we bought my 2006 dakota in 2011. my husband had the differential oil changed a month later since we had no information on the previous owners maintenance schedule. the last few months, jiffy lube has been telling me i need to have it serviced per scheduled pm from dodge. last month i put it in the shop to have the shocks and struts replaced as well as the rack and pinion which had a slow leak. i asked them to check the fluid. they did. the said it was overfilled and the fluid was dark and definitely needed to be changed. so i had them do it. until then i had no issues with the rear end nor had i heard any odd noises. a few days after i got it out of the shop i noticed a humming noise coming from the rear. i put it back in the shop. they said it the rear differential had gone out. it was still drivable. we bought an aftermarket waranty and they will cover it but we had to send it to a different shop that has the capability to do the tear down and replace only the parts that have failed. i just spoke to the mechanic. he said the pinion bearing had blown and "destroyed" the inside of the casing. if the failure was that catastrophic, how was my truck still drivable?

 

The differentials are typically pretty tough on the Chrysler 9.25 axles, like you have if its the V8. (8.25 axle if its a V6, and still a nice unit.) That, and he may be exaggerating a little to get his point across.

Dark fluid doesn't necessarily mean anything with differentials, and if done properly, not sure how you can overfill a 9.25 differential. You are supposed to fill them up to the fill hole. Any higher, it will leak out before you can get the plug in there.

Up to you, but I do not recommend Jiffy Lube or any "quick lube" type places. They don't pay their people enough to retain decent employees usually, and they are willing to pull fast ones on you. If you don't want to do an oil change yourself, take it some place like Meineke or equivalent that has a full shop and does other types of repairs as well. Those guys tend to care more about retaining customers.

 

Agreed, luck of the draw really.

Diff oil can be dark, mine is as we speak but I know it's in good order.

I use Jiffy lube for one thing only, IM/Safety, because in my state, they only hook it up to the OBD2 port and check my lights, and I can handle the rest.

And a warning about the aftermarket warranty, they will try to pick and choose what they pay for. They are dicks. If the mechanic is a nice guy, he will argue for you, but if not then you may have to do some brow beatin of your own.