Help broken axle and possibe front diff

So i noticed a massive leak by the front driver tire, i took it to Toyota and and they told me they thing the front diff is leaking and is fried? And the axle is done? I am not mechanically incline but i wanna say that is the CV boot leaking not the front diff ( i hope) can anyone provide some insight!! Also toyota says the lift voided the whole warrenty, when i used the ready lift, i was told by toyota before the lift it would only void the parts i replaced. So possibly 4k at steak in repairs, on a truck with only 6,700 miles. The dealer is going to try and cover me, but no guarantee!! Can anyone proved some advice and or knowledge at what could be broken.

 

did you ever have it checked out after your last problem?

is this the same dealer you went rounds with over your Tacoma or a different one?

 

Diffrent, this dealer atcually treats people corectly, and understands i own a 4x4. They also are trying to have this covered under warrenty not shoving me under a bus. yes i had them look after the tranny overheated i had them look at it since i was around the area, and they said it was all good.

 

have you been off-road since they looked at it?

 

Yes, but was in 2wd 98% of the time, it is a powerline road so trucks need to acsess it, i had to go in 4hi and 4lo when the sand got to deep and when edge of the road gave out.

 

So the dealer called and stated there could have been a possible impact on the axle. They said they are going to call back with more info.

 

Sub'd for the outcome. Hope they take care of you...

 

Has anyone else ran into warranty issues after having a lift installed? Not to hi-jack this thread, but......

 

Search lift/warranties over at toyota-4runner.org if they try and stiff you. There is some useful information on how to approach the situation if they do in fact try and hardball you. Hoping for the best from Denver

 

The dealer called, and told me to come in. They showed me under the truck which shows extensive damage to the axle and front diff. The mechanic says it would have to be rock or cement. I have filed an insurance claim and it will be covered. They are going to replace the axle and see if that solves everything, if not they will have to open the front diff.

But i wonder where in the world this happened, i have never hit anything! So the only thing i see is the lift shop, delayed me 4days and said they needed to replace a tire and bushings in the lift.

 

maybe...

but maybe there was something you made contact with when that happened

 

Sounds suspect. Turnover on any lift shouldnt be more than a day, 1.5 max

 

I did my research and found on there a law, that works in my favor, and had an employee before i had the lift at toyota say it would only void the the parts replaced, which makes sense and i agree with. But i am lucky to not take that on since insurance covers it.

 

They told me a one day, it took 5. I also had a knocking sound at high speeds after the lift took it back to them and they said it was nothing, once this is replaced i wanna see if i still have that knocking, if not it just proves what i am thinking.

 

Could be, but it was just muck and i was going slow, not ruling it out, but highly unlikely

 

Read the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. That is the federal law regarding warranties.

 

Thats the law i saw, i read up on it, just for some reason cant remeber the name for my life.

 

So insurance will cover the new front axle and frint diff. Being 3weeks without a truck is getting nerve racking, but currently the insurance company is haggling the price with the dealer. However another snag in the road is tge frint diff is on back order, anyone know how long this could possibly take, toyota wint tell me which worries me.

 

5 Days for a lift? I installed a lift on my Jeep this weekend, having NEVER installed a lift or even been present in person when one was done and it took 2 days. I ran into all kinda of issues with 30 year old parts, which no doubt slowed me down.

Man, I feel like you're going to get the bad end of this, but no lift should cause a knocking sound after install. Also, Ready Lifts are middle to low end of the road as far as lifts go, there's not much to them, and mostly aren't for serious off roading. I think the people who installed your lift did a bad job, screwed it up, and probably overcharged you (that last one is speculative). You probably can't do a thing about it now since you already took delivery of it, but either 1 of 2 REAL things happened.

1. You hit something and are too embarrassed to tell us.
2. Whomever did your lift doesn't know what they are doing, but since you mentioned yourself you're not very mechanically inclined, were able to scoot it past you.

Please understand my comments are not intended to offend, but to be as unbiased and logical as possible. I promise I'm not implying anything not directly written here.

 

Yea i am changing custom shops, there is a guy who owns 15 toyota trucks, all of them are lifted and customized, and he does not accept everyones truck to customize. He does a bunch of overland 4runners and tacos for people. Im positive i never hit anything, i would have admitted it otherwise, i would not be ashamed if i had hit something, we are all not perfect. So i am going to say option 2. If that sound gors away after all of this is fixed it will be a dead giveaway that they screwed something up. Also they said they would detail my truck after it, well who ever the lift shop had deatil the truck did a crappy job and left some sand when i open the tailgate, so i dont know if they went joy rideing or test drove it and hit a rock.

 

That is also strange. I'd check for fresh paint around the front diff housing. I bet they went riding after lift (this is probably normal), but rode hard, hit something, touched it up with paint, detailed the truck to get the crap off it, and handed it over.

 

There was no paint there was very evident damageon both the axle and front diff.

 

I recieved the truck today, everything fixed, but toyota gave me a story on how a 3in lift ruined my truck, and the angles are all off. The idiot had it on the lift with all the wheels just hanging off, of course it is all off there is no ground below the tires. Then told me offroading was the cause. B.S i would agree if i tore the cv boot, but a front diff to go out and clear damage that impact caused the axle to break. Now i am not ruling the offroading caused damage, but i would think if i hit something that hard i would have felt it and would have known.

I am going to a guy who owns 15 toyota trucks all lifted and have him check out the lift for a second opinion. He knows what he does and overlands all the time.

 

BS the lift ruined the truck. They probably have a Tacoma sitting out on the front lot with a dealer installed aftermarket 3in lift that they are selling for $50k.

 

Exactly they have two 6in lift Tundras, FROM THE SAME LIFT SHOP I USED, and then had the nerve to say who ever put my lift in was unprofessional and did a crappy job.

 

Will a lift ruin your truck?
The angle of the cv boots will be at a bit of a stressful angle, especially while wheeling under load and doing big articulation related obstacles.

Will this cause your damage to the actual front diff?
I haven't heard of any cases directly from that. The cv boot might tear, causing failure in the joint due to oil loss and dirt encroachment. But the diff should survive that virtually every time. And also, I've never heard of a case of a CV failed and damaged the Diff housing...I think they are full of crap.

Will that happen at 6700 miles?
Almost never, even with much larger angles from higher lifts such as 6" lifts.

If you want to know how good CV angles are at taking off angle stresses, look at the Jeep YJ and TJ rear driveshafts, see the very bad extreme angles created by a 3" or higher lift. Then look up a Slip Yoke Eliminator and see what kinda angles the CV joints can handle when you upgrade it to this type of driveshaft. Those angles are much more extreme and powering the rear diff, which is taking a TON more input torque than the front diffs on these. Your CVs will fail at some point, but I'm guessing you won't even own the vehicle when they do.

 

Sounds like the Tech is a total FarkTard! I'm guessing something let loose and you didn't know it and kept driving like any other person would have done too. Then it eat up the front diff. Happens a lot. I have wrote more service tickets than I care to dream about. If you were my customer I would have hit you for up to two hours of Diag time and gone from that point. I'm glad it all got covered man.

Remember this- Factory Tech are learn what makes them a pay check period. In the end many of them leave because they get tired of screwing people and go to work for honest shops. Trust me we have hired more than a few over the years.

Just my .02 on the matter.

Blue