I just wanted to throw this out, my 2004 Dodge Durango Hemi has had it's entire carrier unit replaced three times. Now, since the wife drives the kids to school, it is not like she lights it up every day. The first time I noticed fluid sprayed all over the underside of the vehicle and when I stuck my finger in the filler hole, there was zero fluid. This resulted in an entire rear carrier assembly being installed. Of course, they did not replace all the seals, namely the two outer axle ones, causing gear oil to leak once again out of the ends and ruin the disc brakes. This was at 24,000 and 30,000 miles respectively. Then at 35,000 miles we had a huge grinding noise coming from the rear at higher speeds, the rear carrier was replaced as well as the (it took a week to get in) rear drive shaft. My guess is that they knocked the driveshaft out of balance when repairing the axle for the thrird time. The tech's said that the Hemi is too powerful for the 8.25 and shoud be the 9.25 axle. Has anyone else had rear axle problems???

 

There are Hemi D's with the 8.25 with alot more miles than yours and have had no issues. I think you jsut had a crappy dealership.

 

HD2004:
Sounds to me like you have a really good case to insist that they replace the entire rear axle housing.
Since setting up a ring and pinion does require skill, maybe this is not one of the strengths of the tech at your dealer. Or more likely it sounds like the housing is bent or defective in some fashion. I would research the criteria for your states lemon law. I would make thearguement that if this axle continues to fail, it may do so when your family is tooling down the highway and cause serious injury or loss of life.
I think they have played around enough and owe you a completely new assembly.

BTW, IIRC, the reason all of the gen 2 4x4 Durangos have the 8.25 rear is because they are all full time 4x4. Since the 4x4 can not be shut off, the rear axle will never see full engine power/torque like a part time D would in 2wd. I think the 2wd models have the larger 9.25 because of this.
My 01 which I just converted from part tme to full time AWD has the larger 9.25 rear. I also note that whenever I came across a factory full timeAWD gen 1, it alsohad the smaller rear end with the exception of the RT package. They equipped them with the larger 9.25 I believe.

Hope this helps, and good luck. Don

 

HD2004:
How about an update????????? Don

 

Sorry, I have been off for awhile, I am getting new tires this week, looking at Michellin Cross Terrains. There is a vibration, hoping it is just the old crappy Good years at 43,000 miles that are worn out and slipping through our current snowy Ohio roads. I will keep you up to to date when I switch out the tires. What do you guys think about stepping up to 255/75/17??It has 245/70/17 now, it is just a little more? A taller tire would look better...and there are limited options in the 245/70/17.

 

HD2004:
Glad you are getting new tires, but I was curious as to what happened with the rear end problem??

Don