Saturday on about a 6 hour drive I heard a loud thud and it felt like I ran over something. About 10 minutes later the abs traction and service 4wd lights came on. We pulled over and for the night,but when I got up none of the lights were on. We drove about 30 minutes and I heard a grinding and squealing. Took it to the garage they are saying the rear differential is going out the gear oil was very shiny. Just wanting to know if this is reasonable or I'm about to get took to the cleaners. I just bought my dodge 2 months ago used with 63000 miles. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks

 

Check for open recalls on your truck. There was one for the pinion nut coming loose, and trashing the rear diff.

Moving this to fourth gen ram section for ya. Welcome to DF!

 

happened to a lot of folks. AAM axles were very problematic for those years, so much so that FCA changed vendors to ZF in 2010. I had a 2009 with the same issue and even after the recall, it failed. Dealer rebuilt it under lifetime power train warranty but it was noisy as soon as I left the dealer. I took it back but they said to live with it until it died again since I had a lifetime power train warranty. I sold that truck right away. Here is a good article to read for your edification.

https://eastcoastgearsupply.com/file...25-zf-tech.pdf