Front diff failure

[pjefferies]

Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this...

My Trialmaster has done ~4500 miles with no offroading, except for a centre diff usage in the snow for short periods. I was driving on the road turning left around 30mph to find my front diff went with a bang and now grinding on deceleration. My local agent has confirmed the diff has failed and possibly due to it not having enough or any oil in it. New diff on order

Very disappointed to find this bulletproof vehicle failed on a part that wasn't under heavy use.

 

[Tom D]

It wouldn't matter how bulletproof the diff was if it had no oil in it! Was it whiny before it went?

 

[bbq4133]

Any noises before? No oil should be a fairly audible problem.

 

[pjefferies]

Any noises before? No oil should be a fairly audible problem.

They're only speculating. No noises prior to it failing

 

[Tom D]

Have you still got the car? I’d be tempted to pull the drain plug and see if there’s some metal in there. Those axles are pretty reliable, king pin bushes going is way more common than a diff failure on the tractors that they supply. I’d say it’s a freak manufacturing fault. Ask the dealer for some shots of the diff when they open it up. I’d love to see what happened.

 

[pjefferies]

Have you still got the car? I’d be tempted to pull the drain plug and see if there’s some metal in there. Those axles are pretty reliable, king pin bushes going is way more common than a diff failure on the tractors that they supply. I’d say it’s a freak manufacturing fault. Ask the dealer for some shots of the diff when they open it up. I’d love to see what happened.

It's in the workshop now. I'll keep you posted on its outcome

 

[AWo]

That must not be an oil problem, especially if no one looked if there's oil in or not. It could also be that one or more bolts got loose or a bearing dismantled itself. If the case is still fine and the diff makes a noise, be careful while driving (I would not drive anymore in that case), as parts can block and then the case can break.

AWo

 

[Mountain4x4]

Its low on oil because they were likely supposed to fill it at the dealership. When shipping cars they can come with less fluids for safety in case of fire on a ship or something. But regardless, checking fluid levels would have been on the check list for the dealer. And they will run for awhile on low oil....until they don't, I highly doubt the diff just failed. Its possible something was set up wrong, but I bet it was knuckleheads not filling the oil.