Rear Wheels Locking Up On Turns

[asilverblazer]

On 2/27/2025 at 4:00 AM, Maddawg 67 said:

My 2016 Silverado 1500 LT started out just fine, left work heard a pop in the rear of the truck. When I turned to go up the road the drivers rear wheel skidded and acted like it was in 4 wheel drive, how the front tires will hop if turned too sharp, but it’s the driver rear hopping. It takes more power to push the truck. Took it to a shop and they said the spider gear may have busted a tooth off the gear, but have to pull the diff cover and look at it. They also told me that I may need to replace the whole rear end to the tune of about $4000. Anybody have this problem and what was the fix? Could it be what they told me at the shop? I don’t beat the truck up and I’m a pretty mellow driver; just curious if anybody has any other info or what the problem is and what needs to be fixed, thanks. 

Anything is possible, depending on the conditions when you heard the pop. It typically requires a release of torque on the drive line for the differential to unlock. It is supposed to unlock once speed is increased, but I've found that if you keep the driveline under torque it will keep it from unlocking. I've also seen them behave somewhat sticky, where they stay engaged and require more coaxing to unlock.

 

In any case, pulling the differential cover is probably a good idea, and flushing some new fluid in. 

 

$4000 Seems crazy high. I would expect a rebuild of the differential to be at least half that. You could probably pick up a salvage rear axle for even less.