metal shavings in rear differntial

on two occasions while offroading i heard very loud clunking noises while in both 2 and 4 wheel drive in my 2013 tundra with only 37,300 miles on it. first inspection i noticed broken ground wire from transmission bracket to body and a rear tire with only 24 lbs in it. My tires barley pass inspection. I wonder if that would cause the traction systems to fail and cause the clunks? I then drained both differentials and transfer case and found 5 small shavings of metal in transfer case but found the most metal in my rear differential which was about 10 shavings with the biggest piece about 3/32 inch x 3/16 inch and all about 15 thousands thick. first time changed. wondering if rear diff is toast or metals from when put together. No other howls or anything and no noises on pavement. any ideas? thanks!

 

Ugh... Anytime metal shavings as presented are found in a differential is a sure sign that biggie shavings will start eating small shavings and will result in catastrophic failure if not replaced.

 

I would check it again in 1000 miles. If it was the first time you've changed the oil it's possible that they were never properly cleaned out when they were assembled. Usually the rear diff is bullet proof until the oil leaks out. A company that I worked for had an 87 2wd 1 ton that had the rear seal go. They ran the truck like that for thousands of miles. Eventually the humming noise got so loud that they broke down and got it fixed. The mechanic said there was almost a 1/4" gap between the pinion and ring gears where, if I remember correctly, the gap should be something like .008".

 

thanks so much for yer replies. After looking things over best I could and jacking it up and and turning wheels and hearing nothing bad I guess I will run her for a bit and check oils again.I would like to know where the loud clunks came from. I couldn't find anything obvious.

 

Just drove 20 miles of road and no issues with both 2 and 4 wheel drive.Thinking maybe it was the bad ground and slack rear tire that caused the trac/vsc to malfunction and cause the load clunking noise. Anybody else think that's possible? Thanks