Dealer's Head Tech says my 'gear whine' is normal...wtf?

So anyway, after having the rear end(axle, bearings carrier etc) replaced in feb '03 for damaged carrier, approximately two months/500 miles later I developed a soft but high pitch noise coming from the rear on deceleration from 62-55 mph. Keep in mind that this whine popped up about two months after the new rear end was put on...I never heard anything like this previously.


And now after I went on a test ride with their master foreman. He declared it to be gear whine and is normal for my jeep. WTF? Why would this arise after two months...

I also voiced my concerns about u-joints and the possibility of pinion yoke bearings etc., but he said that that is very unlikely especially w/ such a short mph range.
I dont know, Im still sorta not happy w/ the diagnosis and Im thinking about going to another dealer.

What do you guys think and what is the low down on 'gear whine'?? Does it sound like gear whine to you?
later
JS


And I do know that d35 has a history of making noises, but the time frame and the fact that I have never heard this before draw many concerns...
Other notes: I had a 3" lift on it for about 20K...I removed that back in feb also and now 1" all around...

Take it to another dealer and be honest that it was in for service and you're not happy with their diagnosis (they will know anyways so you score points by saying it first yourself). Whatever you do, just don't trash the other dealer in front of this one... tell them you want a second opinion as every semi professional gear head you know is saying something is wrong (bring pictures of Beezil's, One Ton's and Goatman's rigs to show them what a semi professional in your opinion is

I know next to nothing about gears except that they ussually make noise if they are setup bad (I was told that my 8.25 is hard to setup and will whine if setup wrong).

Kejtar

jtszymano said:

And I do know that d35 has a history of making noises, but the time frame and the fact that I have never heard this before draw many concerns...
Other notes: I had a 3" lift on it for about 20K...I removed that back in feb also and now 1" all around...

Click to expand...

Huh????

It's the 8.25 that has a reputation for being noisy, not the Dana 35. I have 237,000+ miles on my '88 Dana 35 and I have no gear noise at all, even after replacing the Trac-Lok at 180,000.

Sounds to me like you're getting a snow job.

Really? Damn, tons of the reading Ive been doing says that the D35 is noisy. Can anyone else support or refute my claim...(well the dealer's claim??)...
Thanks JS

ok... no normal part should make noise like that, especially since the previous one didnt. It's as simple as that: you need to base your argument on the fact that it didn't do that... they played with it... now it does that! You took a ride in other XJ's and they don';t do that... that goes for newer and older ones as well...

Kejtar

Yep. You are so totally right and you just strengthened my argument further. They tampered and now it sounds strange. Problem is that it is such a pain to drop it off have them deal with it for a few days while having to bitch for a courtesy car...

Last time I took it in...it took 4 days before I got the jeep back(got the whole rear end fixed). Getting rides to work for four days is painful...

Anyway, thanks guys.

Later
JS

they broke it.... they gotta fix it... they gotta give you wheels I was at that position ones and I was driving some chrysler luxury contraption.... it was weird but hey.. free
Anyways as I was saying, dealrs got their own rentals ussually.... so be curteous but firm.

Kejtar

jtszymano said:

Really? Damn, tons of the reading Ive been doing says that the D35 is noisy. Can anyone else support or refute my claim...(well the dealer's claim??)...
Thanks JS

Click to expand...

Just PM RCP Phx, he can tell you all about 8.25 gear noises.

lol... well we're dealing with the D35 though which is supposed to be quieter then the 8.25.

Wouldn't a 2001 have the 8.25?

AlanH said:

Wouldn't a 2001 have the 8.25?

Click to expand...

The new ones used a Dana 35 with ABS and a Mopar 8.25 w/o ABS

As a dealership technician I have noticed the D35 is noisey, however it's only noisey in the WJ. The rear upper control arm on the WJ mounts to the top of the diff and transmits noise directly to the unibody. I'm pretty sure this is what the tech is basing his opinion on. The D35 in the XJ has a very low failure rate, at least at my dealership. You said the carrier and bearings were replaced, but what about the gears. If the gears were replaced, they can do a parts warranty and rebuild it again. If they didn't install gears then it is just a plain old comeback and the dealer must repair the claim at their own expense, or find something else wrong because the factory will kick the warranty claim due to repeat failure within a 90 day period.

Most likely the guy who rebuilt your diff didn't set it up right and the head tech is covering his ass, but you already figured that part out. Just remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, get a second opinion, and go back to the dealer who originally rebuilt the diff and put some pressure on them to repair it again. If that doesn't work, call Chrysler and complain to them.

Kill them with kindness, but be firm on having them repair your Jeep again.
Good luck
Bryan

Bryan,
No they didnt replace the gears, just everything else.
Ill get a 2nd opinion...when I get some time, definitely in the next 6 months since the warranty will be up then...

What do you mean by failure rate being 'low'? Do you mean it just doesnt happen?


Later JS

The low failure rate of the D35 in the XJ may be related to the fact that we usually don't see XJs come in for service very often. Most of our customers drive either ZJs or WJs. For some reason the rear diffs are built better for the XJ.

Since you said the carrier, bearings and one axle were replaced, and not the gears, they must have changed the backlash enough to cause the noise. The correct way to do it is to measure the backlash before teardown and reset it as close to the original setting, as long as it is within spec. Too little or too much backlash, and/or not enough carrier bearing preload will cause some whine noise.

So since you didn't say why you needed the repair originally, I will assume that you broke a spider gear in the carrier and damaged one of your axle shafts. Is this correct? Did you have your Jeep towed or did you drive it? What I am getting at is that the dealer may not have replaced enough parts, or they didn't clean it very well. Metal in the fluid is very abrasive and damaging to all the components inside the diff.

Whatever you do, don't start taking it apart yourself. If they think you started messing with it , they may not give you much help. Just remember that you need to complain, and complain some more, and then complain to the general manager if they don't help you out. You may also want to just go to another dealer and have the gears changed by somebody more qualified to perform the repair.

It sucks that you continually have to bring it back and disrupt your life for a stupid noise that they caused. If this is the dealer you bought it from and had all your service work done there, then you have a great deal of leverage, but sadly, not all dealerships are interested in helping the average customer.

Good luck man
Bryan