so i recently had catastrophic faliure on my 08 my front diff has cracked from the mount and up over top dropped it off and the dealer is trying to claim i hit something just wondering if any one else has seen this happen
p.s. no i didnt hit anything

 

GO DEALERS!!!


Woooo!

...someone must die...

 

Ask em to prove you hit something, there should be impact damage beings "you hit something"... I havent heard it happening, but that doesnt mean its never happened.

 

Never heard of this...but again, I'm sure it has happened before. I couldn't see that happening without a rather large impact though.

 

Well, if you hit something like a stump or wood, there will likely not be any "impact" marks left on the diff itself as wood will not scratch aluminum. Also the diff case to me looks as though it would shatter before it would dent.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is that something inside the diff binded up and literally exploded inside the casing. If this is the situation then there would be some seriously shattered differential parts inside that casing rather than just bent bits and pieces here and there which would happen if you hit a stump and cracked the case.

Just my $0.02. Sucks to hear though.

P.S. do you drive in in 4WD on pavement frequently?

 

4wd on dry pavement sounds like fun but no. and as for signs of impact I went over it with a fine tooth comb before I dropped it off and yeah couldn't see any physical signs of damage. nd from where the crack started is like I said at the mount. which is directly over the cross member from the control arms and that's not even bent flimsy as it is. im sure a stump would bend it. Im wondering if over torque would cause the case to crack.

 

That could be a casting failure too. Does the metal look abnormally thin/porous near that mount? If so then it would be a manufacturing defect.

 

its hard to tell its pretty tight to get in there but ill try and take a look tonight after work and see if I can get some pics to. I just figure cast iron breaks at the point of impact. its a strong material but has no flex correct me if im wrong.

 

Well, everything flexes a little. And if it is stronger in one area almost ALL of the force will be transferred towards the next focal point of stress, if that focal point is weak enough strain (failure) will occur. I can see the bottom of the casing getting a good whack and causing the top of the case to split open at the mounting point.

However I can also see the upper mounting point being defective and cracking under normal conditions.