Rear diff issue after engine replacement

[Ramitinher]

Took my 2019 Ram 1500 to the dealership to get an oil change and it dropped all its oil and the engine seized the next day. Got it dragged onto a flatbed and back to the dealer, turned out that the oil plug wasn’t tightened and vibrated loose. The dealer owned the mistake and replaced the longblock.

After a month of waiting I got it back and now I have noise coming from what I think is the rear diff when I’m turning. The dealer is going to take a look at it tomorrow and most likely replace the rear diff assuming that’s the issue. Anyone know what could have caused this? The truck has 27k on it and the issue is definitely related to the engine incident. Another thing I think I’m noticing is a lack of power on acceleration. Could be related, could be in my mind but I’m pretty sure it’s not as fast off the line as it was before. Any ideas are welcome. -Thanks

 

[Quint]

No clue, but this is a good reminder that we should all go time our trucks in the 1/4 mile in case something like this happens to one of us!

Best of luck. Sounds like a crappy situation.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Must be that Pentstar long block they put in...

 

[Ramitinher]

Must be that Pentstar long block they put in...

Nah they replaced with a brand new 5.7 longblock. I’m wondering if when it seized the rear diff got overworked, I pulled over and tried to put it in park but I think it may have seized as I slowed down and was stuck in drive. Maybe when it got dragged into the longbed for tow some damage occurre?

 

[Mountain Whiskey]

I don't see how the two can be related. The rear goes through a lot of stress in driving, hard accelerations, pulling a load etc. Continuing to turn a motor with galled bearings from lack of lube can't be as hard as starting out from a light uphill with a full load. Think how your diff can handle turning hard enough to break traction no problem but when pulling over where your tires sliding out of control? Not as much stress.

27k is not much for a differential. It could just be coincidence.

Rebuilding from a long lock leaves a million things that could be wrong affecting power though.

 

[BowDown]

Took my 2019 Ram 1500 to the dealership to get an oil change and it dropped all its oil and the engine seized the next day. Got it dragged onto a flatbed and back to the dealer, turned out that the oil plug wasn’t tightened and vibrated loose. The dealer owned the mistake and replaced the longblock.

After a month of waiting I got it back and now I have noise coming from what I think is the rear diff when I’m turning. The dealer is going to take a look at it tomorrow and most likely replace the rear diff assuming that’s the issue. Anyone know what could have caused this? The truck has 27k on it and the issue is definitely related to the engine incident. Another thing I think I’m noticing is a lack of power on acceleration. Could be related, could be in my mind but I’m pretty sure it’s not as fast off the line as it was before. Any ideas are welcome. -Thanks

No its not.
A rear diff noise when turning suggests a bad wheel bearing, no way an engine failure has anything to do with a diff /wheel bearing failure.
You thinking its down on power is in your head simply because you know it has a new engine, IE hyper sensitive

 

[Nukegm426]

If they changed gear oil in the diff during the service they might have left that loose or not out in enough oil.

 

[Glenn54]

It will be interesting to see what the noise is. Many years ago, I had a car that made a clunk noise every time I turned (left I think). It turned out to be the transmission mount had broke.

 

[Ramitinher]

No its not.
A rear diff noise when turning suggests a bad wheel bearing, no way an engine failure has anything to do with a diff /wheel bearing failure.
You thinking its down on power is in your head simply because you know it has a new engine, IE hyper sensitive

Just got back from a run and hill assist isn’t working either. And this truck has been babied, I don’t see how there’s any way the rear diff should be out this early. There’s no doubt in my mind this is in some way related to the Engine seizing. The tow truck driver had to drag it up onto his flatbed and it took them an hour to figure out how to get it off when I got to the dealer because there was no power, maybe that could’ve caused an issue? Or all the oil dripping out maybe fouled something and caused a problem?

 

[Nukegm426]

Dragging it wouldn’t have hurt the diff unless they left it in park and then the transmission would probably show issues before the diff. Sounds like the tow company didn’t know what they were doing, put it in neutral and it would easily be winched into the truck and gravity would unload it... oil dripping from the motor would have absolutely nothing to do with the diff... worst case it would soak the rear brake pads and make them not brake properly but that’s pushing it.

 

[Big White RAM]

Just got back from a run and hill assist isn’t working either. And this truck has been babied, I don’t see how there’s any way the rear diff should be out this early. There’s no doubt in my mind this is in some way related to the Engine seizing. The tow truck driver had to drag it up onto his flatbed and it took them an hour to figure out how to get it off when I got to the dealer because there was no power, maybe that could’ve caused an issue? Or all the oil dripping out maybe fouled something and caused a problem?

Why didnt the tow truck driver manually put it in neutral (via the manual release cable in the dash)? That would have eliminated any strain on the drivetrain. Sounds like a lack of knowledge on the tow truck driver.

 

[Ramitinher]

Dragging it wouldn’t have hurt the diff unless they left it in park and then the transmission would probably show issues before the diff. Sounds like the tow company didn’t know what they were doing, put it in neutral and it would easily be winched into the truck and gravity would unload it... oil dripping from the motor would have absolutely nothing to do with the diff... worst case it would soak the rear brake pads and make them not brake properly but that’s pushing it.

When I saw a cloud of smoke behind me I pulled over and it instantly died. There was so much smoke I thought there may have been a fire. The engine got so hot it fried the starter. It took the mechanics at the dealership 30+ minutes to get it in neutral. Pretty sure it seized in gear. I think they tried to shake it off the flatbed too with no luck, maybe that could’ve trashed the rear diff?

 

[Drewster]

Why didnt the tow truck driver manually put it in neutral (via the manual release cable in the dash)? That would have eliminated any strain on the drivetrain. Sounds like a lack of knowledge on the tow truck driver.

You assume *any* tow truck driver knows how to do anything but drag a vehicle...

OP, are you sure it's coming from the diff? There's lots of threads about steering noise that end up related to the rack. I would see if you can recreate the issue- they might have tweaked something in the rack area while replacing the engine, OR the tow truck driver may have chained something down improperly.

Definitely sounds like pinpointing the noise is in order..

 

[BowDown]

Just got back from a run and hill assist isn’t working either. And this truck has been babied, I don’t see how there’s any way the rear diff should be out this early. There’s no doubt in my mind this is in some way related to the Engine seizing. The tow truck driver had to drag it up onto his flatbed and it took them an hour to figure out how to get it off when I got to the dealer because there was no power, maybe that could’ve caused an issue? Or all the oil dripping out maybe fouled something and caused a problem?

A tow truck dragging it with the trans in park is going to damage the diff, the tires will have wear marks there's not enough traction in the tires for a diff to be damaged by dragging it, especially a short distance like this would have been.
There may be no doubt in your mind but me having worked on cars and built race cars, there's no doubt in my mind that your engine seizing nor the row truck damaged your diff.

Someone else mentioned a broken trans mount, being that you had an engine replaced, its possible that a trans mount was left loose but no way anything you described would cause damage to a diff.
You could drag that truck a mile in park and a that's going to happen is flat spotting the tires .

"Oil dripping fouled something"? No offense but it doesn't sound like you know much about cars, it's best for you to wait till the shop looks at it and gives you a diagnosis vs "imaging" all these failure scenarios.

 

[Sascwatch]

If they didn’t tighten your oil drain plug properly there’s a chance they checked the rear diff fluid and forgot to tighten the fill or drain on that as well.

Seizing up and engine due to lack or lubrication would have zero affect on your rear differential. If something happened at around the same time it was either related to the tow, low oil in the differential or just bad luck.

These trucks have a manual release to put the transmission into neutral should there be no battery power, it is located just below your headlight knob behind a small panel.

 

[BowDown]

When I saw a cloud of smoke behind me I pulled over and it instantly died. There was so much smoke I thought there may have been a fire. The engine got so hot it fried the starter. It took the mechanics at the dealership 30+ minutes to get it in neutral. Pretty sure it seized in gear. I think they tried to shake it off the flatbed too with no luck, maybe that could’ve trashed the rear diff?

How did it get so hot that it fried the starter? That makes no sense, was the truck on fire or did the engine seize? An engine seizing isn't going to do anything to the starter, nor is an engine getting hot.
Only way you're frying a starter is if it is continuously trying to start the engine, repeatedly trying to start a seized engine sending power to the starter and it not turning, headers killing it or it was on fire .

What your describing doesn't make sense

 

[5thGenLoco]

Drive it, do some figure 8's in a parking lot, report back.

 

[Ramitinher]

I was driving up a pretty steep mountain grade in colorado at around 70 mph when this occurred. I think the engine got so hot that it fried the starter. Maybe just the solenoid wiring? I never tried to start it after it seized and when the dealer tried it wouldn’t turn or click or anything. There was also a strong smell of burning electrical conduit which the service manager thought was the starter. Either way they replaced the starter. I’m a firefighter and see cars on fire often, that longblock got so hot it put off a cloud of smoke for minutes that had me worried there was a fire starting..

 

[Ramjack]

Took my 2019 Ram 1500 to the dealership to get an oil change and it dropped all its oil and the engine seized the next day. Got it dragged onto a flatbed and back to the dealer, turned out that the oil plug wasn’t tightened and vibrated loose. The dealer owned the mistake and replaced the longblock.

After a month of waiting I got it back and now I have noise coming from what I think is the rear diff when I’m turning. The dealer is going to take a look at it tomorrow and most likely replace the rear diff assuming that’s the issue. Anyone know what could have caused this? The truck has 27k on it and the issue is definitely related to the engine incident. Another thing I think I’m noticing is a lack of power on acceleration. Could be related, could be in my mind but I’m pretty sure it’s not as fast off the line as it was before. Any ideas are welcome. -Thanks

Holy crap

 

[Ramitinher]

A tow truck dragging it with the trans in park is going to damage the diff, the tires will have wear marks there's not enough traction in the tires for a diff to be damaged by dragging it, especially a short distance like this would have been.
There may be no doubt in your mind but me having worked on cars and built race cars, there's no doubt in my mind that your engine seizing nor the row truck damaged your diff.

Someone else mentioned a broken trans mount, being that you had an engine replaced, its possible that a trans mount was left loose but no way anything you described would cause damage to a diff.
You could drag that truck a mile in park and a that's going to happen is flat spotting the tires .

"Oil dripping fouled something"? No offense but it doesn't sound like you know much about cars, it's best for you to wait till the shop looks at it and gives you a diagnosis vs "imaging" all these failure scenarios.

The service manager had the tow truck driver try to shake it off the flat bed by shimmying the hydraulics. Maybe that caused an issue. And I’m no mechanic, simply trying to figure out how this happened because unfortunately I’ve lost faith in a service department that couldn’t tighten an oil pan bolt and then after having my truck for a month gave it to me with a failing rear diff. And I know I’m just some guy on a message board but I’m sure this is no coincidence. It’s directly related to this incident, that truck ran flawlessly before this and the day I got it back the rear diff issue was present