Survey-REAR END FAILURES ONLY - Page 4

skyhammer · 10-18-2005, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flyguy

I think I remember reading on here that a few '05 models were made without the new diff cover and synth. oil.

You are right. Early build 05's came with 75-90 dino oil and the old diff. cover.
My dealer replaced both for free, that is after a lot of haggling.

**chunko** · 10-18-2005, 04:58 PM

Anyone know how early 05? I have a May-05 it had the old brakes but I'm pretty sure I've got the shiny new diff. If you have the new cover you have synthetic right?

squeipo · 10-19-2005, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHOEBISIS

2005 owners-let us know if you have VDC please.On 2005's,I think it comes ONLY WITH THE SIDE SIDECURTAIN AIRBAG PACKAGE.
Other folks out there.I seem to remember that you couldn't get a 2004 BT with both E-LOCKER and VDC-is that correct??
It has been suggested that VDC is causing the failures.
Thanks.Charlie

NO VDC here.

squeipo · 10-19-2005, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by titanjbc

I brought up the rear diff failures to my dealer in suburban Boston, MA. He said they have redone a few. (BTW, the advisor I deal with has an 05 Titan LE, 4x4, Offroad (w E-locker)).

Anyway, he brought up the the subject of the E-locker in the conversation. Please do not take this as a confirmation that it's definitely the E-locker causing the failures. I just wanted to relay the conversation. Also, I think there have been a few failures on '04s before the E-locker was available...

What dealership in MA you go? I'm out in Somerville but usually drive to Nissan of Natick because they seem to be most helpful do far. Who have you find and how have they been? PM if you don't mind so we don't take over thread.

JSTARSPILOT · 10-19-2005, 12:38 PM

I have an 04 2WD BT with 13K on it and the rer end has turned brown. I've asked about it twice at the dealer and they have done nothing but tell me about switching to synthetic gear oil. Is this symptom a sign it will fail? I still haven't towed anything anywhere. Quite frankly, I wonder if I even should? Maybe it would finish it off and they could get me a new one!

nwCWBrep · 10-19-2005, 03:09 PM

1) 04
2)4x4
3)BT
4)No
5)6400
6)1
7)Yes
8)6700lbs
9)yes
10)no
11)yes
Please let me know what you find out. Nissan is being a ***** about mine. Took them almost 3 weeks to fix it. Now they tell me I need to have my rear diff fluid changed ever 3k. Somthing is not right? Love my truck though.

PHOEBISIS · 10-19-2005, 03:56 PM

nwcwbrep, thanks for your listing.I'm not exactly trying to find a cause.I'm pretty much just looking for associations.Of course,it would be great to find something that just jumps out and says"I'm it".
For example,if every failure had the Elocker,or they all had VDC,then that would be pretty suggestive.
So far,the only thing in that jumps out is that 13 of the 14 reporters have the 3.36 gears and 12 of 14 have 4X4's.These are probably just markers for slightly harder use,and don't really tell us much.Now,if I were willing to believe that the 3.36 gears were "BAD" that would be a different story.I don't think there is any reason to think the 3.36's are "bad".We find 04's and 05's in the mix-surely any problem with a "bad batch" of gears would have been discovered and resolved by Nissan pretty quickly.
Now it has been suggested that the ABLS(some sort of 4 wd limited slip electronically controlled) might be stressing the rear ends.(I THINK THAT ALL 4X4's HAVE ABLS-not sure ,but I think-this would mean 12 of 14).Same story for the E-Locker-about 8 of 14 are Elockered.Same on VDC-about 5 of 14 VDC.Now I have been told that the ABLS makes a racket when it kicks in-lotta noise usually isn't good,but who knows.The poster who told me about the noise uses his truck as a work truck in a very hilly area on unimproved roads-trails-but his differential is fine so far(about 10,000 miles).A lot of folks use their truck fairly hard-but have no differential problems??
The failures are also happening at low miles-maybe 6000 or so would be the middle number.This doesn't tell us much since most of the trucks are low miles-just 22 months is the oldest a Titan could be.
The tow weight numbers are not high-folks tow-but nothing near the max-about 5000lbs would be a middle number.
Well,please keep the numbers coming.Thanks.Charlie

nwCWBrep · 10-19-2005, 09:42 PM

Are you happy with how Nissan handled the blowing up of your rear end?
Also a side note I have added a PRG leveling kit to the truck. Don't think that has anything to do with it but I need to let you know.

I am still fighting with Nissan to pay for the 3 weeks of rental upgrade to a truck. They would pay for a small car but not a truck. I told the guy hey, I bought a truck and the truck broke. I did not buy a car and if you want me to tow my boat with the car then fine. I am also in the process of getting them to pay for the towing of the boat. The fag on the Customer service line told me to leave the boat on the side of the road. I politely reminded him the boat is worth 3 times the stupid truck. The icing on the cake is the fact that Nissan will not pay for the 7 hour round trip it took me to pick up the truck.
Also I am not sure if you have ready my other posts about this but my service guy sat me down after I put a picture of the broke truck on a flat bed with my boat behind it in the company catalogue! He told me that the rear diff fluid needs to be changed ever 3k miles since I tow all the time. He also told me that they would pick up the cost. I just want to make sure I am not going to end up on the side of the road in the middle of no where again. I just am not convienced that the issue is resolved. I am starting to feel a slight slip when going down grade after letting off the gas. Only time will tell. I will keep checking the post but if you find anything more conclusive please e-mail me at nwconnellyrep@yahoo.com

Thanks. bks

Wolfhound · 10-20-2005, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nwCWBrep

Now they tell me I need to have my rear diff fluid changed ever 3k. Somthing is not right? Love my truck though.

They don't know what they are talking about. If towing a trailer, it needs to be changed every 30,000 miles per the service guide (for Nissan vehicles with limited-slip diff's, every 15,000 miles if you tow).

By the way, nice boat. I have a Viper Red X-2 MCX.

PHOEBISIS · 10-20-2005, 09:41 AM

nwCW,every 3000 miles-wow!?The every 3000 miles with sys lube change would be absurd.Lube-especially syn lube doesn't become contaminated with combustion byproducts( water,acids,soot,carbon,partially burned gas etc)like motor oil-in fact I would bet the syn barely breaks down at all.Maybe the vis modifiers break down over time-use,but pretty slowly.I would guess one of the main reasons to change it is to remove fine metal particles(and I guess the modifiers slowly break down in the syns).
My diff is still ok;I'm just really curious about it-hence the survey.Nissan's handling of it is pretty typical of how the auto industry works.You have a failure-the service mgn says"wow,this is the 1st one we have seen",and he is-might be-telling the truth.A year or so down the road,the service depts are saying"well we have see a couple of failures,but it was from folks we think didn't follow the towing breakin schedule"(the one near me said just that when I asked about it).Now these guys aren't stupid-they know that if they have seen 3 that means that there have been HUNDREDS of failures-but what else can they say.The Nissan engineers who have all the facts and figures don't tell the local service mgr "we have a problem".Nissan just sends out some sort of service notice-don't try to replace the gears-we will send entire rear ends on failed vehicles.
I really don't know if a "smoking gun" will turn up-like"bad batch of part numbers,or design flaw" etc.It is obvious that Nissan felt there was something marginal about their original specs-they changed the specs-aluminum fined cover 70-140 syn lube-is an admission that Nissan wasn't pleased with the preformance of the 2004's.
It is a puzzle,but Nissan's management of it is no worse than average-maybe better than most.For all we know,they have been installing" better parts" in the rear ends.It isn't as if we would know that they changed the specs with DANA.The problem might just fade away on newer vehicles built after a certain date.
I hope we don't find that vehicles exposed to lighter use "eat" their diffs waaay late-75000 miles or150,000 miles so-well out of warranty.This is my selfish reason for running this survey-to detect late-light use-failures.Luck,Charlie

**P's Titan** · 10-20-2005, 10:16 AM

Talked to a part's assistant manager last night and we talked about the rear diffs.. he first told me he has only seen one, then when mechanics came in and talked to me he nocticed I was a cool guy and he changed his story to 4 blown rear diffs.

He said the early ones ( the past year ) Nissan would just send out the new parts, no part numbers or anything. Now Nissan has a superseeded (sp) # for the rear diffs. His theory on that is something changed because it had a SS #, he said that Nissan is trying to make a permanent fix for this like they did with the brakes ( after 5 try's the got it right ) and he told me the whole story on that issue.

Basiclly Nissan is currently working on a fix for these. They may not say what is wrong but a replacement for these I see in the near future. They need to keep us owners happy and not let the word out about another issue that could kill there image like the brake issue.

PHOEBISIS · 10-20-2005, 10:40 AM

powder,that sounds about right-Nissan upgrading the parts.
I should be surprised that Nissan and Dana "missed" on the original specs,but I'm not.ALL the 1/2 ton truck builders initially missed on the front brakes on just about every redesign.I have no idea why they can't test as "hard' as the owners "test",but they don't.Of course $$ always come into play;better specs,mean more $$,higher cost,fewer sold,less market share etc.They are constantly balancing the cost vs "goodness" factors,and there is no point in making something a lot better-stronger-than it needs to be.Usually stronger means heavier which isn't a big plus,and stronger always means more costly.
In this case they really can't make the parts "bigger' with more surface area,so they probably have to use a different alloy,or different heat treatment etc.
In hindsight,I wish I had requested build date.It probably won't tell us anything yet,but in a couple of years,it might show that the problem was "solved" after such a such a build date.Of course,we have no build date on the folks who have had their 2004 replaced with a 2005 diff.IF YOU FOLKS GET A CHANCE,MAYBE YOU COULD EDIT IN YOUR BUILD DATE?Thanks.Charlie PS Someone suggested that earlier,but I wasn't really thinking-should have had it from the get go. 20/20 once again.

nwCWBrep · 10-20-2005, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfhound

By the way, nice boat. I have a Viper Red X-2 MCX.

The X-2 is so sick for 06. You should check it out. That is what I will probabily get next year.

nwCWBrep · 10-20-2005, 01:06 PM

out of all the people that have had a rear end failure do you know if they replaced the shocks too? I swear my truck is squating more with my boat on it now than it did before. Has any one else noticed this?

PHOEBISIS · 10-21-2005, 11:21 AM

powderp420,wouldn't the diffs have a new part number because they have the new diff cover?Or do the diffs have one part number and the covers have another?We can buy the cover separately so they must have separate part numbers?
Sorry I'm trying to pull more info out of you than you were given?
Your impression is that a " final fix' is still in the works,and hasn't happened yet?Or the "fix" is happening with the new diffs being sent out??Or was the mgr not that specific ,since he doesn't actually know for sure yet-Nissan isn't filling him in either??Thanks.Charlie