WhenI first bought my 100 Series I did something silly and broke the front diff on the second day I owned it. That was 15 months and 25,000km ago.
Christmas ’07 saw me in Tassie for a holiday and gagging to try some of the more famous Tassie tracks. After the first decent circuit done and heading up a dirt road I hear and feel a noise – clunk clunk clunk about once per wheel revolution. I had heard a very faint noise 2 weeks before, but it was consistently only on deceleration and I had put it down to the new tyres.
A few tests quickly showed it was the diff and not a CV. 10KM back to Zeehan at 10km/hr and I disconnected the front tailshaft and knocked off the two front hub drive caps. This isolated the front diff, but did leave the front wheel bearings exposed.
Several thousand KM later back to Brisbane and a heap of tracks missed, and the diff was pulled down.
The pictures below is what was found.
The diff housing was not adequately cleaned out after the last failure. The company that did the work was BOAB 4×4 at Lawnton run by the ownerat the time, Darryl Flenady. $5000 for diff repairs, 2 air lockers, CV’s, bearings and seals was obviously not that well spent. I should have been more suspicious after the rear air locker they fitted failed and had to be repaired by ARB. Despite doing a full strip for the above work, somehow a nice handful of large chunks of hardened gear teeth where missed. Quality work eh. The pics below show the amount of metal left in there and the damage done to the new gears.
The business is now in new hands – Wayne is the new owner. Wayne wouldn’t wear responsibility. The charge was $305 to remove and refit the diff and clean if properly. A very fair price, but not the cost I would expect for faulty workmanship.
The diff itself was sent off to Duncan at Top Cog in Caloundra who does the work for Boab. Duncan only charged for parts and also stripped and setup the locker with less lash at my request. The car drives significantly smoother now, whareas it used to clunk on / off throttle. Parts cost there was $1000. Duncan indicated that the Ring and Pinion could possibly be re-used, but would most likely be noisy. Fine for a part time 4wd, but problematic in an AWD car. I agreed with that assessment and coughed up the $.
I say a big Thank You to Duncan at Top Cog, he has done and excellent job and none of this was his fault.
BOAB clearly was in my view, shockingly negligent in their original work. Although the new owner did try too help, and I understand his position, I don’t believe he has worn the responsibility that comes with buying an existing business. I know I’ll be taking my money elsewhere in the future.
The cost to me was $1305 in repairs, plus a family 4wd holiday that got very mangled due to having a broken car. At $1200 return, Tassie isn’t a cheap place to go back to. Hotel bills in cities wheren’t what I planned for a family camping trip in the bush.
Nice and Chunky
Nope – they didn’t come from that
Or from that either
But they sure did a good job damaging it.
Update: Oct ’11
I did take this to small claims to recover my costs, however my claim was unsuccessful. As I was not a mechanic the judge decided I was not qualified to assess what was a “fair amount” of metal to be left behind compared to a professional in the field. Darryl being a professional with far more experience. I’ll let the reader do your own assessment from the photos above what is a ”small amount” that is “normal”. It’s always nice to know who you are doing business with.
$75 wasted and a few lessons learnt about court processes.
Problems with Air lockers.
I warned you.
I had no trouble with my DETROIT until i sold it when my beautiful truck didnt want to leave me it broke (could have been the new driver trying to get up it too.)
THAT HAS TO SHIT YA
Hi Paul,
Do you diffs have magnetic drain plugs. When I got my new 100 series in 1999 I checked the diffs and found a lot of metal turnings from manufacture in the front diff. I then istalled magnetic plugs in the diffs. I can’t remember which original drain plug was magnetic, but I bought another two the same from Toyota and fitted them.
Hi Brian Mine has the factory magnetic plugs fitted. The front one was totally overwhelmed with tiny filings and unable to hold any more metal. The material above is excluding what was on the plug. The factory Toyota magnetic plugs captured less than 20% of the metal and none of the large pieces. A very kind mechanic at Zeehan let me use his shed and jack just after boxing day to inspect the car. When I tracked the problem he shook his head when saw the plug saying it was clear there where far bigger problems inside.
To finish off this story the Judge found in favour of Boab and Darryl Flenady. If Paul had taken the car back for inspection and oil change, after a month of having the Air Locker Fitted, the mechanic would have had the opportunity to find the extra bits which could have been lodged behind the baffle plates in the diff housing. (With the driving around of the vechicle the parts would have been flushed out and be attracted to the diff plug magnetic) But the car wasn’t returned to Boab so the job couldn’t be finished off.
Just goes to proove that anyone with or without a clue can be a mechanic or assistant in your local workshop.
Oh, and Darryl, that much metal was not missed in the workshop……..anyone – mechanic qualified or not can see that.