I was driving on the grand central pkwy in NYC last weekend with my three kids in the car when my 2000 4wd dodge durango made a few strange noises, I thought it was the transmsion slipping so I pulled over at a service station and checked the fluid level it was perfect, I continued on and about 2 miles when the front differential casing blew apart! When this happened the front drive shaft was still connected to part of the front differential casing and spider gear, since i was traveling at speed it wipped around under the car cracking the oil pan and transmition pan, the rest of the differential houseing fell down and the rubber boots of both half shafts tore. Total nightmare. I got it towed to a Dodge dealership where they gave me a price of $3,900 to fix it. not worth putting that kind of money into the car as it has 107,00 miles on it. Also wasw told at dodge they never before had seen such a thing happen before, I'm just lucky i guess. long story even longer I got the parts from a salvage yard. front differential $200 front drive shaft $50 rebuilt half shafts $75 a pice. picked up the parts today going to start fixing it this week. will keep you posted...

 

What was your front dif service history?

IndyDurango

 

Wow
59.95 reman
http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/Produ...&currentPage=0

69.99 new
http://www.oreillyauto.com/EW3/Produ...&currentPage=0

(could get it cheaper somewhere else but I just use Oreilly because I get a HUGE discount on most their parts)

I have heard of this happening before. Not so much damage was done.. Reason was because the differential was not maintained by doing routing maintenance.

 

^^^ ya ^^^ That seem high on price.

Put a new oil pump in when you change out the oil pan.

Full service the trany while your there.

 

Thanks for all the info.

I found when I was removing the front differential the plug was missing, the last time the truck needed an oil change, I was pushed for time and brought it to a quick lube joint. The gent their said he checked my differential fluid and did I want it changed, I said not today as I did not want them doing the work.

Is it possible I could have lost enough differential fluid to have caused such a catastrophe?

next problem. as I know I get spot on info from this forum. I have removed the old front differential after removing cv axles. the old differential has a male spline on both sides, the "new" differential (from a good salvage yard) only has a male spline on pass side.

next question. can the male spline be removed from the old differential? Is it held in by a retaining clip? What might be the best way to remove this?

Again, Thanks to all for your comments they are very greatly appreciated.

 

Well I have said this over and over... Those places are simply dangerous to take you car to.. And those who do must always double check their work because most of these people who work at them just don't care and don't really know what they are doing.

 

On the spline, sounds like one was an AWD vs the other not an AWD. Not sure though, out of my area of expertise.

IndyD