550 front diff fail

[bertfinchgold]

Hi everyone,
Has anyone killed the front diff yet and got nissan to cover it under warrenty? they're putting up a hell of a fight. they're excuse: "its never happened before"!
I was in lowrange, half throttle, trying to drive out of a sandy hole, got it all on video showing how soft it was and they refused to even watch it.
broke RH drive shaft at the inner spline, cross shaft, diff centre and LH inner cv is worn. total parts cost will be +$3700!!!
any advice would be greatly appreciate. 550lyf

 

[nathand22]

Gday and welcome to the forum, sorry its under these circumstances.
I dont own a 550 but my 2012 ST broke the main pinion shaft back in oct and Nissan covered the new diff under warranty no questions asked, they even paid for a hire car for the two weeks it was off the road.

How many kms has yours done? and how much off road has it seen?

Mine had done 55,000km and had done a **** load of off road and some stuff that IMO was pretty serious.(for a nav)

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome to the forum!

It's never happened before because nobody spends that much coin and bush-bashes the thing.

However, if the drive train beyond the gearbox is the same as the YD25, then your rear diff is pretty strong but you've got a weak-as-piss open diff up front. Get the wheels spinning too fast by lifting a wheel (two, actually - you have to be spinning one on each axle because the front and rear axles are solidly joined by the transfer case) and when the wheel comes down it has to expend its energy somewhere. With two tonnes sitting on the top it's going to spend a small amount there, and a large amount of energy will be left to be soaked up by the drive train.

A locker fixes that. No more wheelspin. Lock the rear as well and you've got a tank.

It's just a shame that these events have to happen before we go and get lockers. It's a bigger bloody shame that a $60K Navara doesn't have factory lockers and a $20K Mahindra DOES.

 

[bertfinchgold]

Its only done 13,000km, ive had it from new, 33s, been in low range a couple of times. Never had to drive it hafd. Toyota dealer laughed and said to contact accc.

 

[nathand22]

As soon as they see you are running 33's they have a ticket not to cover you as the vehicle was never designed for tyres that large, and it for that reason i changed mine back to the stockers before i rang Nissan.
Of course the Toyota dealer said that,,,,,,, after all, he would know that toyota would never cover a diff full stop.

 

[bertfinchgold]

I could nearly accept the "too large a tyre" excuse, but they didn't say anything about it. on the plus side, getting better fuel economy with no front diff in!

 

[smithyd40]

Good luck, blew up my diff completely in my 2012 ST and Nissan don't care at all. Mine was in sand too.

Unfortunately the best option is to buy a second hand differential and put a locker in it.