Failed Front Air Locker

[matty Member Find all posts View Profile Close matty]

Well all this talk about bad diffs i guess has bought bad karma. I was having a play and i was about to climb a 6m high hill, bit slippery, no bad ruts. Easy i thought just stop, into 4L, compressor on, and rear and front lockers on. Well the rear engaged easy then when i engaged the front my compressor starts up, no worries its only a small tank anways. Hell this seems to be taking a while i thought and the pitch of noise the comp is making doesnt sound like its loaded? WTF?. So i dis engage the lot and try again, still the same?? so i head off home to have a lock as it was raining.

I get home pop the bonnet, comp on and charged up, rear lock on, front on and straight away my comp starts and i can hear air leaking somewhere, no worries probably just a loose fitting some where? I look arounf and hang on why is air coming out of my front breather?? i repeat the process same result. Ok now i'm bit worried. I ring ARB, no worries bring it in.

So ARB have my car now they have had a look in the diff and there of the opinion that the diff carrier bearings have failed? at 20K? EH??. as a result it appears this has caused damage to the brass/copper air line onto the ARB locker diff causing the air leak, and sounds like its damaged also, plus whatever all the metal particles have damaged in the housing itself.

So at the moment ARB have ordered a new ARB diff centre, and are in talks with toyata to replace the carrier bearings?

i will keep everyone posted, obviously i not impressed, bearing failures at 20K or maybe a bad locker install??

Damn the diff devil to hell :evil:

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

Bother...

That doesnt sound good at all.

[Fazza Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Fazza]

matty,
sounds very much like a bad diff locker install :shock:
(No noises prior??) I would have thought if the carrier bearings were that badly worn there would have been quite a whine :?:

Will be a interesting outcome.
Cheers,
Fazza

[Russ WA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Russ WA]

Matty,
Does this mean ARB are covering costs in there 12 month warranty or is it 2 years with 2 lockers :lol: .
I hope it all goes well,ARB are usually very professional and look after there customers.

Russ

[matty Member Find all posts View Profile Close matty]

well, ARB is saying the carrier bearings collapsed? they are contacting toyota re: warranty, and their getting a new diff centre sent up from ARB down south with no mention of me paying, Myself i am kinda leaning towards a bad locker install myself, as the front diff only turns when 4H or 4L engaged, and as a result i reckon i have done less than a 1000K on the front diff. I have also spoken to my mechanic who specialises in toyota 4WDs, as well as some research on the net. It seems to be common practice when doing a locker install to reuse the carrier bearings off the toyota diff centre for the ARB centre, as a result i'm wondering wether the bearings were damaged upon removal or installation when they pressed them onto the new ARB centre.

The new centre is not due till next week so i am waiting to see what happens. I'm keeping the fact about the reuse of the bearings till i hear from ARB, my other thought is that no one has even been inside the diff housing besides toyota when building the car and ARB upon installation of the locker who by nature of the install have to remove the bearings. Ultimatley i'm not willing to pay as it should be under warranty by someone, just seems to me to be to soon after install to fail! One more thing is i have spent over 30K accesorising my last 3 cars in a period of 7 years, so i want some royal help for being loyal. this is my third car with lockers so 1 outta three aint bad, none be ebtter,

oh enough gas baggging :P

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

The Prado is constant 4WD so there can be load on the diff most of the time.

[matty Member Find all posts View Profile Close matty]

well car was fixed free of charge br ARB, apparently there was no indication as to what caused the fault, though the mechanic that performs the install said to me they re-use the bearings, and that they may have damaged them in the process. Then from the boss i got the talk about how prado's aren't hardcore 4WD's and some breakages can be expected as a result, wich i thought was fair enough as i don't drive my prado like my last cars. Overall though ARB did an excellent job and kept a good customer happy.