To cut straight to the chase, about 5 months back i had no diff whatsoever, stealer wanted to charge me like wounded buffalo for the repair.I panicked and ended up repairing it at a small garage through "someone else" that had sold Jeeps in the past.

With my complete ignorance of mechanics , i had no idea what had been done to the diff as i had relied on this "someone else" to get it repaired and had paid this "someone else" directly and not the garage.

Right 5 months later the diff is making a noise that i cannot duplicate or replicate except to say that it sounds like metal to metal and only occurs when pulling away on a gradient.

With the weekend approaching, i thought of replacing whatever fluid they had put in or not put in.

Is there anything else i can look for whilst she is up on stilts and the diff cover is off.

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06 CRD LTD ( Euro )

When you pull the cover off, all the oil will drain out.
If the oil is full of glitter, thats bad!
Take a rag and try to wipe all the oil out of the bottom of the axle housing.
It your rag is now full of little metal pieces, thats bad!

Now, firmly grab the ring gear and try to move it back and forth and side to
side, without rotating it.
If there is any movement, that bad!
(There is going to be some movement against the pinion gear and thats ok.
This is sometimes called backlash)

Lastly, (you may have to un-bolt the driveshaft for this) grab the yoke where
the u-joint attaches and try to wiggle and move it in and out. If there is any
movement, thats bad.

I suspect its a bearing, either pinion or differential. I doubt this guy removed
the pinion so he probably didn't torque bearing caps down properly.
If the bearings were not replaced when he repaired the diff then it probably
should be done.
Any material left over from the previous diff failure could have been caught
up in the bearings.

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U.S. Army Retired

I had similar symptoms recently, and the dealer ended up replacing the U-joint under warranty. That was the problem, and its back to just the normal CRD issues now. FWIW, I was pretty convinced it was the diff until they found and fixed it.

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2006 Liberty Sport CRD