2020 Differential needle bearing failure

It’s not the longitudinal movement (hub towards diff), but up and down, when pushing the CV right at the diff, perpendicular to the CV. I have a video of mine before and after, will upload for reference.

If yours doesn’t have a pronounced harmonic whoosh, then you probably don’t have the issue.

When you hold the needle bearing against a bushing, it’s obvious why the needle bearing exacerbates bad tolerances of the diff carrier.

 

That makes sense. I was going by your other comment of no movement being normal. Passenger side shaft has no movement. All driver's side ones i tried had a little movement. Enough that while i was doing it, you could hear it knocking.

 

Toyota supposedly fixed that problem back in 2008 but apparently they didn't. They should have adopted the bushing.

 

Your right. I saw that after I reread it.

 

I have the harmonic wooshing on my 2020 sequoia with 22k miles, all stock. Does anyone know if the sequoia has the same diff as the tundra? Will try 4wd to see if it goes away.

 

It looks like the same part on the ECGS site fits 2007+ Tundras and 2008+ Sequoias

 

Should be the same. Based on the parts diagram, 2020 Sequoia and 2020 Tundra use the same 41110 front differential assembly.

 

Exactly why I went with the bushing as soon as I confirmed the cause of the noise.

 

Have a 2020 Toyota Tundra Crewmax 4x4 with 26000 miles and the dealer just identified the front differential as bad. Replacing under warranty.

 

hey. Would you happen to be finished with those tools? I’ll buy them for you so I can save a few bucks as well. LMK. Thanks.

 

Sorry wish I had the tools!! Dealer replaced the complete front differential

 

Anyone else have the tools laying around?

 

Anyone happen to have a clip of the sound that happens when the bearing goes?

 

I actually drove over 4 hours to ECGS and had them put one in my 4Runner when I owned it. I think it was around $110?? for them to do it. That was years ago so I don't know the current rate. That included everything, even the oil. I'll probably do the same if/when the Tundra needs one. Not saying you should do this but it is an option for you.

Got several free t shirts out of the deal also. Good people

 

Thanks for the option. 9+ hour round trip for me plus all the other costs. I’ll most likely do it myself.

 

Yeah that's what it was. I actually enjoyed the drive, I'm weird like that. Plus I'm lazy. An yeah it would surely be cheaper if you did it yourself, I believe, even if you bought the tools they sell.

 

This is what my half shaft and needle bearing looked like when I replaced the needle bearing with the sleeve.

I leveled the truck with 1.3” of lift in the front when it had a couple thousand miles on it. It still had a small amount of rake but not really noticeable.

It had been making the growling noise for 25,000 miles. The needle bearing had a loose fit on the shaft and would rock back and forth a little. The new sleeve didn’t rock at all but spun easily.

 

Got my bushing kit from ECGS. Nice and well packaged. Probably do the needle bearing/ bushing swap in a couple weeks after I clear my current schedule.

 

I'm hoping folks can help me with some photos and some ideas since my front differential needle bearing failure saga continues. My dealership did replace the front differential housing a few months ago. The good news is that did fix the front needle bearing issue. The bad news is the front differential housing leaked oil after their repair. I took it back and they claimed to have fixed the oil leak and a few weeks later the oil leak is worse. I took my truck back again and they had it for 8 days to fix the oil leak. I finally got the truck back and literally ~ 1 mile from the dealership I can hear a very subtle scraping noise that sounds like its from the front differential area. The scraping sound is intermittent and very difficult to hear. It only lasts about 2 seconds...pause, and then it can be minutes before you hear it again. I'm not taking it back to the same dealership again since the 8 days was a complete mess on their side. From what I see, they replaced the front differential housing with another new one. Does anyone have pictures of the oil seal in the housing? How does the half shaft connect? What could cause this scraping noise? I am taking it to another dealer but I'd like to get some idea of what they messed up.

 

That's probably your best bet if your dealer is crap. I figured I would let my dealer handle the repair and they royally screwed up the job. I ended up selling it. With covid prices I was glad to get my money back.

 

Is it leaking at the CV?

If it is leaking gear oil there, it might be that they drove the seal in too far, which is a common mistake. I had to measure mine with a caliper. There is no stop and it’s really easy to push it in too far.

 

The dealership service manager was using parts from his Tundra to swap parts in mine. His truck drove as smooth as glass and they swapped in both his driveshafts and I still had the vibration. I disclosed to the buying dealer about the issue and they didn't seem to care.

 

I went to a different dealership and it didn’t take them long to find the source of the scraping noise after the oil leak repair. Evidently they pushed the rotor dust shield into the rotor and it was rubbing. A quick spin of the driver side wheel reproduced the sound. The leak was on the drivers side oil seal leak at the half shaft. You could see the oil running down the side and around the fill plug. I think their first attempt to fix the oil leak assumed the leak was at the drain plug. Time will tell if they fixed the leak correctly. So for now, no more front diff needle bearing growl, no scraping, and hopefully a final fix on the oil leak.

 

My truck has been producing a pulsing vibration at ~55 mph that has become more noticeable over the last 10k miles. It's still fairly light, but it seems to go away in 4HI. I wouldn't describe it as a noise or a growl, but a felt vibration in the steering wheel and footwell. Feels like it's coming from the driver's front of the vehicle. The truck has seen maybe 2-300 miles of 4HI use but the front differential oil was just as dirty if not more dirty than the rear oil at 30k miles. The drivers side axle has significantly more play in the differential carrier than the passenger side, you can hear it clicking when you wiggle it by hand. However, my Dad's 2010 has pretty much the same play but no vibration issues.

Does this seem like a needle bearing issue?

 

I took a crack at it but I simply couldn’t separate the cv axle out of the hub, despite using plenty of PB blaster and a smallish sledgehammer.

Would a puller be the next step? If so which size should I buy?

 

Gotta air hammer?

 

unfortunately not. should I buy an electric hammer?

 

I would stay what you describe does not sound like the front diff needle bearing issue. I think I caught the issue fairly early and it was more of a continuous growl. Very subtle at the time and you needed smooth roads to hear it. I don’t think there was any vibration. Now, if it ran that way for another 20k miles I’m not sure what it would have sounded like.

 

I takes some talent, a BFH and a large heavy drift.

 

I had to reread this and realized you were talking about the hub and not the diff. You can use a bearing puller to push it out. I used the one from a Maddox Harbor freight slide hammer set. It’s the one with the three hooks and a center screw.