2020 needle bearing issue

I'm not the OP you quoted but I might be able to assist some with my answer. I don't doubt the dealership can fix it, I believe they could. The part, however, is poorly engineered and will eventually fail. I'll save the dealership the hassle of fooling with this, Toyota the diff, and myself the trouble of working through it. The bushing is a well engineered fix with many years and millions of miles of testing on it. This is one odd situation where the aftermarket engineered a better solution than Toyota.

 

I hear you.

To play devil's advocate.. what happens when I don't bother with the dealer's option, install the ECGS bushing, then have a differential failure within my power-train warranty. Probably very unlikely but certainly possible. At least with letting Toyota try.. over and over again.. my power-train warranty is still in tact. Definitely an annoying situation to say the least, especially considering that I don't trust the dealer service depts to properly put my truck back together each time. I just purchased a small lift for my 2020 and really hope I never have to deal with this!!

 

I understand what you've saying, but they have every right to deny based on your lift. Following that logic you should have left the vehicle bone stock and allowed them to manage the process.

There's nothing wrong with dealing with Toyota over and over again, but everything in my build I do personally, and I'm not carrying $2800 of parts around when a $80 part fixes it for 400,000 miles. I go to some really remote places, and we break some really unfortunate things in the middle of nowhere. If there's a point of a build I could solve better than them, more reliably than them, then the hassle of taking it to them, fighting them for the repair, and leaving it for a few days means my time is worth way more than that.

To be clear, I'm not advocating everyone do that. But if you're going to modify that part of your vehicle then expect Toyota to drop $2800 to repair it, then you take your chances. For $80 and 2 hours of my time, I avoid the unpleasantries altogether.

Now, for a side note, that front diff is hard as hell to break. I've seen ONE that was bent in 5 years, and even then it still worked, it just chewed up CVs.

You absolutely have the right to pursue warranty repair. Personally, the people who build the Toyotas and the people who repair them are not of the same caliber. Once Toyota of Japan is done with them, I don't let the dealerships touch. I even skip my free oil changes. I once caught them impacting the oil plug on. I was sad that day.

*Final note* The warranty is typically green-lighted by the dealership because it's a repair to makes the techs decent money and it's not hard to do with a lift and the right knowledge. I suspect Toyota corporate doesn't know you have a lift because the dealership probably doesn't report it, knowing they might deny the claim. The dealership goes for the whole diff cause it pays more, and therefore the dealership is taking advantage of Toyota corporate. That's not your problem btw.

 

I thought I had heard of someone getting the ECGS bushing done at the dealer, but I don't recall the circumstances. Maybe he had a buddy that worked there.

 

My dealer is a shitsmear douchebag and I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. I also refused to go there for the free oil changes.

Plus I think I'm out of warranty (37k), bought it used. Hell, it might have a 6/60 powertrain but I never looked.

 

Tell us how you really feel!

I think powertrain is 60K. If mine goes again in warranty, I might try to get another freebie. But, I don't blame anyone for going ECGS right away. It's disappointing that Toyota can't seem to fix this issue.

 

Thought about getting the ECGS bushing, and when ours goes out(which seems inevitable) I was going to see if the dealership would in stall it, if one doesn't maybe another would, if NO dealership is wanting to put in the bushing.......I guess I'll try it myself. If the dealership overlooks the lift and installs a diff. then maybe a coin flip is in my future.

 

It's not inevitable honestly, it's just a medium possibility. It's been a mixed bag, but if you're already doing a lift and got the wheels and spindle loose, it's just a 36MM socket away from fiddling with it.

You very well may never have it happen. If you look at the CV angles after my 2" lift it's very mild. Might get lucky.

 

Ehhh, given the documentation of this failure with non-lifted vehicles, I would absolutely expect them to cover this issue under warranty regardless of a lift. Unless they can show that my lift absolutely caused the issue directly and solely, then they cannot deny coverage. The fact that others have the same issue without a lift is plenty of ammo in my eyes to demand coverage. But yes, that *could* be a "fun" battle. I'm used to them these days..

Super good to know that we have a (probably) better solution in our back pockets, though!

So the ECGS bushing can be installed on a dysfunctional differential and it will remedy the issue as well as prevent it in the future? Or must the ECGS bushing be installed on a differential that is not yet symptomatic?

 

Great question.

You can install it preventatively or post issue. I've done almost all of them pre-issue, but 2 were done post and it fixed.

The only issue is if the needle bearing material separates from the housing and is floating around your diff. If that gets caught up in a gear it could do bad things. That's why Toyota replaces the whole diff, to ensure that didn't happen. However, even with a failed needle bearing that's unlikely, as the housing holds the junk parts until you remove, then they fall out on the ground.

Also, the drain plug for the diff is magnetic. I had a chunk of material I thought I had gotten out, but instead it was in the diff for over a year. Offroading, highway driving, etc. The magnet did it's job thankfully and I removed the chunk without issue. If it were larger than the size of the diff drain plug...however...that would suck.

 

So my 2019 now has 28,000 miles on it and I've started feeling what I can only describe as an odd groaning sound or feeling almost in the floorboards could this be that needle bearing. And where exactly is the faulty needle bearing located

 

If you put it in 4HI does the vibration go away? If so it could be the needle bearing. The needle bearing is in the differential where the driver side front axle joins.
If you need to prove this to your Toyota service department, have a service tech drive it with YOU in the vehicle to point out the problem. It took 2 trips before I got them to recognize the problem. There is a a tech bulletin for this.

 

TY!!