Front differential at 68k miles, now the rear diff. at 92k

[QX56]

After eight years of ownership on this 2007 QX56, I'm very pleased with the performance on the highway as well as in town. This vehicle has never let me down in almost 100k miles.
I changed ALL the fluids before vacation a couple of weeks ago and noticed the rear differential drain magnet was loaded with fine metallic powder and some sand sized particles as well.
I drove 1,200 miles on the new oil for vacation and decided I would replace it once again just to see if anything new evolved. I removed the plug and much to my surprise it was once again loaded with filings and one 1/4 inch chunk of what looks like a piece of a gear face.
I priced out a new carrier for about $1,700 and will be replacing it within the next couple of weeks. For now, I'll keep it in auto to relieve some of the stress off the rear and no jack rabbit starts. It also hasn't made a sound so far.
After talking to a few Nissan owners it seems I have a lot of company. Nissan has trouble with differentials.

 

[keg97]

Do you go off-road at all?
I haven't changed our diff oil in 96K and now I'm a little afraid to do it!!!

 

[QX56]

Keg97 - No off-road for this one. I did pull a boat when it was new, but not in the last 60k miles. 96k miles is what I have on it right now.
The diff. fluid is easy to change. The only challenge is squeezing the gear lube plastic bottle into the fill hole, but it's very doable.

 

[keg97]

Wow....makes me worried. We take our QX onto a beach most summer weekends so the 4WD system does get a workout.

______________________________

 

[QX56]

10,000 mile follow up

The rear differential has not changed in noise for the last 10,000 miles. I now have 101,000 on the truck and my conscious got the better of me this last week. I decided to remove the rear this weekend and do a little exploring.

It didn't take long to find the spider gears in very bad shape. I was met with a choice of ordering the gears and bearings to rebuild the unit or replace with new.

My brother in law who manages a tire center will be getting a price from Nissan tomorrow and hopefully I will be installing a new one on Tuesday.

I the mean time I can rebuild this one on my own time and put it off to the side for my brother-in-law's Titan.

 

[QX56]

Problem solved. $1600 and a couple of hours in the driveway.

 

[Dread_Parrot]

differntial

Dam ! They need to get some HD axles in these things. 400+ foot pounds torque is not shabby. These are not AAM axles? or maybe they need to call AAM and work on getting HD in there.

I need to change the rear diff oil , I think it's required at 20K miles and 30k there after.
THose are good pics 'QX56' Glad you were able to do the work yourself. Saved yourself a fortune$ !

Good job, thanks for posting !
Have a good one
Parrott