Well I had my first mechanical failure today. After bragging about how reliable my SRT8's have been I probably jinxed myself. With roughly 48K on the odometer I started feeling a vibration. Thought maybe I'd thrown a wheel weight. Tried on/off acceleration, tried shifting to neutral and nothing would make it go away. Then it happened. As I left a stop light, the trans shifter into second gear and then BAMM! Something let go and was rattling around underneath. I came to a stop and had a look under the car. Halfshafts appear to be fine. The car will roll while in PARK so my guess is the drive shaft coupler or the transmission itself. Any other's care to chime in? Sound familiar? Either way I'll find out tomorrow. Thank god I bought the extended warranty. Although this is only the second time I've ever needed one in the last 7 cars that I've owned.
Took the words right out of my mouth...LOL we know how spirited of a driver he is... Where did you take it ?
I'll go with the drive shaft. If an automatic trans vibrates and lets go there's usually massive destruction with many many pieces laying on the ground?
Burnouts - Check Aggressive Driving - Check Drag Racing - Check Parts on the ground - None I should find out today.
Tech called today. Definitely the rear differential. Something catastrophic and nasty. Could I be the first to actually break a ring gear? They'll open her up tomorrow to find out how bad the damage is. Stay tuned.
Maybe not the first! My experience definately rear end (always something for the EQ). At about 130 kph..."boom!"...shudder, buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (at high speed speed) then clunk, clunk, clunk, on the right side with each rear tire rotation - disgusting noise but I now have an all new, shiny rear diff. I shoved her into neutral and gave it a shot or two of gas as at first I thought it was the engine gone south (scared the living shit outta me at the time...horrific noise). Flatbedded to the dealer for almost 2 weeks. The service rep said he'd never heard of it happening before but noted that it probably wouldn't have if we didn't have 420 ft. lbs. on tap (amazing to me that you guys with hypo upgrades aren't seeing it too!). Mine was warranty and he brought insight that it likely cost Dodge about $ 2000 as it's sold as a completely new rear unit (Mercedes plug & play). Hope it doesn't happen again soon (off warranty).
Ring and pinion gone. Took most of the internals with it. As reported above, no replacement parts so it's the whole rear end. $1,500 bucks covered by extended warranty. Bad part is they're on national back order. 2 weeks is the best case scenario. :cry:
National back order?!!! WTF! Are they having a run of this problem!? So it sounds like we suffered the same issue...ironically, since having mine replaced about 3 months ago, I've since started to notice a buzzy-whine coming from the rear end. If it goes south again then Houston we'll have a big problem....what is Lemon Law? 3 times and you're out? Sorry to hear of the delay at your end.
I doubt it's systemic. My guess is it's just a symptom of inventory control coupled with Chrysler's new owners. I'd bet there's not a lot of value in stock piling $1,500 parts that break infrequently. Having said all that, I sure wish they had one in stock for me.......right now.
I'm going to go out on a limb hear and say the slight whine sound is common? I've always had a slight whine noise coming from the rear of the car ever since I've owned it and before any major mods to the car. Anyone else notice a slight whine from their rear diff.?
Paxton: You are making me feel a little better but not much. I have had the whine (it may be getting a little worse lately) since I had my Quaife installed but not before. Nobody has ever been able to tell me for sure where the whine is coming from but I now believe that it is the rear end. I think that I now have the slight vibration too (developed over the last 2-3 weeks). I know for sure that I have a gear oil leak (just found it two days ago). I am taking it in to be looked at on Friday. I was just going to write a post to say that I may be the next one to join this club. I hope not but I have a bad feeling about it. Describe your whine. When do you hear it? How long does it last?
I really only notice it, since its not very loud and my exhaust tends to drown it out in the low rpm range, say around 1500rpms in 4th or 5th gear. I'd have to drive it again and listen to it. I mentioned something to my dealer after I bought the car and they said they couldn't hear it. That was over over 10K miles ago and the noise hasn't gotten any worse. Since I'm about to lose my warranty in Jan. of 09 I might at least have them try and listen to it again and see what they say. When do you notice the vibration? I've had a slight vibration when I'm slowing down and coming to a stop, but I'm not sure that's in the rear diff.
steve, has your slowing down vibration been an issue always, or is it something recent??? i have noticed mine doing similar.
Chris, I would say it seemed to start about 6 months ago or so. I thought it initially had to do with the rear brakes, but since I've had my rear brake pads replaced and rotors turned its still happening. I'm not really sure what it is, but is noticeable when I'm doing less than 10MPH and coming to a stop.
I didn't want to start a panic here with everyone thinking their differential is going or that this is common. I don't really want to post just how aggressively I drive my cars. Suffice to say that I limit test my vehicles regularly. The fact that this is my first failure in nearly 49,000 miles is testimony to their build quality. In fact by 33,000 miles I'd already blown 6 rear differentials on my 2005 CTS-V. Yes 6.
Not panicing. My diff is definitely leaking and I have and appointment to take it in on Friday to be looked at. The vibration I feel is in the gas pedal and it is kind of minor but it is there and it wasn't before. The whine I get is totally different than what Paxton describes. It is at the beginning of acceleration, loud enough to hear and lasts about 1-1.5 seconds. I always thought that it was the TC (put in the same time as the Quaife) but these recents posts made me think that it may be the diff. Did you have any leaks before your rear end detonated?
