Questions and Answers

Toyota Tacoma Shafted?? Q. I have a 1997 Toyota Tacoma 4WD, 2.7 liter. It has 127,000 miles on it. My problems is this, I took my truck into Pep Boys and upon diagnosis they found metal shavings caused by a bad rear pinion bearing and that alone was cause to replace the whole rear end differential assembly, $1300.00.

My question is this, is it standard to replace the whole enchilada as opposed to just replacing the bad pinion bearing? Please help.

Sincerely a poor college student,
Aaron

A. I would have probably done the same thing Aaron. A differential looks easy, but there are many calculations that have to be made to insurer proper clearances, proper preload and gear lash. All the gears must fit precisely or the differential will not last long.

There are a lot of mechanics who do not know how to do this simply because they don't do it enough. Also the time and labor involved makes it a very expensive operation. That coupled with the fact you had metal chips and chunks floating around would induce me to replace the whole unit to be able to guarantee the job with confidence.

You didn't mention if it was new, remanufactured or used differential so I can't really comment on whether or not the price is right.