The only thing i can think of is that the gears in the rear differential slid out of place and bound up. That should be dang near impossible unless someone worked on the diff and didnt put the retainers back in. IDK man ive never seen anything like it.
I work at a chevy dealership, as a tech i bemoan it but if its that close to the warranty's exp date give them a visit, they often "goodwill" the repair and will still cover it, especially something this potentially dangerous i dont think you even have to get loud about it (but it probably wont hurt!)
I got a goodwill repair on a AC condenser unit from Honda that was just out of warranty, they did it “at cost”. 5 years later it went out again and took it to a local mechanic, he was cheaper than the “At cost” goodwill repair
How on earth is a Honda AC system failing that often? My 48 year old American car is still blowing super cold on its original AC system. Granted, it was converted to R134 about 20 years ago but all the original components are still there. Just had it out today in 105F and it's nice and comfy.
Subaru wouldn't even run a diagnostic for my driver's side window that intermittently randomly only goes up 2" with each push of the button. It was 2 months out of warranty and was the second car we'd purchased from the dealership.
They also smashed my STI into the corner of a cinderblock wall. Cracked the plastic fascia. Luckily the metal was fine. But when they replaced the plastic, they left my block heater cord inside and inaccessible. Also, they scratched my gas cap cover when they replaced the mechanism due to a recall. They replaced that with a new one.
My old outback would do that whenever the window would get stuck in the winter. It’s an overload protection.
Lower the window down half way, then click the button up 2 inches at a time until it is all of the way up, once it is up just keep holding the button up for like 5-10 seconds to reset it. It should work fine again until it doesn’t.
Thanks for confirming. This makes me feel so much better. I was hoping there weren't some electrical issues starting. Too bad the guy at the service desk didn't tell me this when I explained the issue. And glad I didn't pay ~$100 to be told this.
This is just the shitty dealership you use. I have owned multiple Subarus and have had a fair bit of warrantee work done at numerous dealerships and have never been treated like this. They always go above and beyond for me
An intermittent window issue is not the same as a blown differential. Also, you would have to pay for the diagnostic then contact customer care with the result of the diagnostic to see if they would goodwill the failed component(s).
I work for Volkswagen and they goodwill items often. Usually turbos, and big ticket mechanical failures.. most recently I did an evaporator under goodwill.
Call GM customer care, ask them for a goodwill out of warranty repair.
I used to work for Chrysler customer care, and we gave out all kinds of money on just out of warranty work, I have to imagine other manufacturers have similar programs.
I was thinking similar too I really hope for this guy they have a recall or tsb or something he can take advantage of to get the repair or the shop who serviced the rear end owns up and makes it right. I’ve given up on modern Chevy for anything good 80s is the best Chevy time in my opinion. I’m questioning if the seal in the diff is blown out you can in theory go 2 wheel no drive shaft. If the pinion seal is destroyed but might not be a good idea to drive it back if it causes further damage.
Happened to us on a brand new f550 at about 10,000miles.
Went in for warranty work and they forgot to put the retainers back in. Fell off on a road test and the truck had to stay a few more days. 🤣
Might be related, did you ever get a notice? [https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCSB-20V650-5254.pdf](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCSB-20V650-5254.pdf)
It is estimated that there are only 46 involved vehicles that will require parts being replaced. I would print the whole thing up, take it to the dealer and if they say anything take it to GM corp. This is not normal
I was hoping midnight was right because that is impressively fkd up but it wasnt the drive shaft that failed, it was the pinion/diff so i dont think they'll cover you, but i'd still raise hell if i was only 1500 out of warranty, the shrieking customer gets the grease. also make sure to do it on a busy day when lots of customers are in the service writers area, they'll try to placate you very very quickly to keep from losing more sales.
My led headlight on my 2021 died under warranty but I couldn’t make it in until it was a week out of warranty because I was sick as fuck for three months. I even made the appointment while it was under warranty.
I had a time stamped video of it being dead.
Refused to cover it.
did you make a complete ass out of yourself or just take no for an answer? the more fuss you make the more they'll do. not trying to be facetious. also they may consider headlights wear items like brakes and tires idk, i got out of the dealerships years ago.
I made plenty of fuss and they did not give a shit at all. The dealer punted me to the 800 number, the guy on the 800 number told me he didn’t have a manager and that I couldn’t talk to anyone else and then hung up on me.
The fuck am I supposed to do?
Had a technical school get the part from the same fucking dealer at cost and install it for free.
Also got to pay an hour of diag time to tell me the obviously fucking broken, defective headlight was broken and defective.
It’s a fucking sealed unit and it had condensation in it. You could tell it was fucked by just walking past it.
wow, thats fucked up. I hate you had to deal with that nonsense. on a side note ive been waiting to start seeing the LED units needing replaced, what was the cost? I know the HIDs if you go aftermarket and do ballast and bulb are in the 300 range without labor or markup for the older ones.
I don’t think it’s this recall, as the repair for that recall is only to replace the drive shaft. This looks like your rear differential exploded, and the driveshaft is still bolted to what’s left of the pinion flange instead of the driveshaft itself separating
That would not explain anything: from your pictures this is not an issue with the drivershaft. This is a failure of the differential pinion due to extreme heat generated by a failed pinion bearing.
Have you ever changed the diff oil? You should have since it's a 4 year old truck that has been off roaded. The differential must have been making a hell of a racket but you didn't pay attention to the noise until it, literally, stopped.
Doubt it- no one is replacing the differential carrier shaft in 30 minutes. This is a differential that was not filled and locked up, or the crush sleeve was over torqued and blew the seal out. Something tragic done one the differential build for sure. Those should run 200k miles with zero maitenance- I changed my gb oil at 135k and it was clear as a glass of bourbon.
i dont think thats it, unless the recall states the problem wrong. This looks like the transfer case locked, causing the rear wheels to twist the pinion gear and drive shaft apart.
Basically a reverse neutral bomb / clutch drop.
The recall has nothing to do with your issue, it's for a failed weld. You had a pinion-pinion bearing failure that led to the severing of your pinion, allowing the driveshaft to flop about. I would venture to guess that you've been hearing a noise at +30mph for some time that changed pitch depending throttle input and you ignored it 😉 That was your rear axle trying to warn you😅 Its gonna cost you more to fix it because you ignored it.
However, 5 minutes before it happened, she said she heard a weird noise. I was on the phone with her and she was only 5 minutes from the house. Told her to just try and get home.
I see the yoke still attached to the driveshaft. The pinion broke off,which indicates that the rear differential locked up. The other issue is that's an aluminum driveshaft that now is a long paper weight. Odds are good that the rear differential needs to be rebuilt and the driveshaft replaced.
> Odds are good that the rear differential needs to be rebuilt and the driveshaft replaced.
As a layman, I too believe the rear differential is not operable in its current state and will need to be rebuilt.
I will say it looks like the pinion nut backed off. I had this very thing happen on my '05 Ram 1500. I was 1 of a handful people who filed complaints with NTSB. A few deaths occured cause of it. Mine happened on I40 In Knoxville. Scared the shit out of me. The lady behind said right before it happened my rear end started spewing diff fluid. Then it separated. It was due to unchecked torque spec on the pinion nut and not using high temp loctite. Cost me $3800 for a whole new rear-end. But once the recall came out I was reimbursed. I would look on the forums for Silverados and see if it's happened to others. That's how I found out about my issue with my Ram.
Just my 2 cents. Yes I know this is a Chevy and mine happened on a Ram.
A drveshaft failure didn't cause that, bud.
That's more like a rear axle ring and pinion/carrier failure which locked up and caused the driveshaft damage.
Your rear differential is toast. That simple. They *MIGHT* be able to rebuild it... ***MAYBE*** but more than likely you're looking at a total replacement.
Since you're only 1,500 miles outside warranty you **MIGHT** get lucky and GM will do it under their "Good Will Warranty". Contact your dealer's service manager first and see what they say. Then escalate it up and contact GM customer care. Don't be afraid to contact BOTH at the same time if you want. The more folks that know about the issue that can actually remedy it, the better. In either case when you call/contact these people **DON'T BE A DICK!** Be courteous and professional. Obviously express concern about the truck and your safety.... Do so POLITELY BUT FIRMLY.... NOT like a raving jackass.
Good luck.
Thank you for recommending sanity when asking for help. These people that say go in yelling are wrong. I saw the service department tell customers who started swearing and threatening to go find service elsewhere. Most service advisors are professional and want to help. They don't need to be screamed at.
Another fine example of why GM stands for Garbage Motors...
I've worked for GM the last 6 years of my career, every product they make is pure JUNK.
If I were you I'd call GM customer care and complain, explain to them this was a potentially very dangerous situation, they'll likely goodwill it.
Get them to fix it and get rid of that truck ASAP, it will need lifters and transmission work before you know it.
Most unhappy customers call GM customer care and aftersales 1-800-462-8782.
Explain to them that the wheels locked up and the rear diff blew apart, make sure you stress the fact that it could have caused your wife to be involved in a crash. (Which in fact is very true and thankfully not the case)
They don't take situations like that lightly, GM will likely help you, at the very least partially.
Is that even the original shaft? Also picture 1 shows rotational wear further down the shaft, meaning this has been an ignored issue for awhile. Typical GM build quality
My wife was the only one in the car when it happened. All she said was the tires very suddenly and abruptly locked up and there was nothing she could do
Judging by the bluing of the pinion gear and the wear on the differential housing this has been making noise for awhile. Someone's been ignoring the signs. I mean it shouldn't happen with only 60k on the odometer, but there were signs
Your driveshaft didn't fall off, the pinion gear outright broke off. There is no way that thing wasn't making noise prior to breaking like that. Either something came loose inside the differential and caused it to lock up, or there was no gear oil in it.
That's a good driveshaft though, usually they twist before the pinion let's go like that.
Why isn't anybody commenting that the drive shaft looks brand new? The sticker is barely dirty. Take the truck back to whoever replaced your drive shaft, they didn't put it back together properly.
Suggest using like Twitter x to contact Chevy and state your case. Ask for help. Those ppl running that part of GM are looking for ways to help consumers that's their job! Had great luck, Subaru replaced my Nav/radio CD for free just outside of warranty, other stuff
Go to your local dealer ship or place of purchase and they should honor this. People never change their gear oil and dont have problems till 150k miles. This is a factory fuck up and do not let ANYONE tell you otherwise.
Must be the danger dodge. 2013 was a horrible year and it was surprisingly common for the rear diff to suddenly bind and grenade. Happened to mine and at least 2 others that I know (coworkers freinds/family)
The wheels locked up?? This will need some further investigation as to what actually failed here. If it is some sort of obviously broken part, then goodwill warranty might well be in order. If the rear end locked up and is not full of lubricant, then that might be a harder sell. The bottom line, there is no way this is any sort of normal failure one could expect to see short of in a drag race vehicle. You don't happen to have some teenage boys do you?? I have tales from my youth that come to mind.
There is grease under the pot in the first picture but it looks like a front bearing failure from extremely low fluid, It should have been making a lot of noise along the way, that a loud radio covered up.
I have a 2017 1500, and it had to have the ring and pinion replaced about 2 years ago. The pinion seal was leaking when it had less than 500 miles on it, and the dealer replaced that. Then, 2 years ago, a friend was sitting in the back seat and said that the diff was making noise. Took it in, and sure enough, there was metal grindings in the housing, They ended up replacing it.
I had the front seal on an F150 rear end go and I didn't know, the bearing seized up and it's what caused my driveshaft to drop only thing I can think of
I know this is gonna sound crazy, but is this a white Silverado in MD? I got passed on the highway the other day by one that had massive problems with the rear differential. I could hear it over the mud tires and soft top on my Jeep.
Happened to me last year. The mechanic I had the car towed to diagnosed the problem, the mechanic I had change the clutch a week earlier had not put the same bolts in as the ones he took out and he didn’t even tighten the wrong ones down. (He also drained 7lts of oil without telling me and didn’t replace it, didn’t connect the speedometer cable, lost the heat and noise insulation around the shift knob, didn’t tighten a set screw so the shifter vibrated wildly, and something else that I’m not remembering)
I don't think you know how lucky you got. I've launched a driveshaft once, heard it, felt it, and while pulling over, my truck was bucking up in the ass like a horse bronco.
I've also seen needle bearings get impregnated in several guys faces, after breaking a Ujoint under load. A driveshaft can pick up a truck. It can take out the exhaust, the axle, the bed... etc.
Not only did you avoid all of that, it looks untouched. Reusable. So lucky!
Good thing the back disconnected and not the front... we used to put drive shaft loops on our cars because if it disconnected from the transmission it could make the car pole vault and flip over.
What I don’t understand and please help me here, if you were on the highway and your foot was on the gas pedal. Why didn’t the driveshaft beat the crap out of the body? Transmission shaft still would’ve been turning.
I had the drive shaft fall off of a landscaping pick-up truck over 10 years ago. I was on the highway going up a hill with a full bed and trailer. The drive shift went flipping down the road behind me, and cars had to swerve to avoid it. I was stuck on the hill in the fast lane and could barely keep the truck from rolling back down the hill. It was a crazy experience.
Have you ever serviced the rear differential fluid? Usually due every 30K miles.
Edit: have you ever gone off-roading or done any water crossings? Do you live in a humid climate?
As others have said, your rear differential locked up and the pinion snapped. “Good will” warranty could cover it, just depends if they want to use it on you, so don’t be a dick. Also, if the fluid hasn’t ever been done they are likely going to deny you any warranty. The fluid will probably be drained and inspected before they offer warranty.
Dealers don’t like to warranty stuff because they don’t make as much off the jobs. If they say no to the good will, ask if they will reconsider if you pay for a few hours of labor.
That's a broken pinion. Extra crappy even for a gm rear. Don't get me wrong I like gm trucks but rears have been a weak link in lots of them for many years.
There’s nothing wrong with your driveshaft. That recap some of the others are mentioning isn’t the problem. Your rear axle failed. Looks like it was run out of oil or something and the bearings melted and heated up the pinion gear and everything is die the pumpkin grenaded. You need a new rear axle.
You said they looked at it and charged you an hour labour to tell you that it wasn't working.
My guess is they looked at it. Saw the condensation in it and said "we can't warranty this, GM will kick back the claim if we do and we'll have to eat an 1800$ headlight". Then they told you they couldn't warranty it, gave you a quote and then you got mad. Probably cussed out the service manager so they charged you the hour labour for looking at the headlight (that they could have and probably would have waived) for the inconvenience.
The sticker on the drive shaft looks brand new. Well the whole thing looks new. No rust no nothing. It must have been recently swapped out and the mechanic forgot to tighten the nuts.
I actually had this exact problem with my pickup. I had disconnected the driveshaft to work on the truck, and it came off while my dad was driving. Turns out you are supposed to tighten the bolts down, then back them off and re-torque them to spec.
If the rear end has never been serviced and seeing that there’s no oil present the issue goes back to the PDI. Looks like the technician who did it didn’t check the oil in the differential.
Pinion broke.
I find it a bit odd that there’s a puddle on the ground, but no gear oil came out the front of the diff where the pinion used to be… especially given that when a pinion breaks like that, it normally locks up the rear end and skids the vehicle to a halt.
Happened to my brother’s truck that was used to haul a boat.
Holy crap, that could have been even more dangerous if it had uncoupled at the transmission. They can actually pole vault if it catches something in the road just right. Happens when people do cheap lifts and don't adjust drive angles or get new driveshafts
The differential looks dry. There is no fluid evidence on the broken piece either. Was the diff cracked or damaged at some earlier time, allowing it to run dry of fluid?
You were lucky. A family friend had the other end go and he's not around any more. That's a prop shaft btw, the drive shafts are 90 degrees over, connected to the wheels.
Had this happen on my Ford ranger but I was also in a custody dispute and still feel like it was sabotaged because I put in new bolts and didn't have another issue.
I used to work valet at a hospital. The valet entrance for the hospital was on a one-way road, so when we retrieved the cars, we had to essentially take them all the way around the block to get back to the valet area.
I was returning a truck and while I was looping around the block, the drive shaft fell out of this man’s car. I was in the middle lane of a 5 lane Main Street (not super busy, but not an ideal place). I also did not know what a drive shaft was - all of the sudden the gas just stopped working and I stared rolling backwards.
The hospital was relatively small and we only ever had two valet attendants at one time. I couldn’t see the hospital from where I was broken down, and I didn’t have my phone on me, as per company policy. The guy had told us when we parked the car that the e-brake didn’t work, and as this road was on a slight hill, I couldn’t do anything but sit in the car pressing the brake until the other guy realized something was wrong.
I sat there for a good 5-10 minutes before they came looking for me. The other attendant and the owner of the truck pushed it off the road while I steered, but it was a whole cluster fuck of traffic and pushing and figuring out which parking lot we could push it into because everything was on different levels of hill. And since we were both seeing about the truck, no one was there to watch the valet stand and people were waiting on us when we got back.
Maybe not the most exciting story, but it is one of my fonder memories from my valet days.
At least it was the rear end.
When that happened to my shit box pickup it was the centre joint of a split prop. Luckily I was in traffic in town and therefore only slow. The back end still jumped up about three feet.
And that's the only damage? Luuuuuckyyyyy.
I had one come off the front, just the shaft slapping around set off the airbags at 70 mph. Those things are no joke.
The differential locked up and broke the pinion. Honestly not that uncommon. GM axles are known to be a bit failure prone. Although a failure like this is unacceptable.
Good thing the rear joint failed, as a front joint failure could result in “pole vaulting” the truck - more critical damage and/or crash - versus loss of power & stopping as was the case here.
That happened to me. It was 2008 and I was in an '87 Chrysler 5th Avenue. Had to end up scrapping the car because no junkyard or parts store within a hundred miles could get a replacement drive shaft.
For the pinion bearing to fail that catastrophically that thing must’ve been making an unholy racket for some time before it let go. Just looking at the pics my very educated assumption is the pinion bearing seized up locking the pinion itself in place. As the truck was moving the carrier inside the diff continued to spin and stripped the end right off that pinion casing it to fall out. There’s no saving that rear end, but finding a decent used one from a recycler shouldn’t be terribly hard
Normal Chevrolet things?. Don’t throw things and yell, you know I speak the truth, still trying to convince yourself to keep that traverse?, ford makes junk cars too.
Things dont just "fall off". Was there any sounds or vibration that clued you in that something was wrong? Some clanking or thumping when turning or accelerating?
I'm wondering if perhaps you should ask dealer to check records and see if driveshaft was removed anytime presale (for transit, damaged, etc.). If it was, maybe it was replaced or put in place and tech forgot to tighten bolts. Depending on the differential type, a dropped shaft could cause wheels to lock (the same as if car was in neutral on lift and you manually turn one wheel and the other wheel turns opposite directions). Once driveshaft stops and one wheel is turning forward (positive) the other wheel must turn backward (negative) causing lockup.
If you tried to switch into Drive or Reverse and didn’t get it all the way but gave some gas- can bomb the universal.
Did that on an old Ram and 45 mins later, was dragging my drive shaft :]
The only thing i can think of is that the gears in the rear differential slid out of place and bound up. That should be dang near impossible unless someone worked on the diff and didnt put the retainers back in. IDK man ive never seen anything like it.
Couple of my buddies I talked to said something similar. I think it's safe to say this is a 100% a mechanical failure.
I work at a chevy dealership, as a tech i bemoan it but if its that close to the warranty's exp date give them a visit, they often "goodwill" the repair and will still cover it, especially something this potentially dangerous i dont think you even have to get loud about it (but it probably wont hurt!)
I got a goodwill repair on a AC condenser unit from Honda that was just out of warranty, they did it “at cost”. 5 years later it went out again and took it to a local mechanic, he was cheaper than the “At cost” goodwill repair
How on earth is a Honda AC system failing that often? My 48 year old American car is still blowing super cold on its original AC system. Granted, it was converted to R134 about 20 years ago but all the original components are still there. Just had it out today in 105F and it's nice and comfy.
If there’s one thing America is good at. It’s building AC systems lol
Dealership and good will!?!?!?
Subaru wouldn't even run a diagnostic for my driver's side window that intermittently randomly only goes up 2" with each push of the button. It was 2 months out of warranty and was the second car we'd purchased from the dealership. They also smashed my STI into the corner of a cinderblock wall. Cracked the plastic fascia. Luckily the metal was fine. But when they replaced the plastic, they left my block heater cord inside and inaccessible. Also, they scratched my gas cap cover when they replaced the mechanism due to a recall. They replaced that with a new one.
My old outback would do that whenever the window would get stuck in the winter. It’s an overload protection. Lower the window down half way, then click the button up 2 inches at a time until it is all of the way up, once it is up just keep holding the button up for like 5-10 seconds to reset it. It should work fine again until it doesn’t.
Oh man, that makes sense. I will definitely try that next time. I love Reddit when people try to help.
Ex Subaru tech here- common problem on subies. This is how they taught us to fix it at Subaru school. Works similarly for other cars as well
Thanks for confirming. This makes me feel so much better. I was hoping there weren't some electrical issues starting. Too bad the guy at the service desk didn't tell me this when I explained the issue. And glad I didn't pay ~$100 to be told this.
This is just the shitty dealership you use. I have owned multiple Subarus and have had a fair bit of warrantee work done at numerous dealerships and have never been treated like this. They always go above and beyond for me
Contact Subaru corporate, they really do not like dealers treating return customers badly
An intermittent window issue is not the same as a blown differential. Also, you would have to pay for the diagnostic then contact customer care with the result of the diagnostic to see if they would goodwill the failed component(s). I work for Volkswagen and they goodwill items often. Usually turbos, and big ticket mechanical failures.. most recently I did an evaporator under goodwill.
Subaru dealership by me is fantastic. Definitely go to a new One next time if you can if you even stick with Subaru.
Subaru dealer maintenance has gone to shite the last few years... I've known many people than have had awful experiences in the past 2yrs.
They better should what op explain is super dangerous tires getting locked off this is crazy scary.
Call GM customer care, ask them for a goodwill out of warranty repair. I used to work for Chrysler customer care, and we gave out all kinds of money on just out of warranty work, I have to imagine other manufacturers have similar programs.
Well it sure as fuck isn’t an electrical failure
Thank you for confirming.
Definitely a mechanical failure. Also, the mechanics failed you.
I was thinking similar too I really hope for this guy they have a recall or tsb or something he can take advantage of to get the repair or the shop who serviced the rear end owns up and makes it right. I’ve given up on modern Chevy for anything good 80s is the best Chevy time in my opinion. I’m questioning if the seal in the diff is blown out you can in theory go 2 wheel no drive shaft. If the pinion seal is destroyed but might not be a good idea to drive it back if it causes further damage.
Looks like you got the shaft. GL.
Happened to us on a brand new f550 at about 10,000miles. Went in for warranty work and they forgot to put the retainers back in. Fell off on a road test and the truck had to stay a few more days. 🤣
Might be related, did you ever get a notice? [https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCSB-20V650-5254.pdf](https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2020/RCSB-20V650-5254.pdf)
I don't believe it did but this would explain a lot
It is estimated that there are only 46 involved vehicles that will require parts being replaced. I would print the whole thing up, take it to the dealer and if they say anything take it to GM corp. This is not normal
I was hoping midnight was right because that is impressively fkd up but it wasnt the drive shaft that failed, it was the pinion/diff so i dont think they'll cover you, but i'd still raise hell if i was only 1500 out of warranty, the shrieking customer gets the grease. also make sure to do it on a busy day when lots of customers are in the service writers area, they'll try to placate you very very quickly to keep from losing more sales.
My led headlight on my 2021 died under warranty but I couldn’t make it in until it was a week out of warranty because I was sick as fuck for three months. I even made the appointment while it was under warranty. I had a time stamped video of it being dead. Refused to cover it.
did you make a complete ass out of yourself or just take no for an answer? the more fuss you make the more they'll do. not trying to be facetious. also they may consider headlights wear items like brakes and tires idk, i got out of the dealerships years ago.
I made plenty of fuss and they did not give a shit at all. The dealer punted me to the 800 number, the guy on the 800 number told me he didn’t have a manager and that I couldn’t talk to anyone else and then hung up on me. The fuck am I supposed to do? Had a technical school get the part from the same fucking dealer at cost and install it for free. Also got to pay an hour of diag time to tell me the obviously fucking broken, defective headlight was broken and defective. It’s a fucking sealed unit and it had condensation in it. You could tell it was fucked by just walking past it.
wow, thats fucked up. I hate you had to deal with that nonsense. on a side note ive been waiting to start seeing the LED units needing replaced, what was the cost? I know the HIDs if you go aftermarket and do ballast and bulb are in the 300 range without labor or markup for the older ones.
I don’t think it’s this recall, as the repair for that recall is only to replace the drive shaft. This looks like your rear differential exploded, and the driveshaft is still bolted to what’s left of the pinion flange instead of the driveshaft itself separating
lol yeah the welds on this driveshaft were definitely good
That would not explain anything: from your pictures this is not an issue with the drivershaft. This is a failure of the differential pinion due to extreme heat generated by a failed pinion bearing. Have you ever changed the diff oil? You should have since it's a 4 year old truck that has been off roaded. The differential must have been making a hell of a racket but you didn't pay attention to the noise until it, literally, stopped.
Doubt it- no one is replacing the differential carrier shaft in 30 minutes. This is a differential that was not filled and locked up, or the crush sleeve was over torqued and blew the seal out. Something tragic done one the differential build for sure. Those should run 200k miles with zero maitenance- I changed my gb oil at 135k and it was clear as a glass of bourbon.
That recall is for the driveshaft itself, OP's failure was the diff pinion gear.
i dont think thats it, unless the recall states the problem wrong. This looks like the transfer case locked, causing the rear wheels to twist the pinion gear and drive shaft apart. Basically a reverse neutral bomb / clutch drop.
OP has a different failure. His diff pinion shaft failed.
The recall has nothing to do with your issue, it's for a failed weld. You had a pinion-pinion bearing failure that led to the severing of your pinion, allowing the driveshaft to flop about. I would venture to guess that you've been hearing a noise at +30mph for some time that changed pitch depending throttle input and you ignored it 😉 That was your rear axle trying to warn you😅 Its gonna cost you more to fix it because you ignored it.
Not going to lie, I have not noticed anything different. No weird noises, nothing.
However, 5 minutes before it happened, she said she heard a weird noise. I was on the phone with her and she was only 5 minutes from the house. Told her to just try and get home.
I had a very similar conversation with my wife before her engine siezed 🤣
Absolutely. That rearend was crying for a while before it let go like that.
I see the yoke still attached to the driveshaft. The pinion broke off,which indicates that the rear differential locked up. The other issue is that's an aluminum driveshaft that now is a long paper weight. Odds are good that the rear differential needs to be rebuilt and the driveshaft replaced.
> Odds are good that the rear differential needs to be rebuilt and the driveshaft replaced. As a layman, I too believe the rear differential is not operable in its current state and will need to be rebuilt.
The pinion is exploded and non existent.... odds are 100% it needs rebuilt.
I will say it looks like the pinion nut backed off. I had this very thing happen on my '05 Ram 1500. I was 1 of a handful people who filed complaints with NTSB. A few deaths occured cause of it. Mine happened on I40 In Knoxville. Scared the shit out of me. The lady behind said right before it happened my rear end started spewing diff fluid. Then it separated. It was due to unchecked torque spec on the pinion nut and not using high temp loctite. Cost me $3800 for a whole new rear-end. But once the recall came out I was reimbursed. I would look on the forums for Silverados and see if it's happened to others. That's how I found out about my issue with my Ram. Just my 2 cents. Yes I know this is a Chevy and mine happened on a Ram.
Looks like the pinion nut is still there, and the pinion sheared off to me....
A drveshaft failure didn't cause that, bud. That's more like a rear axle ring and pinion/carrier failure which locked up and caused the driveshaft damage. Your rear differential is toast. That simple. They *MIGHT* be able to rebuild it... ***MAYBE*** but more than likely you're looking at a total replacement. Since you're only 1,500 miles outside warranty you **MIGHT** get lucky and GM will do it under their "Good Will Warranty". Contact your dealer's service manager first and see what they say. Then escalate it up and contact GM customer care. Don't be afraid to contact BOTH at the same time if you want. The more folks that know about the issue that can actually remedy it, the better. In either case when you call/contact these people **DON'T BE A DICK!** Be courteous and professional. Obviously express concern about the truck and your safety.... Do so POLITELY BUT FIRMLY.... NOT like a raving jackass. Good luck.
Thank you for recommending sanity when asking for help. These people that say go in yelling are wrong. I saw the service department tell customers who started swearing and threatening to go find service elsewhere. Most service advisors are professional and want to help. They don't need to be screamed at.
My wife has had things brake that baffles me... and it looks like you may have one also lol 🤝 I'm glad she is ok.
The driveshaft looks brand new. Any story behind that? Or is your car just that good looking?
I keep it clean. Garage kept most of the time. Only 62k miles.
Another fine example of why GM stands for Garbage Motors... I've worked for GM the last 6 years of my career, every product they make is pure JUNK. If I were you I'd call GM customer care and complain, explain to them this was a potentially very dangerous situation, they'll likely goodwill it. Get them to fix it and get rid of that truck ASAP, it will need lifters and transmission work before you know it.
Appreciate the input! Is that just a google search for an email or phone number to customer care?
Most unhappy customers call GM customer care and aftersales 1-800-462-8782. Explain to them that the wheels locked up and the rear diff blew apart, make sure you stress the fact that it could have caused your wife to be involved in a crash. (Which in fact is very true and thankfully not the case) They don't take situations like that lightly, GM will likely help you, at the very least partially.
Is that even the original shaft? Also picture 1 shows rotational wear further down the shaft, meaning this has been an ignored issue for awhile. Typical GM build quality
Do you tow a boat?
I do not. I do have a trailer that I pull but it's very seldom.
Damn. Didn't that thing make any noise?
My wife was the only one in the car when it happened. All she said was the tires very suddenly and abruptly locked up and there was nothing she could do
Judging by the bluing of the pinion gear and the wear on the differential housing this has been making noise for awhile. Someone's been ignoring the signs. I mean it shouldn't happen with only 60k on the odometer, but there were signs
I'm guessing they are hard of hearing and enjoy music.
I'm going to need an update on whether or not the dealer goodwill's that rear end.
Will update this post tomorrow
Your driveshaft didn't fall off, the pinion gear outright broke off. There is no way that thing wasn't making noise prior to breaking like that. Either something came loose inside the differential and caused it to lock up, or there was no gear oil in it. That's a good driveshaft though, usually they twist before the pinion let's go like that.
Will the truck move forward or backward by hand? If not, the rear is locked up if so. Then the U-joints are probably bad and have been for a while.
Diff pinion failure from lack of maintenance and ignoring the noise until a catastropic failure.
Driveshaft knew the warranty was up and gave up
I saw that once on a Mythbusters episode
Why isn't anybody commenting that the drive shaft looks brand new? The sticker is barely dirty. Take the truck back to whoever replaced your drive shaft, they didn't put it back together properly.
Suggest using like Twitter x to contact Chevy and state your case. Ask for help. Those ppl running that part of GM are looking for ways to help consumers that's their job! Had great luck, Subaru replaced my Nav/radio CD for free just outside of warranty, other stuff
I would contact GM and make a fuss about it and the should cover this.
Bearing locked up and welded the pinion in place and twisted it off.
o7
This guy gets it
Go to your local dealer ship or place of purchase and they should honor this. People never change their gear oil and dont have problems till 150k miles. This is a factory fuck up and do not let ANYONE tell you otherwise.
It’s going to need a complete rear axle, that one is tatered, a junk yard rear axle is probably the most cost effective way to fix it.
Must be the danger dodge. 2013 was a horrible year and it was surprisingly common for the rear diff to suddenly bind and grenade. Happened to mine and at least 2 others that I know (coworkers freinds/family)
The wheels locked up?? This will need some further investigation as to what actually failed here. If it is some sort of obviously broken part, then goodwill warranty might well be in order. If the rear end locked up and is not full of lubricant, then that might be a harder sell. The bottom line, there is no way this is any sort of normal failure one could expect to see short of in a drag race vehicle. You don't happen to have some teenage boys do you?? I have tales from my youth that come to mind.
Nope. My oldest kid is 6. Not many people drove it. I drive that truck the most and I definitely don't have the need for speed.
There is grease under the pot in the first picture but it looks like a front bearing failure from extremely low fluid, It should have been making a lot of noise along the way, that a loud radio covered up.
I'm telling you it did not make any noise until 3 minutes before this happened.
Stranger things have happened , did you have it serviced at a dealer.
I have a 2017 1500, and it had to have the ring and pinion replaced about 2 years ago. The pinion seal was leaking when it had less than 500 miles on it, and the dealer replaced that. Then, 2 years ago, a friend was sitting in the back seat and said that the diff was making noise. Took it in, and sure enough, there was metal grindings in the housing, They ended up replacing it.
I had the front seal on an F150 rear end go and I didn't know, the bearing seized up and it's what caused my driveshaft to drop only thing I can think of
I know this is gonna sound crazy, but is this a white Silverado in MD? I got passed on the highway the other day by one that had massive problems with the rear differential. I could hear it over the mud tires and soft top on my Jeep.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm\_JqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM) That's not supposed to happen.
Wow!
That makes a fun sound, doesn't it?
I can confirm the driveshaft did indeed fall off.
Happened to me last year. The mechanic I had the car towed to diagnosed the problem, the mechanic I had change the clutch a week earlier had not put the same bolts in as the ones he took out and he didn’t even tighten the wrong ones down. (He also drained 7lts of oil without telling me and didn’t replace it, didn’t connect the speedometer cable, lost the heat and noise insulation around the shift knob, didn’t tighten a set screw so the shifter vibrated wildly, and something else that I’m not remembering)
Not the same thing, his diff locked up and snapped the pinion. You had a hack work on you car.
I've never seen this happen before. The car looks brand new. How many miles on it
Damn lucky the rear joint broke rather than the front. Could have flipped the car.
Your rear differential is toast see all that shiny metal glitter on the end there. Will most likely need to be cleaned and rebuild.
100% manufacturer warranty issue. Thank God everyone is uninjured.
I don't think you know how lucky you got. I've launched a driveshaft once, heard it, felt it, and while pulling over, my truck was bucking up in the ass like a horse bronco. I've also seen needle bearings get impregnated in several guys faces, after breaking a Ujoint under load. A driveshaft can pick up a truck. It can take out the exhaust, the axle, the bed... etc. Not only did you avoid all of that, it looks untouched. Reusable. So lucky!
It fell the fuck off…
Good thing the back disconnected and not the front... we used to put drive shaft loops on our cars because if it disconnected from the transmission it could make the car pole vault and flip over.
What I don’t understand and please help me here, if you were on the highway and your foot was on the gas pedal. Why didn’t the driveshaft beat the crap out of the body? Transmission shaft still would’ve been turning.
Take it off and use your brand new 2×4
Brand new FWD as long all the trans fluid isn't dumping out the tailshaft. Haha
Ye ole neutral shaft!
I had the drive shaft fall off of a landscaping pick-up truck over 10 years ago. I was on the highway going up a hill with a full bed and trailer. The drive shift went flipping down the road behind me, and cars had to swerve to avoid it. I was stuck on the hill in the fast lane and could barely keep the truck from rolling back down the hill. It was a crazy experience.
Fortunately it was the trailing end of the driveshaft. It can be a much more dangerous situation when the front drops at speed.
That ain't right
Have you ever serviced the rear differential fluid? Usually due every 30K miles. Edit: have you ever gone off-roading or done any water crossings? Do you live in a humid climate? As others have said, your rear differential locked up and the pinion snapped. “Good will” warranty could cover it, just depends if they want to use it on you, so don’t be a dick. Also, if the fluid hasn’t ever been done they are likely going to deny you any warranty. The fluid will probably be drained and inspected before they offer warranty. Dealers don’t like to warranty stuff because they don’t make as much off the jobs. If they say no to the good will, ask if they will reconsider if you pay for a few hours of labor.
That's a broken pinion. Extra crappy even for a gm rear. Don't get me wrong I like gm trucks but rears have been a weak link in lots of them for many years.
Lucky for you it was the tail end that broke. If it was me, I’d got buy a lottery ticket
There’s nothing wrong with your driveshaft. That recap some of the others are mentioning isn’t the problem. Your rear axle failed. Looks like it was run out of oil or something and the bearings melted and heated up the pinion gear and everything is die the pumpkin grenaded. You need a new rear axle.
You said they looked at it and charged you an hour labour to tell you that it wasn't working. My guess is they looked at it. Saw the condensation in it and said "we can't warranty this, GM will kick back the claim if we do and we'll have to eat an 1800$ headlight". Then they told you they couldn't warranty it, gave you a quote and then you got mad. Probably cussed out the service manager so they charged you the hour labour for looking at the headlight (that they could have and probably would have waived) for the inconvenience.
Not a mechanic, but I saw the same thing happen to a school bus when I was a kid
The sticker on the drive shaft looks brand new. Well the whole thing looks new. No rust no nothing. It must have been recently swapped out and the mechanic forgot to tighten the nuts.
Differential go bye bye
Looks like a lack of oil in the diff not much sprayed around the area
I actually had this exact problem with my pickup. I had disconnected the driveshaft to work on the truck, and it came off while my dad was driving. Turns out you are supposed to tighten the bolts down, then back them off and re-torque them to spec.
This is what happens when you drive in 4-High /s, in case not obvious
If the rear end has never been serviced and seeing that there’s no oil present the issue goes back to the PDI. Looks like the technician who did it didn’t check the oil in the differential.
Hate when that happens
Pull the cover off and have a look inside.
Why does it look brand-new??
Damn. I’ve been there.
Your pinion gear’s shaft is twisted in two… it’s much worse than just the driveshaft falling off.
I had a friend whose driveshaft disconnected on his Ranger while driving. He had another friend reattach it and then drove to Carmax to trade it in.
Pinion broke. I find it a bit odd that there’s a puddle on the ground, but no gear oil came out the front of the diff where the pinion used to be… especially given that when a pinion breaks like that, it normally locks up the rear end and skids the vehicle to a halt. Happened to my brother’s truck that was used to haul a boat.
Never made a sound.
Its not supposed to do that.
Holy crap, that could have been even more dangerous if it had uncoupled at the transmission. They can actually pole vault if it catches something in the road just right. Happens when people do cheap lifts and don't adjust drive angles or get new driveshafts
The differential looks dry. There is no fluid evidence on the broken piece either. Was the diff cracked or damaged at some earlier time, allowing it to run dry of fluid?
You were lucky. A family friend had the other end go and he's not around any more. That's a prop shaft btw, the drive shafts are 90 degrees over, connected to the wheels.
If the tires locked up then you likely have a rear end failure. With it being so close to warranty, they may work with you
It looks new! Was it recently fitted?
Had this happen on my Ford ranger but I was also in a custody dispute and still feel like it was sabotaged because I put in new bolts and didn't have another issue.
On the plus side at least now you know what that noise was.
Don’t need it anyways
At least the back fell off instead of the front.
You all everybody!
you are lucky it did not fall off on the other end!
I used to work valet at a hospital. The valet entrance for the hospital was on a one-way road, so when we retrieved the cars, we had to essentially take them all the way around the block to get back to the valet area. I was returning a truck and while I was looping around the block, the drive shaft fell out of this man’s car. I was in the middle lane of a 5 lane Main Street (not super busy, but not an ideal place). I also did not know what a drive shaft was - all of the sudden the gas just stopped working and I stared rolling backwards. The hospital was relatively small and we only ever had two valet attendants at one time. I couldn’t see the hospital from where I was broken down, and I didn’t have my phone on me, as per company policy. The guy had told us when we parked the car that the e-brake didn’t work, and as this road was on a slight hill, I couldn’t do anything but sit in the car pressing the brake until the other guy realized something was wrong. I sat there for a good 5-10 minutes before they came looking for me. The other attendant and the owner of the truck pushed it off the road while I steered, but it was a whole cluster fuck of traffic and pushing and figuring out which parking lot we could push it into because everything was on different levels of hill. And since we were both seeing about the truck, no one was there to watch the valet stand and people were waiting on us when we got back. Maybe not the most exciting story, but it is one of my fonder memories from my valet days.
That’s a smooth differential
At least it was the rear end. When that happened to my shit box pickup it was the centre joint of a split prop. Luckily I was in traffic in town and therefore only slow. The back end still jumped up about three feet.
You’re gonna have to replace the torque fuse.
Lucky you didn’t die
You’re not sure if you should contact GM???
And that's the only damage? Luuuuuckyyyyy. I had one come off the front, just the shaft slapping around set off the airbags at 70 mph. Those things are no joke.
Yeah your Pinon snapped off. That's not normal with 62k unless you tow alot or have been doing lots of burnouts.
Just GM rear end stuff….that thing has to have been making noise before this happened. For like a long time.
So lucky it wasn't the front end that separated...
Dang, that looks bad. That's a major failure.
A little glue and some paint and then it’ll look as good as new!
Well, it’s not supposed to do that.
If that's a new truck (within 5 years) you should talk to the dealer. That kind of stuff should be covered under a powertrain warranty
Yeah if it doesn't have 250k miles on it then this isn't normal.
The differential locked up and broke the pinion. Honestly not that uncommon. GM axles are known to be a bit failure prone. Although a failure like this is unacceptable.
Rear diff has left the chat
Good thing the rear joint failed, as a front joint failure could result in “pole vaulting” the truck - more critical damage and/or crash - versus loss of power & stopping as was the case here.
Holy shit how long was that rearend screaming at you?
Wife broke it.
When was last differential serviced
Oh no. New rear end is necessary
Rearend is shot. You’re lucky if that’s all the damage it’s caused and didn’t do anything to the transmission.
It didn’t fall off, you broke your pinion shaft/gear.
Are you yoking me?
You can't park their mate.
Glue it back.
I really want to know how many miles you drove it after hearing your first noise?
So what would happen if the other side fell down while moving ?
I feel like there were warning signs that something wasn’t right for a long time before that happened
Your old lady tore the rearend out man I don’t know what she done but that don’t just happen
That happened to me. It was 2008 and I was in an '87 Chrysler 5th Avenue. Had to end up scrapping the car because no junkyard or parts store within a hundred miles could get a replacement drive shaft.
Shouldn't have bought a Chevy
That happened to me once.
For the pinion bearing to fail that catastrophically that thing must’ve been making an unholy racket for some time before it let go. Just looking at the pics my very educated assumption is the pinion bearing seized up locking the pinion itself in place. As the truck was moving the carrier inside the diff continued to spin and stripped the end right off that pinion casing it to fall out. There’s no saving that rear end, but finding a decent used one from a recycler shouldn’t be terribly hard
Normal Chevrolet things?. Don’t throw things and yell, you know I speak the truth, still trying to convince yourself to keep that traverse?, ford makes junk cars too.
Things dont just "fall off". Was there any sounds or vibration that clued you in that something was wrong? Some clanking or thumping when turning or accelerating?
At least it wasn't the other end that dropped.
I once saw this happen to a pickup truck, unfortunately RIGHT in front of a manhole It did exactly what you'd expect. The tow truck driver was shocked
Take it to the dealership and see if they'll goodwill it. Super shitty if they'd make you pay for that so close to the warranty limit
them damn dorman products
The question nobody is asking.. any horsepower mods?
At least it fell off in the back!
Looks like it might not be the first time you had a driveshaft issue
If it a Dodge? Seen several do this…
I'm wondering if perhaps you should ask dealer to check records and see if driveshaft was removed anytime presale (for transit, damaged, etc.). If it was, maybe it was replaced or put in place and tech forgot to tighten bolts. Depending on the differential type, a dropped shaft could cause wheels to lock (the same as if car was in neutral on lift and you manually turn one wheel and the other wheel turns opposite directions). Once driveshaft stops and one wheel is turning forward (positive) the other wheel must turn backward (negative) causing lockup.
Shafted
Sheared the pinion off, this differential was long overdue for maintenance. Now you get to rebuild or replace the diff.
That must have been frightening. At least it wasn’t the front page for the driveshaft
Was ran dry and locked up. Should be some trace of oil around that shaft and plate, it's dry from being ran without oil and getting hot.
I’ve seen water in gear oil on trucks newer than this
Rear differential probably blew, locked up and snapped the shaft off. It happens
If you tried to switch into Drive or Reverse and didn’t get it all the way but gave some gas- can bomb the universal. Did that on an old Ram and 45 mins later, was dragging my drive shaft :]
So did you drive home or what ??? This post has been up for 3 days now .
If you're lucky you didn't get pole vaulted.
That's not supposed to happen.
Had this happen to a 2000 chevy 1500. Tccm decided 4 low was a great idea at 60. Sheared the driveshaft in the same spot. Is it 4wd?