2021 yukon xl getting new rear end at 60K miles

[jfoj]

I am using 75W90 Amsoil, because of the bag package, in my 2021 Suburban. I have 85,000 miles on it and I changed them last summer at about 72,000 miles.

Good to know, I do feel we are all just the lab rats for the "Improved Fuel Economy" groups.

We pay more for the add ons and poor reliability decisions and are either not told that the maintenance requirements are going to increase or just do not suggest maintenance intervals claiming "Lifetime" fluids. In the case of "Lifetime" fluids, the component or assembly lasts exactly the "Lifetime" of the fluid!!!

Some claims this is "Technology" but lets quit adding more moving parts and software and make things that work for more than a few years without a major and expensive failure. One reason all the newer vehicles are so expensive is the manufacturers need to put more money aside for Warranty Escrow. Labor rates are crazy high, parts too expensive and the failures are occurring more frequently while in Warranty and things are just harder to diagnose and repair. The automotive industry reached a pretty good plateau in the mid to late 2000's and some even up to 2015, but things seem to be taking a down hill turn.

Along with all this foolishness we end up with far more downtime and more frequent and larger financial hits.

Long live my 2005 Yukon Denali, 275,000 miles and counting, drove it yesterday on a 2 hours round trip rather than my 2024 Yukon Denali because I need rotate the tires and upgrade the valve body!!

 

[vcode]

Understand that just a single post on a Forum means there are likely plenty more failures that we have not heard of. Additionally this failure occurred just outside of the Powertrain warranty, however, it looks like it was covered.

I would suspect any differential failures may be higher mileage and we have just not heard about them often.

But it does make me wonder if fluid change service of these differentials would reduce or eliminate potential lower mileage failures. A quick search at least indicates the differentials appear to use 75W85 GL-5 fluid. Slightly thinner than the 80W90 fluid used in some of the earlier vehicles. Again, it appears the 75W85 is more geared (no pun intended) toward "fuel efficiency' when compared to the slightly thicker 80W90 type of fluid. If I was towing on a regular basis I would consider either regular differential fluid changes, almost with every other oil change or strongly consider a slightly thicker fluid.

Unfortunately we are all becoming victims of the "improved fuel economy" quest and are often hit by inconvenience and financially impacted by the reduced reliability. Seems many owners need to consider countermeasures for the newer crop of improved fuel efficient vehicles.

He stated the front pinion bearing was bad. I would be shocked if a minor fluid change like that would cause an issue. GM and others have been using this for what, a decade now? My 2010 called for 75W90. We are splitting hairs here....

 

[jfoj]

The issue is this was not a birth defect, this was a higher mileage failure. Could have been something from day 1 that took over 60k miles to manifest itself. Time will tell if this is a bigger issue, but once outside of warranty, and 5+ years out and with higher mileage we may not hear people speaking up as they may have figured it is just a failure, which is might be.

As mentioned probably need to over maintain the differential and transfer case fluids if you want to attempt to avoid problems.

It may or may not help, but changing the fluid is far better than doing nothing.