The Diff club...

[Drew Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Drew]

Wow Paul, That's heavy stuff. It's a sorry task to welcome you to the diff club.

Well done on the bush repair for sure. You did great. Pays having quality help at hand.

As for the discussion about lockers, I'm really not sure, there's a couple of schools of thought on the issue. There's the idea that the locked diff will prevent wheel spin and touchdown which in return will prevent shock and the possibility of the pinion gear skipping on the crown wheel. There's the idea that the new centre (in the case of the ARB upgrade) will make the crown wheel flex less. (Not too sure on this one myself).

Then there's the theory that having the diff locked will mean that more stress will be put on the diff as it will allow you to go further with all the torque going to only one wheel whereas you'd normally be spinning by then without it.

I'd be interested in hearing other's opinions.

All that said, I still decided to get a rear locker installed.

Drew.

[MUMSRIG Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MUMSRIG]

WOW,

I never would have thought that the diffs would give greif in the Prado. I've had a few Toyota 4x4's now and never had a diff problem yet and these things had been through hell and back! Gymkhanas and all!

Bad news, good result though.

I'll have to tell the missus to look after hers!

Mitch

[Strahan Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Strahan]

Just a thought- has anyone WITH a locker blown up a diff? :shock:
Don't think i have heard of anyone.

[Drew Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Drew]

Just a thought- has anyone WITH a locker blown up a diff? :shock:
Don't think i have heard of anyone.

Bryce - I so very hope the answer to this question is no after the money I've invested in mine.. :shock:

BTW, the locker performed like a gem on the weekend. Can't wait to see the video!

;-) Drew.

[Strahan Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Strahan]

Drew I hope so as well!

I will be investing one or two very soon and hope this will fix the problem :shock:

Was out with friend in 100 series on weekend who blew front diff when rolling back down a grassy hill.

As a side do the air lines act as an extended diff breather :? when you fit the diff lock?

[matty Member Find all posts View Profile Close matty]

Hi Strahan, from memory no the air line is seperate to the breather as they drill a hole into the diff housing to route the airline in. Was seperate on my hilux, just had a look under the rear of the 120 and i cant see the airline. wasnt able to get right under though.

[Drew Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Drew]

Was out with friend in 100 series on weekend who blew front diff when rolling back down a grassy hill.

Ouch. On a grassy hill? Did he have a wheel in the air or did he slap it into forward gear while going backwards?

As a side do the air lines act as an extended diff breather :? when you fit the diff lock?

No, the breather is still required AFAIK. When you activate the airlocker, a fair volume of air is pumped into the diff, I guess this needs to go somewhere. I'll look further into it though. I still haven't bothered with my diff breathers. I really need to move this up the priority list, especially considering I was up to the pumpkins in mud again this weekend! :lol:

Drew.

[FlyNdrive Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyNdrive]

Guys,

I blew out my rear diff as well on my '07 FJ Cruiser. The vehicles are the same, so I assume the diffs are the same.

At first Toyo was not going to cover it because of the mods on my vehicle, but after some research on an FJ Cruiser forum there were several others that had the same problem.

It finds out that a vendor was not properly heat treating the 3rd ring.

This may be a problem on the Prado as well since with exception for the looks are the same vehicle.

Just thought you would like to know.

-Ben

[Grandeman Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Grandeman]

i am going to post this to my partner as justification for the twin diff locks i put in my prado. I kept getting the old "why do we need two for".

The twin diff lockers are not going to help prevent CW&P failures.

That's exactly right Lawrance, he's going to need more than that...

In addition, he's going to need a Deluxe bullbar, HID driving lights, Snorkel and a Scangauge - tell her that ought to just do it.

[GeoffO Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GeoffO]

Just joined and thought I'd jump in on this topic. I have a 2004 GXL V6 Auto and stripped the crown wheel on the rear diff in August last year (2006). I had 70,000 klms on the clock. The diff was replaced under warranty due to "out of spec carriers causing the pinion to wear which flexed under load and slipped on the crown wheel".

An interesting observation was some time before the big bang I noticed a 'humming' type noise when cruising. If I put the slightest touch on the accelerator it went away. Toyota said this was normal (transfer case). When the new diff centre went in the noise went away. This was 30,000 klms ago. About 3-4 months ago I started hearing the 'humming' noise again.

Today I'm getting a diff lock installed at ARB and was told the carrier bearings and pinion bearings were both pitted. This is on a 14 month old diff with 30,000 k's on it! I am wondering if this could be of some cause of the problem. The obvious talk was water in the diff, not serviced properly etc. but it has been serviced by the same dealership since new, every 10,000 klms and never once has water in the oil been mentioned.

Waiting to pick the Prado up tomorrow and going to Toyota with the goods.

Geoff...

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

It's going to be interesting watching how you go - waving those diff parts under the service manager's nose ... and

"out of spec carriers causing the pinion to wear which flexed under load and slipped on the crown wheel".

That's the first time I've heard of Toyota blaming something other than the driver, the tyres or other mods :shock:

Just out of curiosity Geoff ... what were you tackling when you popped the diff ?

I have seen one go at the top of a short sand hill - something that I really didn't think was that dramatic.

Cheers
Chippy

[pcm_120 Member Find all posts View Profile Close pcm_120]

Hi Geoff, welcome.

I find your comments very interesting. When I got my rig back, after the ring gear went, it was quieter. I’m not sure in what way, but it was quieter and smoother. The other really odd thing is my fuel economy got slightly better, not a lot, but enough and over a number of fills to notice it.

It’s not the first time I have heard that flex in the “carrier” is what kills them, but if Toyota actually admitted it, bugger me :shock:

Good luck with Toyota and welcome once again,

Paul.

[GeoffO Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close GeoffO]

Just out of curiosity Geoff ... what were you tackling when you popped the diff ?

Thanks for the comments. I was attempting to climb a dirt track fire trail that had eroded. It was a slow ascent. I started to lose traction so I stopped, reversed back slightly to take a different approach. When I accelerated "BANG!". There was no wheel spin or lifted wheels at the time. I was there with the 4WD club and being directed from the front. Nobody could believe what happened.

Obviously it was a short day for me and I limped back to the bottom and called the tilt tray. The Nissan drivers thought it was amusing.

Regards,
Geoff...

[pml120r Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pml120r]

8) Hi all,
well guys today the diff club got another new menber,ME (pml120r),
it happen at the same place where Geoffo did is diff about 2 years doing same thing but mine is not under wty ooch going to hurt abit!!
at lease I can rebuild it my self!
Could someone roughly tell me how many menber in the diff club??
thanks :twisted: peter

[Damien Parker Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Damien Parker]

Someone had a diff center around recently.

Try buying and selling i think.

Maybe time for a locker mate??