I recently purchased a 2010 Ram 1500 4x4, 5.7L Hemi. Bought used from Dodge dealer with 17K miles.

Have had the truck about a month, 19K miles now. Last night, while exiting off the interstate heard a loud whining noise, sounded almost like driving in too low a gear. Whining noise while coasting/decelerating, stopped with acceleration. Got on the overpass and whine changed to loud clunks. Before I could get off to the side of the road, the drive shaft dropped off.

Tow operator said bolts sheared off at the "pumpkin". When trying to get it on his tow truck he noticed the rear wheels were locked up. There was a lot of fluid leaking out of the front of the truck--looked like transmission fluid.

Truck is under warranty, towed to dealer. What am looking at? Definiteley rear end replacement, drive shaft replacement--what about transfer case replacement? Transmission replacement? What drivetrain components were likely damaged by this incident? Anything under the body that might have been damaged by the drive shaft bouncing off the pavement I need to be concerned about?

I just want to make sure nothing that should be replaced/repaired gets overlooked...

 

Sounds like there was not enough oil in the diff and the bearings seized.

The fluid leak would be from the transfercase since the driveshaft slip yoke is what keeps some of the fluid in it.

 

That truck prolly missed the recall to add more fluid to rear diff

 

Saw one on the side of the highway up here last week. Same thing, drive shaft sitting on the ground. Hopefully that one was under warranty also. Was this recall widespread? I just got a used 09 Sport - it doesn't have any recalls listed but that's not something I'd want to deal with, especially since it's out of warranty.

 

The recall did not include the 09s

 

My dealer called with the damages: Replace drive shaft, replace transfer case, not sure if he said replace rear differential or replace gears in rear differential...will get clarification when I go to the dealer tomorrow. He said it would be at least a week for the repairs. Said I had "substantial" damage.

Is it possible my 2010 was manufactured late enough that it might have had the recalled rear differential (2011 model recall)? If I find my manufacture date is within the recall range, could it still be included, even though it is a 2010 model year? I think I read the 2011 model-year recall includes trucks manufactured as early as September 2009. Even though mine is 2010 model-year, if my truck was manufactured after September 2009, could it have the affected rear end?

If they replace the rear end, and it originally had the "2011" rear end, will they put the same model back in, or will they put in a "2010" rear end? Will there be any problems if they put the wrong one in?

 

I looked at mine and my build date is 10/09. How they figure the recall for 11' with a build date that far back as 9/09 is anybody's quess. I did not know the recall went that far back as far as build dates. I think after reading your experience I will have the dealership check my rear axle fluid when I go for my next oil change.

 

I have an 09 and got a letter saying to come in right away for a fluid change. Only had a few thousand miles on it. They knew they had a problem but never said anything. made it sound like regular maintenance. Have about 40 thousand on it now and no issues so far.

 

Weird. Never got anything like that, but mine was built in jan 09 so maybe it is a build date thing. I've got just under 60K on mine and no issues.

 

Seems the assumption is that low fluid caused the failure. It could have been the pinion nut coming loose. There are some posts on here about that.