So this happened last wk....

[Pillar]

Had been hearing a wierd noice I couldn't pin point and with just buying a house and all the stuff that goes along with that I didn't have to time to take it anywhere to get checked. 5 min into the freeway part of the drive going about 110km I heard a big boom and feel the back jump up. I quickly got it settled and off to the side of the hwy.. Left it there for 5 hrs as we got rides to take us to the house. With a now accepted offer I had a tow truck load it up and take it to an awesome diff shop in Abbotsford called Pro-Built Transmission.
Now it drives nice and quietly. Check this picture out. We were both shocked to see this happen to a Yota. It's an 06 with 250 km but still. ..

 

[Gdmeadors]

Were there any mods to the tires or suspension?

 

[4reshAir]

That looks scary, it's a blessing you and your passengers didn't get hurt.

 

[fdbyrne]

Wow. Before it happened, what kind of noise were you hearing? How long did you notice the noise before this happened?

 

[Pillar]

Yeah was a little scary. It was a noice that hard to describe. Almost like a muffled card in the bmx spokes as I was on the gas. Louder as I went faster. But when I through it in neutral and reed it nothing happened. Obviously now that makes sense bc I know whay happened. He said something to the effects of one of the gears was probably near breaking off but not quiet and it wasn't meshing proper. Eventually I'd guess maybe a total of about 70km worth of city driving and then this short hwy stint on the way to chilliwack that that piece broke off and went through the whole member... It was a loud bang! I'm careful when off road in etc. Tires are a 275 65 r18. Just a 3 inch suspension lift.
My wife has knocked it into 4x4 a couple times at least with her knee prob when turning to the kids in the back or something.. so it has been driven around in 4x4 in the dry for a while a few times. Not sure if that would lead to this though. My diff fluid was changed 2 yrs back. Just was getting ready to do it again. We park in a bit of a hill so sometimes there is a bit of a roll after putting it in park. Ebrake never worked proper for a couple of yrs. Now that I did a full brake job this yr that got addressed. This is the only thing I've had to fix since I bought it in 2011. We've put almost 70 miles on it since 2011. It's been reliable. I have the left cat that has failed a long time ago but no more aircrew so I've left it. Just minor stuff compared to this.