Rear end whine at 70mph...gears, bearings or carrier?

[MojaveJoe]

Anyone else have a 70mph rear end whine?



My dealer service writer is talking about bearings, but they haven't conclusively decided what the cause is. I have only 39K in 21 months, with about 10K miles towing heavy. Why would the rear end whine already?



Anyone else have this problem or any ideas about what causes a high pitch rear end whine? Mine is loud and clear at 70, goes away as you let off the go pedal and coast, then comes back consistently with even a slight amount of load using very little throttle.



All advice or experiences welcome.



Thanx,

Joe

 

[ox1]

Adjustment from in the cab

This is an easy one to fix... .



When you hear it the next time - just reach for the little black round knob (Prolly has a simulated knurl on plastic) just to the right hand side of the steering wheel. There are two there - you will need the one that says "volume". Since you want to turn the volume of the rear housing down - turn knob clockwise. Don't go too much too fast - as a dab'l'doo'yuh sometimes eh?



Repeat as necessary.

 

[sag2]

I believe you should have a two piece drive shaft in that truck. Have the dealer check for the TSB for axle whine and the replacement damped drive lines. You should get the PN off the sticker on your current shaft to make it easier to cross over. Can't recall if it was for 03,04 or 05, but it works very well in stoping the noise.

 

[sag2]

Never mind, TSB for 4x2 only.

If you don't have the damped yoke on your shaft, you could see if the dealer wants to order the shaft for a 48RE and just use the yoke from the new shaft on your old shaft. That is only if your current shaft does not have the damper already on it. Looks like a big round weight on the transfer case output yoke.

 

[DPKetchum]

Whine as you described is NOT bearings. Its ring and pinion. Bearings ROAR at all speeds. On and off the fuel and a whine is in the ring and pinion. Not the carrier or bearings. I hear some in mine. Last three dodges I owned(two were Danas)all made some noise. Its a pretty big set of gears back there. Unless its a big noise and really loud I'd probably just monitor. Hard to say without hearing it etc.

 

[SSpitzer]

I would have to say that DPKetchum is correct here. I had the same problem at about 50,000. The dealer ended up doing a ring and pinion. Additionally, they also did bearings and seals throughout the rear end. The whine was not too loud, however, I wanted it taken care of before it went out of warranty.

 

[jawmail]

It is your rear end, mine had the exact same problem at 70mph. Someone on the forum said to use Royal Rurple gear lube(75W-90), I got 4 qts. , put it in and now my rear is much quieter, almost can not hear it. These AAM axles have a serious problem with noise. My '02 Chevy had exactly the same problem.

 

[DPKetchum]

Danas were just as noisy.

 

[Billy Golightly]

I had the same problem. Went round and round with dealer for a bit and they eventually changed out the ring and pinon after claiming that "DC has no fix for it at this time". Its fixed now.

 

[MojaveJoe]

Update - Now an oil leak at front of differential.

Having trouble convincing my dealer that the whine means the ring and pinion needs replacing. (They say there is no TSB on the subject requiring ring and pinion repair) Today I showed them an oil leak developing right behind the u-joint in the front of the differential. This was day 6 in their possession with no offer of resolution.



They said they would ask Dodge Monday what they should do about my complaint.



Shouldn't the oil leak at the ring and pinion end of the diff be proof enough that it's going bad and most likely causing my whine at 55-70mph?



Wouldn't a worn leaking seal also suggest gears and/or bearings over 20K could also be damaged?



Any advice appreciated.



Joe

 

[GHanna]

Mine started making ring and pinion noise at about 5,000 miles. Dealer replaced gears and bearings. Same thing AGAIN at 16,000 miles--- this time dealer replaced gears, bearing, and the entire housing, (theory was that the original housing was not straight). Service manager said they've had problems with several of the third generation differentials. I've never towed anything with my truck and I drive it like an old man. Heck, I am an old man. The second failure was shortly after some ******* from California with a Camry pulled out of the side street of a four way intersection and an oncoming old Ford pickup hit him and then hit me head on-- hard! I was stopped with the clutch disengaged, so the general concensus was that differential failure was not accident related. Warranty picked up the tab both times. What's interesting is that the second differential failure and also two fuel injector failures occured within 1,000 miles after I got the vehicle back from the body shop. Warranty is also paying for the injectors, but that was a nightmare trying to convince the dealer what was wrong. Had to take the truck to Cummins and pay out of pocket for their diagnosis to get dealership to realize engine knock was due to faulty injectors and not "piston slap".