After Hemi tick and lifter failure, the most common fault with any of the SRTs and Track hawks are failures of the rear differential unit.
The cause for this is usually put down to abuse, after all if you own a high-powered overweight SUV and you give it a hard time something has to fail eventually.
The Fault is usually the failure of the pinion bearing. This bearing carries the bulk of the load in any differential, so its hardly surprising its the one the leave the chat first.
Symptoms when this goes is usually a grinding or whirring noise on acceleration.
We have seen Several SRT have failures of the crown wheel and or pinion gear too. This gives a thumping sound and sensation through the body of the car. In most cases this results in the need for a complete replacement unit but if caught early the diff can be repaired which is desirable given even the second hand units for these can be costly.
Like most mechanical failures, prevention is better than cure. Regular diff oil changes can mitigate this problem. We advise getting this done every 40,000 kms regardless of oil condition.
The ELSD motor is also a known common fault on these vehicles. If this motor has failed you may get a loud clicking noise from under the vehicle and in most cases warning lights on the dash. If the ELSD motor has failed, you don’t need to replace the whole diff, just the motor itself.
When diagnosing this issue, be sure not to confuse this motor with the one on the transfer case, they are very similar and give similar symptoms and are not interchangeable.
Aftermarket lower quality options are available online and are not advised. To date we have not had a single success story with any ELSD motor that was not the genuine MOPAR product.
Click the link below for a definitive guide on all common SRT faults and upgrades.
