Knock in rear with Dana 44

[RedSledES]

I had the knock from the rear axle after the dealer installed my Mopar lift. They replaced the rear differential gears and the whole process was completed with in 10days. I’ve driven it approximately 2k miles and no knocking as of today. I’ll keep you guys posted. Thanks.

10 days is a great turnaround.

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[RedSledES]

I changed my oil at 20k and it was dark, but no metal at that time. I am at 32k now and have not noticed a noise while driving, but I do if I have the Jeep on jack stands and spin one wheel. I am headed out West in 5 weeks and don't know if I should do something before or after the trip. I have made it 32k so far, what's another 5000 right?

5k could be just enough. I'd be checking it out before the trip for sure.

 

[AMT]

First time potential Jeep owner here. Just finished reading this thread. Looking at getting a 2021 4 door Wrangler Willys Sport. Pretty sure this has the LSD stock. I haven’t noticed many people with the Willys reporting this problem. Is that the case? Has anyone heard of fix update? If still occurring would consider the regular sport base model. Like the other stuff that comes on the Willys Sport, though. Thanks.

 

[WXman]

As soon as I got my Jeep home from the dealership 1st thing I did was pull the vent cap off the rear vent tube and remove some of the cotton pads out of it. The black lid snaps off. Then I cut an incision in the membrane and pulled cotton out with needle nose pliers until I could breathe through it with my mouth. Then reassembled.

If you inspect that vent cap you will see that it's really good for keeping water out but it's horrible for letting the axle breathe. Since I never drive my Jeep through a pond I elected to open it up so my axle can breathe and last longer.

 

[PatrickR]

Mine is still in the shop waiting for the last part (a seal) to rebuild the diff. This is going on 3 weeks.

So an update, I got my Jeep back and all is well. The limited slip seems to be engaging a little more aggressively now too, which is good. Hopefully the redesigned parts hold up!

 

[Degradant]

Strange sounds also appeared on my...
jeep wrangler (m220 lsd) sahara overland 3.6l 2018
and I immediately want to order a replacement spare part because I live in Europe and don't have official dealers or repairmens familiar with the Wrangler. I don't want to leave the jeep in the repair shop for a month, so I want to first wait for the some Locker and then open the rear axle and diagnose the problem.


My question is:
what solutions to the problem are there today?

Only these?

• Mopar OEM Differential Case Assembly - Mopar (68474060AB)
• OX D44/M220 (Jeep JT/JL) OX Locking Differential (All) (32 Spline Ct.)
• ARB RD245 Air Locker M220 Dana 44 Rear 32 Spline for Jeep JL Wrangler
• Whole axle swap or install used parts

Personally, I like OX the most, especially the mechanical one.
But now they aren't delivered to my country (Ukraine) and there is not even available in US.

And I also drive a lot in the city in winter, how much worse is this manual lockers of automatic LSD in city driving on icy highways?

 

[brewtus98]

Well, just got back from 1600 mile round trip and in addition to a broken windshield the rear axle that was fixed due to knocking is slinging axle fluid out pinion seal- this was replaced when they rebuilt the LSD at about 20k. 34k on it now- not sure how much fluid was lost but it’s all over the rear frame. Here we go again.

 

[Rogue321]

Hi. New user here.

I haven't read the entire thread, but skipped around a bit. I'm having the same knocking noise issue when I put larger tires on. Going down hill or decelerating at a slow speed makes the noise with the 285s on, but I can't hear it with the stock wheels and tires.

Are the LSD's the only ones with issues?

It seems there hasn't been a solution yet. Is this right? How is that even possible? I've contacted JeepCares, so hopefully I'll get something in motion.

 

[brewtus98]

Limited Slips are primarily the knocking issue described in this thread. Not saying Rubicon axles don't have issues either. Mine did it with stock Sahara wheels before even swapping to Rubicon takeoffs. I did read in this thread there is a revised part number for the differential case, but not sure what the revision was. Mine was rebuilt with non-revised parts and had about 14k on it with no knocking still when the seal went. Tire size MIGHT amplify the noise, but it isn't the cause. Clutch packs in the diff wearing out VERY prematurely and causing side gear/bearing wear. I would have the dealer look at it if still under warranty.

 

[entropy]

I just want to say I did my first rear dana 44 LSD axle fluid change myself today. The Jeep is 2 years old and 14,500 miles. It has seen plenty of dirt. There was no metal chunks on the magnet. The fluid looked great, it was dark but very liquidy and clean overall, didnt look different than the new fluid I put on.

Mine is a 2019JL. I wonder if some LSDs are bad from factory. Or if there is something wrong with the fluid?

 

[Rogue321]

I'm taking it to the shop on the 12th. The soonest I could get it in.

What's the best way to expedite this?

I've never been to this dealership, so I don't know how they operate, but surely this issue has to be in a technical bulletin or something. I make my money with this Jeep, it can't be perpetually in the shop for an issue they know nothing about.

 

[OldJupiter]

I'm taking it to the shop on the 12th. The soonest I could get it in.

What's the best way to expedite this?

I've never been to this dealership, so I don't know how they operate, but surely this issue has to be in a technical bulletin or something. I make my money with this Jeep, it can't be perpetually in the shop for an issue they know nothing about.

Follow up, follow up, oh yeah and follow up with that dealership. Do not let them run you around. Jeep Cares was a huge help in terms of logging everything and getting my information in place - in the case that there was an issue.

My biggest issue is that my part delivery was moved 3 times. Each time I had to call for the update. Overall the Jeep has been solid since.

 

[basinite]

I just want to say I did my first rear dana 44 LSD axle fluid change myself today. The Jeep is 2 years old and 14,500 miles. It has seen plenty of dirt. There was no metal chunks on the magnet. The fluid looked great, it was dark but very liquidy and clean overall, didnt look different than the new fluid I put on.

Mine is a 2019JL. I wonder if some LSDs are bad from factory. Or if there is something wrong with the fluid?

I think the issue is with the fluid from the factory. I changed mine at around 5,000 miles and it looked like black tar. I have no doubt if I wouldn't have done that, I would have eventually had the knock in my rear end. I posted pics on one of these threads of my first oil change.

The solution is to change the oil really fast (within 5,000 miles) and get some good fluid in there. I changed mine at 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 miles. I use Royal Purple fluid and do not add additional friction modifier, since the Royal Purple comes with it.

My Jeep see's a lot of off road action and so far no issues. I love my LSD, it locks up really nice and has gotten me outa many bad spots. To anyone reading this thread.....please change out your oil asap!! It only takes about 10 minutes and is super easy to do.

 

[Rogue321]

I tried to get my GoPro underneath the vehicle front, middle, and rear. But too much road and wind noise to make out any noises. I did get these from inside the Jeep.

You may have to turn it up a bit to hear it...no surprising loud noises.






Is this the noise people are hearing? I've heard it once with the stock tires (or thought I did), but it's obvious with the larger tires. I can really make it do it coming down a hill. It's very difficult to pinpoint where it's coming from, but it seems like the front. Which wouldn't be of interest in this thread.

The noise is definitely related to driveline/tire speed.

 

[Rogue321]

I took it to the dealership Thursday.

I had two noises for them to look at. This one and another noise I have. I gave detailed instructions on how to verify the noises, and of course, they didn't hear anything.

So I'm going down tomorrow to show them and demonstrate the noises.

The other dealership in town verified my other noise, but said that my pads and rotors were corroded and were making the popping noise. They wanted $660.

I hate dealerships.

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