Let me start out by saying that I absolutely love my Durango. Not gonna get rid of it until it completely dies.
Being that said, I purchased my 98 Durango in April 2003. It had roughly 75K miles on it and at the time of purchase the pinion bearing in the rear diff was repaired. I have not had any problems out of it until here recently.
It started with a loud echoing noise. I had a friend look at it and he said the upper ball joint on the driver side was bad. I took it to Sears and they looked at it and my friend was correct. Along with the fact that all the ball joints on the front end were bad. I had them replaced. But that was not the noise I was hearing. Sears said the driver side hub assembly was screwed up and that had to be replaced. So low and behold I let them replace all the ball joints and the hub assembly. That came out to be a whopping $1100. However, the noise was still there. The mechanic said he thought the noise was coming from the rear diff transverse case.
Next day, I took my truck to the Dodge dealership and had all the differential fluids changed (it was time for it anyway). $300 out of my pocket and it still didn't solve the problem. That very next Monday, I took it back to the dealership, told them there was a really louding roaring noise in the center, only made the noise after releasing the gas and going over 30mph, and made a grinding noise. They checked it out, said it was the pinion bearing and they would have to replace all four. Was only gonna cost me $700. Well, I told them to file it under my extended warranty. They called and made the claim and the warranty guy came out and inspected it. Well, now there is an even bigger problem. The dealership said the whole differential was going to have to be replaced because a gear broke off in the diff and that was the grinding noise I was hearing. It had tore the whole inside of the diff to pieces. The warranty is only going to cover $1000 of the $2800 for a new differential. How sh*tty is that??
Anyway, it's in the shop now, and hopefully it won't be going back for a long time.
Being that said, I purchased my 98 Durango in April 2003. It had roughly 75K miles on it and at the time of purchase the pinion bearing in the rear diff was repaired. I have not had any problems out of it until here recently.
It started with a loud echoing noise. I had a friend look at it and he said the upper ball joint on the driver side was bad. I took it to Sears and they looked at it and my friend was correct. Along with the fact that all the ball joints on the front end were bad. I had them replaced. But that was not the noise I was hearing. Sears said the driver side hub assembly was screwed up and that had to be replaced. So low and behold I let them replace all the ball joints and the hub assembly. That came out to be a whopping $1100. However, the noise was still there. The mechanic said he thought the noise was coming from the rear diff transverse case.
Next day, I took my truck to the Dodge dealership and had all the differential fluids changed (it was time for it anyway). $300 out of my pocket and it still didn't solve the problem. That very next Monday, I took it back to the dealership, told them there was a really louding roaring noise in the center, only made the noise after releasing the gas and going over 30mph, and made a grinding noise. They checked it out, said it was the pinion bearing and they would have to replace all four. Was only gonna cost me $700. Well, I told them to file it under my extended warranty. They called and made the claim and the warranty guy came out and inspected it. Well, now there is an even bigger problem. The dealership said the whole differential was going to have to be replaced because a gear broke off in the diff and that was the grinding noise I was hearing. It had tore the whole inside of the diff to pieces. The warranty is only going to cover $1000 of the $2800 for a new differential. How sh*tty is that??
Anyway, it's in the shop now, and hopefully it won't be going back for a long time.
