properly done and he had to redo them. Unless there is a problem with the physical housing (warped, bent, leaking, etc) I would say another going over can be done...

That said, I have a 18 Sport with almost 90K and have had zero issues so yours is definitely the exeption and not the rule.

 

Replacing the parts is no issue for me. But finding someone that actually knows how to set up the gears is my issue. I don’t really have anyone I can trust to do it.

 

You said 2 years, but what is the exact time period since the last repair.

GENERAL LIMITED WARRANTY COVERAGE: Ford and Motorcraft parts sold on, or after, October 1, 2013: • 24 months/unlimited miles. • No commercial exceptions. • Warranty begins on date of purchase for retail customer, or date of installation by fleet or installer

 

THIS ^^^^
I'd be checking the date on the last time it was repaired.
Almost sounds like a bearing failed or the pinion nut backed off if it happened all of a sudden.

 

I called and checked yesterday. I’m 1.5 months over the 2 year mark. Guy had no interest in helping me do anything except make an appointment to have it “diagnosed”.

 

Weird. I also have a 2018 and my rear end went out at 54,000 miles (water in there).

Good luck.

 

Call and open a case with Ford Corporate. Express your disappointment that it went out in the first place... and now it's gone out again. They have the power to wave a magic wand and get it paid. Might not get you anywhere, but it's certainly worth a try.

 

Hey @Ford Motor Co. - 2 diffs in 96K is nuts. Help a brother out.

 

Well that just sucks doesn't it.
May as well pull the cover off yourself see if you can determine what has gone wrong.
Possibly maybe get lucky and it could be just an outer axle bearing?
The thing is once a gear set starts to howl even if you catch it before a bearing completely falls apart in my experience yes you can just rebearing it and will work ok but the howl will always be there.