Four problems related to differential unit have been reported for the 1999 Chevrolet Tahoe. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The 10/22/00 defect was taken to a Chevrolet dealer in michigan. It was fixed and we got the vehicle back on 10/27/00. On our trip back to indiana on 10/30/00, the differential fluid was flying out and it started the high pitch humming again. That was basically twice it went out in one week! as of this date, 11/2/00, it is back to a dealer in bloomington, indiana.
Loud bang/clunk noise when stopping or starting to move.
I have been trying to get the truck repaired by numerous dealers since the day we bought it. The truck had 823 miles on it when we bought it "new" later on found out it was a "demo". Arbitration did nothing. We still have the shaking truck. Out of despiration from the vehicle shaking violently, causing me to pass bloody stools, I decided to replace the differential myself. It seems to have cured the problem. Now that the differential is out, I can see that it is bent and the axles crystalizing due to the violent shaking. Chevrolet dealers now say that I have "voided" my 3 yr 36,000 mile warranty. Several Chevrolet service consultants rude and threatening to hang up on me. I did have a very good service consultant whom I have spoken to lately who was shocked at my ordeal and agrees with me that this is a safety issue. I am now trying to get reimbursed for my out-of-pocket expenses on my "warrantied" vehicle. I do not wish to be reimbursed for my time, diagnosing and repairing this truck, but perhaps the problem should be aknowledged by Chevrolet and somehow reimbursed by them. If I had not changed the differential myself, I feel that it surely would have caused a major accident and deaths due to the failure of Chevrolet not taking care of this. I feel that before we bought this truck, someone really romped it through the desert. It had really large tires on it that we had the dealer change to what was reccomended on the door panel. We asked a mechanic who works on trucks all the time how the axle and differential could have gotten bent like that. His response was, "they probably drove it off a cliff". There are numerous complaints to Chevrolet regarding this truck. They have a complete history of our complaints after we bought it. There were no records before we bought it. Perhaps they repaired the vehicle themselves and didn't have to report what had happened to it. If you would like to discuss the truck in depth, please call me at the number I listed before.
Car has clunking sound whenever you accelerate from stop.