So about a month or two ago I noticed some gear noise in the front of my '02 Limited 4Runner with 120,000. Haven't had the time to fool with it because of work but yesterday I was driving it and it started surging with a lot more sound. Just glad it didn't lock up on me! By surging I mean it felt like I was applying the brakes suddenly and then letting off. It just repeated every other second. I've looked around and found an entire front differential assembly for around $400. I'm really scared of the nightmare to install it though. Anyone ever had this same problem? The dealership was wanting a little over $1700 just to install it. Any tips, or ideas will be greatly appreciated!!
Front axle assembly is shot! Send help!
- Thread starter jsukey
- Start date
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brian2sun
Elite Member
It's only about a 4 hour job for a shop to R&R the front diff. Most shops would charge ~$300-400 if that's all they have to do. You should drain the diff and see if there are metal chunks in there to determine if it's the diff for sure and not the CVs, wheel bearings, or something else.
x2 $1700 is way too much.
Well, I wouldn't have believed it but it was actually the passenger side hub! The noise was coming from the rotor dragging. Its amazing how much that sounded like gear noise! Was told it would be $700 to fix. I know that it still high but its better than replacing the differential! Thanks for the help and ideas!
