My recently turned 16 son got his license back at the end of December and has been driving around in his 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 4X4 Z71 truck since that time. Recently his rear differential cover started leaking oil and I had assumed that the cover had developed some pin holes due to rust. I used some cold weld compound to fix the small pin-hole and everything was fine after topping off the rear end. Well, I ended up having to drive the truck to pick up relatives at the airport that were stranded there from the night before due to the big snow storm. Upon driving them home I feel the truck start to drag and the smell of burn axle fluid. Immediately I figured my cold weld compound repair had failed so lucky I was close by the house already and just parked the truck.

Today my kid gets the truck up in the air and removed the differential cover

Big old chunk of gear missing and obvious signs that it was the broken gear that shot out and punctured the pan, not once, but twice! It's all making sense now, every time there has been a big snow storm more teeth get broken off the rear axle.

So all along I am thinking it's just a rusted differential cover, but I know the kid had to have known when this busted! Yet he never even bothers to tell me it's broken until after the vehicle almost fails on me, just like when I was out of town and they took out the Cadillac and busted the steering column. Now the kid is looking down the barrel of a new rear axle and that appears to be anywhere from $1000-$1500 since he has the GT4 option which is the 3.73 with posi, he can't even go the cheap route because his front is posi also, which we don't even know if he had broken any teeth of that either! No way the old one can be saved as the chunks of broken gear have damaged the carrier as well.

What a pisser!