I've got a 2007 V-8 2WD with 79,000 miles. I noticed a whirring sound coming from the right rear - rotating tires made no difference. Tire store diagnosed a possible bad wheel bearing and suggested replacing both sets of bearings on the rear axle. When I asked if the problem could be the differential I was told "no, we listened to it with a stethoscope and it's fine".
Tire dealer only completed one side before running into problems and said they had outsourced pressing the bearings to a independent shop that only works on Toyota / Lexus. Of course, tire dealer replaced the driver side bearings which was not where the noise was coming from! I went to the Toyota shop to have the passenger side rear bearings replaced, which resulted in a minor improvement in noise. The owner of shop verified there was a bad wheel bearing on passenger side. However, there is still noise coming from the right rear that is worse when car is cold, seems to get better once it has been driven 10 minutes or so, and becomes less noticeable at highway speeds. It's most noticeable between 20 - 40 mph. This shop says there IS a problem with the differential - the pinion shaft input bearing is going bad. The owner gave me a pretty technical explanation of what was wrong, and that it was an expensive fix. They drained the fluid and filled it with Lucas gear oil and said this was a stop gap measure that might help. He said if the noise got noticeably worse I would need to get it fixed, but that I might get another 2 - 3 years out of it before this happened. He said the "pumpkin" needed to be replaced, and the part alone was $1200. I have used this shop before and found the owner to be very honest and knowledgeable. Based on some other things he said I got the feeling he was encouraging me to get rid of my truck before the noise got much worse or it hit 100K, whichever came first... My question is this: what should it cost to replace the differential, and is it worth spending the money? I've already spent $1400 on the bearings and am not happy about spending more. I don't have the ability to do the work myself. Thanks for any advice or guidance you can provide.
Tire dealer only completed one side before running into problems and said they had outsourced pressing the bearings to a independent shop that only works on Toyota / Lexus. Of course, tire dealer replaced the driver side bearings which was not where the noise was coming from! I went to the Toyota shop to have the passenger side rear bearings replaced, which resulted in a minor improvement in noise. The owner of shop verified there was a bad wheel bearing on passenger side. However, there is still noise coming from the right rear that is worse when car is cold, seems to get better once it has been driven 10 minutes or so, and becomes less noticeable at highway speeds. It's most noticeable between 20 - 40 mph. This shop says there IS a problem with the differential - the pinion shaft input bearing is going bad. The owner gave me a pretty technical explanation of what was wrong, and that it was an expensive fix. They drained the fluid and filled it with Lucas gear oil and said this was a stop gap measure that might help. He said if the noise got noticeably worse I would need to get it fixed, but that I might get another 2 - 3 years out of it before this happened. He said the "pumpkin" needed to be replaced, and the part alone was $1200. I have used this shop before and found the owner to be very honest and knowledgeable. Based on some other things he said I got the feeling he was encouraging me to get rid of my truck before the noise got much worse or it hit 100K, whichever came first... My question is this: what should it cost to replace the differential, and is it worth spending the money? I've already spent $1400 on the bearings and am not happy about spending more. I don't have the ability to do the work myself. Thanks for any advice or guidance you can provide.
