[x94cherry]

Today I took my 2012 Highlander to the mechanic for a leaky pinion seal. He tells me that, yes, he can replace the seal for $250 but that he can feel some play (not a lot) in the pinion bearing. So he believes the bearing is starting to fail and the hot bearing caused the seal to go bad. So he recommends a rebuilt differential unit at $1,000.

The truck has 67,000 miles on it and seems to drive fine with no odd noises, though I do have loud tires on it which I suppose could mask a very slight noise from the differential. I know the previous owners did some towing with it, but it seems awfully early for a differential rebuild.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I've used this mechanic before and he has been trustworthy. It just seems like a pretty drastic measure with not all that much evidence of a failure.

Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

 

[sdspeed]

IMHO, get a second opinion!
Unless all that mechanic does is diffs and drive-shafts I'd be really skeptical.

 

[Vangm25]

There are three choices:

• Replace the seal and see what happens
• Replace the differential
• Get a second opinion

 

[underthehood51]

Here is my experience with many years on this type of thing. Seals in applications like this don't "just go bad". Something happens. Metal shavings tear them up, play in bearings and bushings tear them up. Of course there is the RARE occasion the seal is simply defective. But if it's defective it's usually while it's still quite new. YMMV but I think your mechanic is correct