Q&A

Thank you autotechpat for your prompt response. I sincerely appreciate it. I apologize for my original posting being full of typographical errors, as it was rather late last night when I typed it. So, let me clarify myself on a couple of points: The dealership reported that they did, in fact, take apart the whole shabang and thoroughly clean it out/flush it out. They didn't, however, have any idea as to what had caused this huge mess to begin with. I mean, a rather brand new vehicle, as I had described earlier, shouldn't have had this occur. Even the mechanic was alarmed at the severity of the problem, mentioning that he hadn't seen a case that bad in a long time, if ever. Now, about 1 month later, the problem is right back, only ten fold. The metal shavings and nasty thick black goop is right back, and in much higher quantity. I did overhear the mechanic tell the service manager, "I don't know what's wrong with it...maybe we do need to replace the gears." So, at this point in the game, my concern is WHY IS THIS OCCURRING? The problem needs to identified before fixing the result of the problem, because as everyone has recognized, this is waayyyy too early for this sort of thing to have occurred at only 42,000 mi. My thoughts are that if they did cleaned it out thoroughly like they said, and I'm sure they did, why did this problem reappear much worse than the first time and only 1,000 miles later? Wouldn't it be far to assume that there is a major underlying problem such something being warped (I don't remember the name for what that would be) and that this most-assuredly is a factory defect? What are your thoughts as what could be causing this mess in my Jeep that has so few miles and has been taken care of I way I've taken car of it. I mean, I use it for in-town driving for the most part; some highway driving but only for short 30mi. trips to the Mall and such. I just can't wrap my mind around this whole mess. The dealership is going to take it apart today and then let me know what they think is wrong with it and how they intend to repair it. My dad is mad because they needed to have replaced the whole assembly the first time, as the bearings that they should me (that I kept) were completely chewed up. I mean, many of the bearings were practically chewed in half, so how could the pinions and such that were swimming in this same crap not have sustained any damage as well, whatsoever? And, the biggest question now that it has reoccurred again, and far worse than the first time, is that what could be causing this to happen? Thank you in advance for any advice/opinons you may be able to offer.

Hello Lyndsey, I have a 2004 Grand Cherokee Limited and had the same thing happen to me. had a awful grinding noise in the front end and when i opened up the differential the same thing. the problem with mine was the full time 4wd was causing the pinion to pull away from the yoke causing the bearing to have play. I just replace the whole axle housing and all. It's only been a few months so we'll see if that's the problem.