I have a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee LTD 4.7L Not sure if it is a wj or how you even find that out and that is why I'm here. Have had some problems with the Jeep and was looking for advice, I had this howl in the rear end and took it in to find out what it was, they did a rear bearing check on it and found everything there was tight, they pulled the cover off the rear diff, and found some iron filings and two pieces of metal that looked like two quarters, flat and round about the same size as a quarter. Anyways they didn't fine any gears that were damaged or any thing else for that matter so they cleaned it out added new oil and put everything back together, it has no more howl and seems fine. Any suggestions would be great as to what these pieces of metal came from?. Sorry I didn't get any pics of them, was just devastated at the time and totally forgot.
Thank you

 

Are the discs you found magnetic?

 

I never thought to see if they were, but the mechanic never said anything as to if they were or that anything was wrong with the diff. cover or that anything was missing from it. Sorry wish I would have kept them, kind of dumb on my part. But is it possible that the magnetic that is there to gather pieces of metal could have lost some pieces of it's own?. If so this would be a big relief knowing that it just might have been the magnetic or pieces there of.
But I would think that when they cleaned up everything they would have noticed if anything was missing from the diff. cover. Right? :( I was more interested in the inside of the differential because I thought a gear or spacer may have come apart but there was nothing noticeable and we spun the tires to see if there was any play or noise plus they did a check on the wheel bearings and nothing showed up there either.

 

I've been in many diffs.over the years and never seen an active part like the on you dscribe. I've seen magnets of all shapes and sizes in there which is why I wanted to know if they were magnetic. Sorry for the late reply but my computer took a dump and my phone would not let me sign in.

 

 

Well I finally pulled a trailer with my golf cart on it and nothing happened to the rear end, guess what ever that was it wasn't needed to keep the rear end together.