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Fluid Leak Under Front Differential

Some Random Guy

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Just wondering when all these service visits qualify my vehicle for the lemon law? I could write a dissertation about all of the headaches I've been through so far this year.
It may be anecdotal, but I wouldn’t mention lemon. It seems like dealerships and manufacturers shut down once you get serious about that. I get the impression you’re still making forward progress.
Ford went full shutdown on me when I mentioned lemon on my 3rd transmission. I was faced between trading in immediately or hiring a lawyer and being stuck with a car for 2 years that died randomly while trying to move across the country. I chose the trade-in, for another lemon, go figure.
 

AlgUSF

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Thanks for the tips. I will keep your advice in mind. I just feel like service and the standard of pride in a person's work ethic has really fallen off of the table. When I do work for people, I try to give them more than they would expect. I guess times are changing.
You are correct, times they are changing. I do my own service these days and save the warranty for some sort of serious defect. To think about it, I replaced my own timing belt on our Odyssey and every dealer in town could have it done that day. There are one time use bolts required for the job, so I called around to Honda parts departments and all the parts were on backorder and had to come from the Atlanta metro in a week. So...... if all the one time use bolts are on backorder, how can their service departments do it same day?

Here are my one time use bolts that I replaced that would have been reinstalled in my vehicle if I had the dealership do it.
Jeep Wrangler JL Fluid Leak Under Front Differential 73146A25-9703-4AEC-B358-95B25103FF53_1_105_c

Four of these went right into the block.
 
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Bad Scott

Bad Scott

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It may be anecdotal, but I wouldn’t mention lemon. It seems like dealerships and manufacturers shut down once you get serious about that. I get the impression you’re still making forward progress.
Ford went full shutdown on me when I mentioned lemon on my 3rd transmission. I was faced between trading in immediately or hiring a lawyer and being stuck with a car for 2 years that died randomly while trying to move across the country. I chose the trade-in, for another lemon, go figure.
Ughhh...Thanks for the encouragement. Lol!
 
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Bad Scott

Bad Scott

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You are correct, times they are changing. I do my own service these days and save the warranty for some sort of serious defect. To think about it, I replaced my own timing belt on our Odyssey and every dealer in town could have it done that day. There are one time use bolts required for the job, so I called around to Honda parts departments and all the parts were on backorder and had to come from the Atlanta metro in a week. So...... if all the one time use bolts are on backorder, how can their service departments do it same day?

Here are my one time use bolts that I replaced that would have been reinstalled in my vehicle if I had the dealership do it.
Jeep Wrangler JL Fluid Leak Under Front Differential 73146A25-9703-4AEC-B358-95B25103FF53_1_105_c

Four of these went right into the block.
No doubt "Made in China". What ever happened to "Made In America"?
 

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You are correct, times they are changing. I do my own service these days and save the warranty for some sort of serious defect. To think about it, I replaced my own timing belt on our Odyssey and every dealer in town could have it done that day. There are one time use bolts required for the job, so I called around to Honda parts departments and all the parts were on backorder and had to come from the Atlanta metro in a week. So...... if all the one time use bolts are on backorder, how can their service departments do it same day?

Here are my one time use bolts that I replaced that would have been reinstalled in my vehicle if I had the dealership do it.
73146A25-9703-4AEC-B358-95B25103FF53_1_105_c.jpeg

Four of these went right into the block.
Dealer troubleshooting can be almost comical, and they refuse to take any advice from the customer.

Once took my old BMW in, told them a specific fuel injector was leaking and wetting the plug with fuel,causing a misfire. Got two free fuel pumps and free coils before they finally did the injectors a month later.
 

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@Bad Scott, the pics look like the leak is from the diff cover. If you can't find a dealership to fix it properly under warranty, buy yourself an awesome looking diff cover and a fel-pro gasket and DIY. If this is out of your comfort zone find a well respected local mechanic to install a super awesome diff cover and gasket of their preference. My $0.02.

Enjoy your Jeep!
 
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entropy

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Thanks for the tips. I will keep your advice in mind. I just feel like service and the standard of pride in a person's work ethic has really fallen off of the table. When I do work for people, I try to give them more than they would expect. I guess times are changing.
yeah they suck. why keep hitting the same wall. Go to a different dealer. I tried 5 dealers before I found a good one.
 
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Bad Scott

Bad Scott

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UPDATE: I took my brand new $75,000 Rubicon back to the dealership (18th trip back and forth) on 9/7/2021 at 8:20am to address the same differential leak for the second time. They gave me a rental car and kept my Jeep for the entire day...Just a half hour before the rental car company closed they called me and said I could pick up my vehicle (during rush hour across town) as they had now determined that the differential drain plug was leaking (took them all day to figure this out) so, they gobbed it up with sealer and assured me that the repair was complete to my satisfaction...

Knowing that I couldn't drive fast enough to get there before the rental car shop closed, I told them to hold on to my spotlessly clean ride until the following day...The next day I drove the rental car back to the dealership to pick up my ride (19th trip back and forth) and to my displeasure my previously spotlessly clean brand new Rubicon was sitting in the middle of the parking lot all covered in a fresh coat of rain water and looked like it had been test driven through the state highway patrol wet driving course...I asked if someone could wipe it down and they said their wash rack was not open for another half hour and that I didn't want to run it through because the sprayer that hoses off the sand and debris from the roller brushes was broken (I decided just I was better off to clean it again when I got home).

Fast forward two days later I looked under my brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon with only 3,000 miles on it to discover that yes, once again there lay another pool of (you guessed it) differential fluid!

If there's anybody reading these posts from Chrysler management can you get on the phone and ask my dealership why I have had to make 20 trips back and forth for multiple issues for a brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon? That's why I bought a new vehicle, so I wouldn't have to endure the frustration associated with high mileage vehicle maintenance...The real kicker is that each time I left the dealership, the service technician has the gall to ask me for a "10" rating on their customer satisfaction survey! Are they nuts?
 

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UPDATE: I took my brand new $75,000 Rubicon back to the dealership (18th trip back and forth) on 9/7/2021 at 8:20am to address the same differential leak for the second time. They gave me a rental car and kept my Jeep for the entire day...Just a half hour before the rental car company closed they called me and said I could pick up my vehicle (during rush hour across town) as they had now determined that the differential drain plug was leaking (took them all day to figure this out) so, they gobbed it up with sealer and assured me that the repair was complete to my satisfaction...

Knowing that I couldn't drive fast enough to get there before the rental car shop closed, I told them to hold on to my spotlessly clean ride until the following day...The next day I drove the rental car back to the dealership to pick up my ride (19th trip back and forth) and to my displeasure my previously spotlessly clean brand new Rubicon was sitting in the middle of the parking lot all covered in a fresh coat of rain water and looked like it had been test driven through the state highway patrol wet driving course...I asked if someone could wipe it down and they said their wash rack was not open for another half hour and that I didn't want to run it through because the sprayer that hoses off the sand and debris from the roller brushes was broken (I decided just I was better off to clean it again when I got home).

Fast forward two days later I looked under my brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon with only 3,000 miles on it to discover that yes, once again there lay another pool of (you guessed it) differential fluid!

If there's anybody reading these posts from Chrysler management can you get on the phone and ask my dealership why I have had to make 20 trips back and forth for multiple issues for a brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon? That's why I bought a new vehicle, so I wouldn't have to endure the frustration associated with high mileage vehicle maintenance...The real kicker is that each time I left the dealership, the service technician has the gall to ask me for a "10" rating on their customer satisfaction survey! Are they nuts?
@JeepCares
 

mwilk012

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UPDATE: I took my brand new $75,000 Rubicon back to the dealership (18th trip back and forth) on 9/7/2021 at 8:20am to address the same differential leak for the second time. They gave me a rental car and kept my Jeep for the entire day...Just a half hour before the rental car company closed they called me and said I could pick up my vehicle (during rush hour across town) as they had now determined that the differential drain plug was leaking (took them all day to figure this out) so, they gobbed it up with sealer and assured me that the repair was complete to my satisfaction...

Knowing that I couldn't drive fast enough to get there before the rental car shop closed, I told them to hold on to my spotlessly clean ride until the following day...The next day I drove the rental car back to the dealership to pick up my ride (19th trip back and forth) and to my displeasure my previously spotlessly clean brand new Rubicon was sitting in the middle of the parking lot all covered in a fresh coat of rain water and looked like it had been test driven through the state highway patrol wet driving course...I asked if someone could wipe it down and they said their wash rack was not open for another half hour and that I didn't want to run it through because the sprayer that hoses off the sand and debris from the roller brushes was broken (I decided just I was better off to clean it again when I got home).

Fast forward two days later I looked under my brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon with only 3,000 miles on it to discover that yes, once again there lay another pool of (you guessed it) differential fluid!

If there's anybody reading these posts from Chrysler management can you get on the phone and ask my dealership why I have had to make 20 trips back and forth for multiple issues for a brand new $75,000 spotlessly clean Rubicon? That's why I bought a new vehicle, so I wouldn't have to endure the frustration associated with high mileage vehicle maintenance...The real kicker is that each time I left the dealership, the service technician has the gall to ask me for a "10" rating on their customer satisfaction survey! Are they nuts?
You keep talking about the price you (over)paid for your vehicle as if it’s anything other than a Wrangler.Just fix the damn thing.
 

gato

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I'm missing something here. Why don't you try to find the source of the leaking fluid yourself, instead of going back and forth to the dealer? Should be very easy to drive it up to temp, park it. Put a clean white paper under it, check it from time to time and once it starts leaking, carefully trace it to the source. It is likely something simple like a plug or hose fitting or gasket.

Also, put that Jeep in 4HI (wheels straight) to spin that front diff. Try 4LO and lockers, make sure all works well with no noise.

Techs prob gets 0.2hr time to work on it. They need to do something get it out, get paid. If they spend 15 min on it they are losing money. Sad, but true, find the source yourself.
 

The Last Cowboy

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The last thread I read where a guy had this issue, it turned out to be the plastic oil filter housing gasket was leaking and the oil was dripping onto, and dripping off of the front diff.
 
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Bad Scott

Bad Scott

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You keep talking about the price you (over)paid for your vehicle as if it’s anything other than a Wrangler.Just fix the damn thing.
You're missing the point.
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