I've seen the light!

FoneRunner

FoneRunner

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Hello all you 4Runner guru's...I'm one of the many new guys out here. I finally saw the light and bought a 98 4Runner Limited 4WD with 170k miles after languishing in domestic truck hell for many years. I love this truck because it is the perfect size for work, play and family. My regret is that I didn't buy one sooner. I could have saved a lot of money!

My question is this...I took my 4Runner in to Toyota for service and inspection after noticing a pronounced whining sound that seemed to come from the back of the truck(mother-in-law jokes inserted here) and the mechanic there(Eric from Team Toyota in Lithia Springs, GA) told me it was coming from the rear differential. $300 just to take it apart to look at it. So, I live in Douglasville, GA about 20 or so miles west of Atlanta and I need a good mechanic that can confirm/deny and repair the problem at a reasonable price.

Since this is my only vehicle and I drive about 40k miles a year, I can't really afford to endure a crisis breakdown situation, not to mention the extra cost of whatever else breaks! Any recommendations?
 

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Can't really help you with the shop thing, but I wanted to say congrats on the purchase. Stay away from the dealership for sure.

What do you do for a living? 40,000 a year is a lot.
 
If your 98 is anything like my 97, I imagine the stealership may want so much $ because there is no rear diff. cover to remove. May need to drop the axle or something. At least disconnect the drive shaft and remove the front of the diff. Ok, no dropping the axle.

Oh, and welcome aboard Captain.
 
Thanks for the welcome...I work in the telephone/data networking field and I drive all over the place. I mainly cover the southeast, but I have a trip to Denver coming up and I don't want an axle falling out on the way!

To be fair to the dealership, I don't remember his exact wording. It sounded to me like he said he was going to open it up and look at it. What kinds of things would cause that noise? It's really pronounced at lower speeds and gets higher pitched until about 60-65MPH when you can hardly hear it. It's definitely not engine noise or road noise. I read in another thread about rear axle seals being notorious on 96-02 4Runners....could it be that making the noise?

Other than that the truck is awesome...I hope to put at least 300k miles on it!

***I keep trying to reply, but I keep getting error messages!
 
My suggestion would be to find a good gear shop. the Toyota rear end much like a Ford 9" is very easy to work on since the gear set is part of a removable 3rd member. The possibilty is the gears are set incorrectly and that is causing the whine. But a good gear shop is the way I would go
 
Clemsonfan15 said:
Stay away from the dealership for sure.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you heavily on that. I've worked at a dealership, and at an independent shop.

Let me put this into an analogy to help you see it my way;

You're looking to buy a pizza to bring home to the family for dinner. There's two places right next to each other; Salvatore's Italian Restaurant and Chin Sun's Pizza Place. Who's gonna have better pizza? Obviously the italian guy over the chinese guy. All the italian guy knows is pizza/pasta.

Wouldn't you rather take your Toyota to someone who only knows Toyota? Someone trained by Toyota? Someone who can focus their 40 hours of work in a week to ONLY 15 or so models?
Compare to someone who works on maybe 2 or 3 4Runners a year. Maybe he has never worked on a 4Runner before and he's learning on yours? Add to that the fact that he'll most likely be using aftermarket parts, and if you've ever seen Genuine Toyota vs. Cardone, Wix, Moog, Standard, Duralast you'd never go to auto zone again.

Take it to the dealership. They're not ripping you off, I promise. The BBB would be all over them if they were.
You get what you pay for. Wanna save a few bucks for a half-rate mechanic or spend a little more for a certified Toyota technician?
 
LINY your logic follows mine... Take it to a gear/rear end shop that all they do is specialize in gears and rears as opposed to someone that might only deal with a rear end once in a while but is someone I would trust to diagnose and repair jsut about anyhting else in my truck.
 
LINY4Runner said:
I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with you heavily on that. I've worked at a dealership, and at an independent shop.

Let me put this into an analogy to help you see it my way;

You're looking to buy a pizza to bring home to the family for dinner. There's two places right next to each other; Salvatore's Italian Restaurant and Chin Sun's Pizza Place. Who's gonna have better pizza? Obviously the italian guy over the chinese guy. All the italian guy knows is pizza/pasta.

Wouldn't you rather take your Toyota to someone who only knows Toyota? Someone trained by Toyota? Someone who can focus their 40 hours of work in a week to ONLY 15 or so models?
Compare to someone who works on maybe 2 or 3 4Runners a year. Maybe he has never worked on a 4Runner before and he's learning on yours? Add to that the fact that he'll most likely be using aftermarket parts, and if you've ever seen Genuine Toyota vs. Cardone, Wix, Moog, Standard, Duralast you'd never go to auto zone again.

Take it to the dealership. They're not ripping you off, I promise. The BBB would be all over them if they were.
You get what you pay for. Wanna save a few bucks for a half-rate mechanic or spend a little more for a certified Toyota technician?
Click to expand...

Ehh, it would still take a lot for me to take my 4runner to the dealer. I'm positive there are mechanics out there that are just as good if not better than ones that work at dealerships. But if money isn't really an issue, sure take in on in.
 
I definitely agree that you get what you pay for...but I'm also on a pretty tight budget like most folks these days. I would love to be able to do the work myself, if I just knew what had to be done! Is it a really complex job to replace/repair the insides of a differential? Assuming that's what needs to be done, of course.
 
Get another opinion...

If you get the same diagnostic, find a used third member and install it yourself. Third members are the same as the tacomas so you should find one pretty easily, unless you have a diff. lock.
 
Thanks for the info...I think I have a locker though. I have that button next to the steering wheel on the left that says RR Lock...is that what you're talking about?
 
Clemsonfan15 said:
I'm positive there are mechanics out there that are just as good if not better than ones that work at dealerships.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are guys out there that are just as good, but still not specialized and trained by the manufacturer as extensively as a Toyota tech, if at all.

Also, getting another opinion is going to do nothing but waste your time. Even if they mis-diagnosed the problem and after changing out the gears the noise was still there, they'd find what it is, fix it for free, and cover it up. Regardless, you're not gonna leave the dealership with the noise still there. An independent shop doesn't have the insurance and savings of the dealership to be able to pull this off so you'll end up with either (1) having to pay for every part the guy throws at it or (2) leaving with brand new gears and a strange whining noise still.

Just my $.02
you don't have to listen to me, I won't take it personally lol
 
Capt, it would be a little more difficult to find a locker out there but stil possible as the ones from tacomas (third member only) fit on your truck, locking or not.
 
pull it apart yourself, itlll take about an hour to pull, but its fairly simple.

Pull the wheels and drums, remove the 4 nuts behind the axles holding the bearing plate on, remove the brake line and E brake line then pull the axle out BY HAND! if you have to use a hammer, theres something wrong.

Repeat the process on the other side, after that, pull the 4 bolts from the driveshaft, while doing that, let the diff drain into an oil pan. Remove the ~10? nuts from the diff housing that holds the 3rd member in. After they are loose, pull it out. Keep in mind it weighs about ~80lbs Its manageable by yourself, but it helps to have a small floor jack to lower it down.

Check the condition of the gears, look on the edge of the gears, and make sure its all black, or shiny, nothing should be looking like a rainbow.

turn the gear back and forth to check the clearances, or at this point, take it to a gear shop. You saved money taking it out yourself.


But IMO, your diff was filled with garbage dyno oil when somebody changed it and the gears overheated and cracked. I had BRAND NEW gears installed on mine, and about 3 months later, they started whining, then broke 2 weeks later all because I used cheap oil. I then replaced the whole 3rd member with a junkyard one and filled it with Valvoline fully synthetic, and I pull a 23ft trailer on a weekly basis.
 
hvguy said:
pull it apart yourself, itlll take about an hour to pull, but its fairly simple.

Pull the wheels and drums, remove the 4 nuts behind the axles holding the bearing plate on, remove the brake line and E brake line then pull the axle out BY HAND! if you have to use a hammer, theres something wrong.

Repeat the process on the other side, after that, pull the 4 bolts from the driveshaft, while doing that, let the diff drain into an oil pan. Remove the ~10? nuts from the diff housing that holds the 3rd member in. After they are loose, pull it out. Keep in mind it weighs about ~80lbs Its manageable by yourself, but it helps to have a small floor jack to lower it down.

Check the condition of the gears, look on the edge of the gears, and make sure its all black, or shiny, nothing should be looking like a rainbow.

turn the gear back and forth to check the clearances, or at this point, take it to a gear shop. You saved money taking it out yourself.


But IMO, your diff was filled with garbage dyno oil when somebody changed it and the gears overheated and cracked. I had BRAND NEW gears installed on mine, and about 3 months later, they started whining, then broke 2 weeks later all because I used cheap oil. I then replaced the whole 3rd member with a junkyard one and filled it with Valvoline fully synthetic, and I pull a 23ft trailer on a weekly basis.
Click to expand...


I found this website that seems to describe what you're talking about.

http://www.atarmor.com/3rdmemwriteup/writeup2.htm

Does that look like an accurate description of what I'm up against?
 
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