Hi everyone,

2017 Ram 1500 making a light grumbling noise when turning under a load. You only really notice it from a dead stop on initial acceleration. Only when turning. I can duplicate it at any time by stopping, riding the brakes, accelerating to load the driveline, and easing off the brakes to creep forward while making a turn. Makes the noise the same in both directions. No noise front and back, no noise when turning at higher speeds.

This truck is brand new to me. Only 41,000 on the clock. Was in an accident where the back right side was hit but the steel wheel isn't bent and the center cap is fine. The bed above it is dented but lightly enough to be pulled out.

Differential had plenty of fluid in it.
Popped the cover and drained the fluid into a clean stainless tray, no metal flakes, clean fluid.
Light deposit on the carrier and gears.
https://imgur.com/a/GVNUJ7N






Picture of the dented truck bed to give an idea of the magnitude of the force from the accident. Seems minor to me. I don't think it's a driver for the noise but I couldn't omit this as a potential factor.



Any ideas?
Thanks

 

The more I think about this, the more I think (hope) this is just an issue with the gear oil. Maybe they had it changed at some point and they didn't add an LSD additive and the clutches are unhappy? Anyone know if that red RTV is OEM?

 

https://www.ramforumz.com/threads/re...hudder.239471/

 

Given that there is rtv on the rear, yeah, I'd bet someone was in there before. I think you are on the right track thinkin' 'wrong fluid'. Refill with fluid with the LSD additive, and see how it goes.

Also, if you are rear disk brakes, they will also make some interesting noises if you have brakes partially applied, and are moving slow.

 

I figured these differentials came sealed with RTV from the factory, no?

I am almost certain that this has to be LSD clutch chatter after seeing the differential spotless like this, and thinking about it for a bit.

As for the brakes, I had a similar feeling. This car was sitting for a while so the rusted rotors deposited a lot of rust that embedded into the pads. I was wondering if the rotors could be sticking or causing a weird harmonic. I actually removed the pads and caliper mounting brackets from both sides, C-clamped the calipers and secured them to the frame and test drove the truck without rear brakes to definitely eliminate any brake noise from causing this, and the noise still persisted.

I'm going to clean out the diff, re-seal the cover, ad fill it back up with some fluid and OEM LSD additive and see how it rides.

 

Hi everyone,

Problem solved!

It was the fluid causing LSD clutch chatter.

I think the contributing factors for this happening are

• There are no obvious signs that this is an LSD, I used a VIN decoder and the axle information was ambiguous
• There is a drain plug on this differential, so whoever drained it last probably never saw the LSD in the carrier, so they just put gear oil in it
• This was a GSA vehicle, so they serviced the diff prematurely at 40k, where they put the wrong fluid in it.

I put MOPAR fluid in with 5 ounces of additive and the diff is quiet as a mouse now. Hopefully this helps someone in the future.