found this big piece of metal in the bottom of the rear axle housing (see attachment). There was also a thick coating of metallic-like sludge stuck all to the bottom. it looked shiny. this was on an 03 with 85k miles. And I honestly dont think the fluid had ever been changed before. the gasket was that rubbery orange crap they use from the factory and the oil was brown and smelled pretty bad.

The good news is.... now that I put the full synthetic mobil 1 in with the mopar additive it no longer makes the "moaning" noise while performing slow speed maneuvers. It seems to perform fine. no ratcheting noise or anything... the LSD acts the way it should.

Is this part of a C-clip or something else? Is it a ticking time bomb or should I just leave it alone since it seems to be fine? Ive never heard any gear whine or anything like that out of it.

 

Pretty sure thats the C clip. Make sure it hasnt done any damage

 

Yep, that would be the dreaded "C-Clip" (technically not a c-clip but actually a clutch pack retainer), I woulda yanked them all out myself...

 

I didnt see any damage but then again Im no expert.

 

should I do anything about this? I have an extended warranty. would I realistically get anywhere if I went in there and bitched about it?

 

I have an 03 1500 4x4 and am going to be replacing the gear oil in both differentials this week. Mine has 109,500 miles and I'm not sure if the gears have ever been changed (I bought it at 85k). I haven't noticed any issues I just figured it was time to start changing out fluids myself and last night I changed the transmission and transfer case. I'm hoping I don't find the same broken metal like yours. It sounds like this is a common problem. Is it suggested to yank these out and if so is that a hard job to do? Or should I just not worry about it until I have a broken clip?

 

Well I got my rear differential drained and didn't find anything! Thank god because it seems as soon as my truck hit 100,000 is when things started breaking.

 

If it's under warranty then definitely claim it... or at least try!