New front diff = $2306 from Nissan, ouch!

[toadnode]

Not great news... heading to Fraser Island for the first time and went to get my suspicious front wheel bearing checked by Nissan and they tell me my front diff is cactus!

Front driver wheel does not rotate... thought something was up but didn't expect that!

I think I need someone to convince me to upgrade my diff! I imagine for the same money, I could pay for a locker to be fitted?? Or is that too optimistic?

Damn...really wanted to shop around for new tyres, not diff :-s

 

[Nevyn]

Wreckers!! I managed to track down the whole housing etc. at a Brisbane wreckers and had it shipped to me a matter of days. Had an auto Lokka fitted to it while it was on the pallet then took the wagon in and had it installed . From memory it all cost me about $1200 or there abouts. If you're handy you could do the work yourself, I couldn't chance it being a work vehicle as well as my play car.

Cheers Brad

 

[sparra04]

Yep
wreckers and an e locker or autolocker would be the way to go
and get another opinion
I wouldnt trust my local nissan with my lawnmower

 

[nathand22]

If your pinion gear is intact you could then throw an E-Locker straight in with out the need to go to the wreckers for around 2k fitted.
Having said that you will find a million of them at the wreckers and most of them have probably never been used.

 

[toadnode]

Thanks for the ideas guys....

So we're talking stick with the factory diff and fit the locker hey?

Is another SH factory diff going to be ok? Could I expect it to break again soon like mine did? It's a bit of a worry but i suppose it had done 170,000kms.

Oh...and I should clarify, the price from Nissan was to repair, not replace that diff.

 

[Lawry]

you can get front diffs from as little as $100 and up.
they have been advertised on here from time to time otherwise you can get a front unit for around 300-400 posted from wreckers.

did you just want a replacement one (open diff) or replacement with an upgrade eg locked.

nissan are rip offs stay away from them!

where are you located

also sorry i missed it but is actully wrong with your diff?

 

[toadnode]

I'm in Dandenong area, Victoria.
I was off-road and noticed a bearing kinda of rattling sound, like driving on pebbles or marbles every time I hit a bump or corrugation on my front drivers wheel. Been suspicious of it for a while so I jacked it up back at the campsite. Gave the wheel a wiggle top and bottom, nothing! Give the wheel a spin and noticed it sounds a bit clunky, disengage hubs, noise gone. Go for another drive without 4wd/hubs engaged, noise still there on the bumps.
So given the upcoming Fraser trip I thought I'd get Nissan to check it ... and the shuddering clutch they put in last month.

So their report is that the tyres are noisy (no shit hey?), can't fault the clutch but it has a squeaky peddle....and the drivers wheel didn't rotate in 4wd. Hehe, all this time i was driving a 3x4!

I don't need a lock, just like the idea of making broken things better the next time around

 

[bods]

Generally a locker of any type will reduce breakages. Because they mostly occur when you lift a wheel and when it comes back down and contacts the ground while spinning is when you break things... A locker just keep both wheels spinning at the same speed so when it does come back down it isn't going insanely fast and just touches the ground and you carry on without busting stuff......


As for your problem, I'd be taking it to a 4wd specialist. It could be the free wheel hub or even the outer CV on that side, but if it was making the notice with the hubs unlocked it sounds more like bearings.....

 

[toadnode]

It's all coming back to me now!! I was on a very steep incline and trying to cross a rut, there was no going backwards on this one....had a few goes to gently pass it then eventually gave it a gutload of diesel and got over with some bouncing on the front end, probably exactly how it broke... but the wheel bearing noise was always there to a small degree, this might have been the icing on the cake as it became progressively worse over the remainder of the trip.

Sounds like I need a locker, I don't always do stuff like that but I'd rather not end up in this situation again.

The silly things we do on holidays!

 

[Lawry]

Have you checked you cv's??

A split cv will make intermittent noise asit changes angle -eg when suspension travels.

remember its an open diff, so if you spin the tail shaft or one wheel the other doesn't always spin as well.

do you know how to change a cv?

 

[toadnode]

Hey Lawry,

CV's did cross my mind but I thought they wouldn't make any noise if the hub's disengaged?

I'm not sure how to check them, but if they're easy enough to change I'd give it a go. The problem is that I've only got 10 days to sort it and I worry that my work commitments over the next week would get in the way of a DIY and in any case, the diff needs to be sorted too.

The wheel not spinning was Nissan's observation, not my own though. Hopefully not an inaccurate one.

 

[Lawry]

for starters if 3/4 wheels spin then the front diff is intact. Usally of the front diff is cactus, you will get a continuous horrible grinding/crunching noise (pinion), as for the ring gear it will be the same noise but rythmic, as it takes 8 or so revolutions of the pinion for 1 ring gear revolution.

if the noise doesn't resemble this then i would start to look else where. I blew my front diff and one cv all in one hit, they were on there way out as it was making a howling noise as i cruised over the sand also on fraser island weeks before hand.

when nissan said 3 wheels were spinning... did they mean both front cv's were turning but only 1 was turning?

or only one cv was spinning hence 3x4??

as one could indicate diff the other a hub

OR a half turning cv could be a break at the joint.

 

[toadnode]

Their words in the report are, "Right hand front wheel does not rotate when 4wd engaged, front diff issue, requires stripping for further diagnosis"

My bush-mechanics diagnosis at the time involved jacking up one side at a time to check the bearings first. With the hubs/4wd disengaged there was no play or noise with either. Then I engaged the hubs with 4wd shift in neutral, definitely a clunky sound coming from somewhere in there.

I do have muddies fitted so that possibly drowns out any telltale sounds when driving.... but typically you can't hear anything until you hit a bump or corrugation, happens with or without 4wd and/or hubs locked. Could that simply be broken pieces in the diff being launched into moving parts from the shock/vibration through the wheel? Sounds like momentarily driving on river rocks...or marbles when it happens.

I've called a few places to get comparisons on diff overhauls to gear me up for the worst case scenario plus the possibility of adding a locker in the process.

Wish I had more time to look at it but work is a bit crazy a the moment so I have to trust someone out there to take care of it...without ripping me off hehe

 

[Lawry]

any chance of uploading a video?
would make it a lot easier

 

[navaranewb]

what model is it? I was reading that most of the NAVS have R180 front diffs? if this is the case you can get second hand for nothing as they come standard in the earlier RWD nissans

 

[toadnode]

Well I spoke to a few shops....

ARB - Don't do that kind of work but do install lockers. So the price for a front locking diff is the same as what Nissan want for factory diff to be repaired(worst case). Sounds like a wiser way to spend my money but still a bit of dough. That shop wouldn't be able to accommodate my time frame however

Called three others who promised to ring back with numbers but only heard from one, SCS in Mordialloc(VIC). He sounds fairly clued, offered a similar sort of price to rebuild the diff but fitting a second hand one would be about $$1350. Also explained there may be CV/bearing related problems too and he says fitting would be no extra labour as it's all out anyway. New CV's $250 but he has a second hand one which he knows is good as he did an upgrade on another vehicle. I asked about fitting a locker whilst it's out and whether it's worth it, he seems to think there's no point unless you have a rear one to start and in any case, locker wouldn't have prevented the breakage in the situation I was in at the time.

The annoying thing is that Nissan charged me $60 for a report which doesn't really tell me much except that there's a problem with my diff, my tyres are noisy and the clutch pedal has a squeek...surprised they didn't tell me my washer fluid was low too! hehe...

Wish I had time to do a video but I have so much on at the moment, I have to work everyday from tomorrow till the day I leave for Fraser(22nd)

Thanks for all the feedback, I feel a bit more knowledgeable about the problems going on which helps a lot when dealing with the shop.

 

[bods]

From what you have said he told you he doesn't sound clued..... If he was he would have known d22s have very decent lsds in the rear end and the front, being independent suspension would benefit from a locker a lot more than the back would.…... It is definitely worth putting a locker in of some description as it reduces the need of giving it a bootful to get up where you were when you probably broke it............ It will just crawl up with a locker because you won't loose any momentum through lifting a wheel have having it spinning in the air...