Hey guys, I've been dealing with this same issue for a lil while now...I was hitting some of you up in PMs bc I don't get on the computer much and didn't want to make a thread about this, but I am really stumped here.

It's a whining noise, DD told me he thought it was the pinion bearing, my buddy up at firestone told me the same because you can see grease that has shot out around the seal on the rear diff...Realized my axle was bent, so we replaced that, as well as the bearing on that axle just to make sure the bearing hadn't gone bad from the axle wobbling around like that. (I didn't want to drive around on a bent axle anyway, so 2 birds 1 stone here)

Still making the noise. Had ujoint replaced just to make sure it wasn't something like that, plus it needed to be done anyway as well...

Still making the noise. Brought it to a shop today...my neighbor used to work up there, so I know a couple of the dudes up there and they were checking it out to make sure that pinion bearing was really the issue.

So he tells me that the rear end needs to be replaced...But when I was back there taking it apart to replace that axle, the gears all looked fine...My friends dad actually commented on how great they looked, and how well they were seated in the grooves. Said that whoever put it back together last did a good job...

So now that has me thinking that these guys may just be trying to get money out of me?

The noise is rather odd, just kind of a whining that starts up around 45MPH, and only whines when I am on the gas. It also seems to get worse after the truck shifts in to second...as well as if I put the truck in 4H...I shifted it to [1] in the dash display, while I was in 2WD, and it seemed to not happen as much, although I didn't get to truck up to 45+ in [1] cuz the RPMs were getting high lol...


Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

The way it acts when it's shifting gears sometimes makes me afraid it may be the transmission or the transfer case?

 

Does the wine get higher and louder with speed? Have you checked the front? When my pinion bearing went south I had a grinding noise that would get louder and faster the faster I went. It sounded just like the gears were too tight with no oil. From what I remember, I think I could feel vibrations also. I had my rear end pulled apart, replaced with brand new bearings, seals, and a tru trac. Also, my gears where still in perfect shape HOWEVER, if that bearing would have let loose and spun I would have had to replace the axle housing and gears so the quicker you figure it out the safer you are. I was a second away from catastrophic failure.

 

Yes, it does. That's why every thing has been telling me to replace my pinion bearing, and I had gone up there and talked to the guy about doing it, and he told me to come in today and we would put it up on the lift and make sure that's what the problem was. When we put it up he told me that I needed to have the rear end completely rebuilt, new gears, bearings, etc.

But like I said, when I had the rear diff apart less than 2 weeks ago, everything looked great.

Next step was to replace that rear pinion bearing, until he started telling me all of this new info today...

The whine also changes tones when i am decelerating as well. Like when im coming to a stop, once I hit like 10-15 and under, it makes an opposite whining noise than it usually does. like a low whine that gets lower and lower as i decrease speed

basically, I felt like he was just trying to get me to pay for having my whole rear end redone when I didn't even really need to...Everyone on here told me it sounded like a pinion bearing, and my friends dad told me it sounded like a bearing too (He's the only one who has heard it in person), which is why we did the one on that bent axle just to be safe when we replaced the axle itself.

Either that or I worry it's something with the tranny or transfer case...

 

You have to be careful here, but if it were mine I would consider removing rear driveshaft alltogether and carefully take a drive in 4H and see if noise is gone....if it is, then you know the concern is in the rear differential..Take shaft out and insert one of those plastic end plugs to hold fluid in Tc.....or perhaps you would not have to drive it, but place it on a lift....In any event those drivetrain components need to be isolated to help pin point the problem ..

Brian

 

It definitely sounds like it's coming from the back at least. Everyone who has listened to it in person has thought it was coming from the rear end, or MAYBE the transfer case and the vibrations from it were going down the drive shaft and making it sound like the rear end.

 

By having it apart, do you mean the diff cover off and looking inside with a light or do you mean diff pulled out, pinion pulled out and everything on a bench? You can only tell if the bearing are bad if they are pulled out.

 

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. I meant we were in there taking the axles out and he checked out the gears and said they all looked great. We didn't check the bearing up front at all. because we didn't want to take the whole thing apart when we didn't need to because we were just replacing the axle.

 

There you go, it is 95% most likely your pinion bearings. Think back to when it first started. Did it sound like you were driving on mud terrain tires then it slowly got worse. Were you off roading? My axle guy said he does 5 dodges a month and all have the same problem, NOT the lsd clips but the pinion bearings seam to have too much pre load on them causing the biggest bearing to fail. The bearing literally its its self becuase of all the pressure. Ill post a pic of my bearing if i can find it in the garage.

 

 

That's the most perfect explanation of it, yes.

I thought it was brakes pulsing at first, then it started to just sound like my big tires making noise when I was slowing down.

Now the question is...WAS this the problem, and now something else has happened because of it?


also, you say dodges are notorious for this...Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening again, or lower the frequency of it happening?
Would it be making a different noise if the gears got messed up because of this bearing?


and isn't that just the race from the bearing? Or am I mistaken?