I own several 2005 Freightliner 2500 Sprinters. On Monday, I was riding in one of them on the highway and it started making a horrific noise. We pulled off the highway and the back axle was smoking and it smelled terrible (burning). When the smoke cleared you could see differential oil everywhere and there was a big hole in the top of the differential housing.
I had it towed to the Freightliner Dealership and they quoted me $5,000 for a new rear end (axle & diff). They said the fill plug was missing which allowed all the oil to drain out. Even worse, the parts were in Germany and wouldn't be here for a month.
When I asked what would have caused it, I was told 'whoever serviced it' didn't tighten the bolt properly. I told them they did all the service on it (the dealer) and it was just in 3 months ago for normal maintenance & oil change. Then they said someone must have sabotaged it.
After thinking about it a whole lot over the past few days, I realized that: 1) The drivetrain is still under warranty, 2) I think there is a rubber plug, not a bolt that wasn't tightened and 3) I went back and checked our surveillance footage for the past month (we have cameras on the trucks in our parking lot) and didn't see any sabotage.
Prior to the incident, the vehicle never gave us any trouble and there was never any sound or smell of things heating up. I'm just wondering if catastrophic failure of the differential could have caused the plug to blow out and/or how common it is for the plugs to go on their own. Like I said, the dealer is the only place that ever worked on it, they never serviced the differential and short of somebody crawling under the vehicle at a red light, it seems highly unlikely that someone would have stole it.
Ken
I had it towed to the Freightliner Dealership and they quoted me $5,000 for a new rear end (axle & diff). They said the fill plug was missing which allowed all the oil to drain out. Even worse, the parts were in Germany and wouldn't be here for a month.
When I asked what would have caused it, I was told 'whoever serviced it' didn't tighten the bolt properly. I told them they did all the service on it (the dealer) and it was just in 3 months ago for normal maintenance & oil change. Then they said someone must have sabotaged it.
After thinking about it a whole lot over the past few days, I realized that: 1) The drivetrain is still under warranty, 2) I think there is a rubber plug, not a bolt that wasn't tightened and 3) I went back and checked our surveillance footage for the past month (we have cameras on the trucks in our parking lot) and didn't see any sabotage.
Prior to the incident, the vehicle never gave us any trouble and there was never any sound or smell of things heating up. I'm just wondering if catastrophic failure of the differential could have caused the plug to blow out and/or how common it is for the plugs to go on their own. Like I said, the dealer is the only place that ever worked on it, they never serviced the differential and short of somebody crawling under the vehicle at a red light, it seems highly unlikely that someone would have stole it.
Ken