(History)
Was driving on interstate one night and my diff lock light starts flickering. Panic and check the switch for accidental bumping. None, switch was fine. So I pulled over, turned the truck off. I waited a minute, started it back up. Nothing. Start driving again. A few miles later same thing-but this time it went solid and stayed on.
Pulled over again., truck off, restart truck, engage 4x4. Back up, pull forward, 4lo same test, then locked the diff, just kept flashing. So I took it out of 4x4 and drove home. The abs and slip lightscame on and stayed.
Called dealership, said bring it in. They looked at everything and I got that the position switch was bad. Not covered under extended warranty $400. Was told that the diff still locks but the bcm doesn't know.
Well when I was at the dealers I still had 50,000 mile factory powertrain warranty, and a 100,000 mile Nissan certified powertrain warranty. When they looked it up on one thing it said that p/n wasn't covered. Then they looked at something else and it said something to the tune of p/n's xxxxxx to xxxxxx was covered and the part I need was between those values.
They did try to order the part and bill Nissan and Nissan declined it. So I don't know. My 100,000 mile warranty has a $50 per component deductible
similar thing happened to me in my '07 nismo. at approx. 45k diff light went on in 2wd. pulled over, turned off the truck. restarted, light still on, drove 1/2 mile, pulled into a parking lot. diff light went off but abs light and slip light came on. turned the truck off, turned the truck on. only the diff light was on. repeat. called the dealer, dealer suggested i get it towed in. they checked it out. a clip in the rear end for, the diff lock was broken. they dont sell the part alone. they replaced my whole rear axle. warrantied. no charge. dealer might be trying to cheap out. rear axle sounds like powertrain to me. it must be covered. good luck.
It's the diff lock solenoid itself...when fluid in diff gets real hot the solenoid goes out of round, and grounds itself. Plagued me for years. Brought it in and got it scanned while still running and showing lights- the code will not store if shut off.
My diff lock light did nothing but blink when I tried to engage it since I've owned my truck. Yesterday I decided to get to the bottom of the problem, and found that my diff has been locking all along, but the truck didn't know because the position switch was bad. A bench test confirmed zero continuity through the switch in any position. It doesn't appear to be something that can be taken apart, so I suppose I'll have to find a new one...
I haven't done any electrical tests on mine, because the dealer said it was dead.
@Relic, that makes since. I failed to change the rear diff fluid according to schedule and this happened on a hot day while being on the interstate for over an hour. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Thats what i get.
And no do not pull it apart. A mechanic at a dealership is a good friend. He said that it will come out no problem, but that part of the sensor has to mate into another piece and you cannot install a new one without pulling the whole diff.
So if you take it out thats it.
sensor is like $115 labor put the bill around $450 otherwise i would have fixed it
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Nismo
2007 Nissan frontier, 6 speed manual king cab
Linear Mode
